I rise from my sickbed this morning to weigh in on Keith Olbermann’s latest “Special Comment” during which he referred to Fox News Reporter Chris Wallace – a journalist who has won every major broadcast news award around – as a “monkey posing as a newscaster” and accused Republicans of trying to foist blame for 9/11 onto the Clinton Administration.
The fact that I am dizzy, drugged up, and incoherent this morning makes me the perfect candidate to respond to Olbermann’s ignorant rant. Judging by some of the jaw droppers unleashed by the Unhinged One during his confused and typically shallow critique of Fox News, conservatives, Republicans, the Bush Administration, and the press, MSNBC should probably initiate drug screenings for its on air talent at the earliest possible moment. Either that or someone should make sure that Keith is still taking his Lithium religiously for it is apparent the reality Keith is experiencing is on some other plane of existence than the rest of us.
For the longest time, I tried my best to peg Olbermann, to define his appeal in normative terms; A left wing clown? A liberal provocateur? A humorist a la Will Rogers? A self-anointed Diogenes, carrying the lantern throughout America looking for the one honest man?
Olbermann tried all of these approaches and failed miserably. It wasn’t until he realized that his bread was buttered by liberal bloggers did he begin to demonstrate some traction with his show. In fact, it is eerie how like a liberal blog his show has become; wildly accusatory with no evidence to back up outrageous charges; sophomoric flights of logic and reason; an unhinged whining that causes the viewer to actually recoil in disgust at some of the self-pitying “woe is us” rhetoric; and a breathtaking shallowness that outlaws context and substitutes emotion for rational thought.
In this respect, Olbermann’s shtick is reminiscent of the high school know-it-all who used to drive everyone nuts by trying to prove he was smart by using a large vocabulary – invariably misusing terms willy nilly – while taking on a professorial air of superiority that attracted every bully in the school like flies to rotting meat. Loud, insufferable, and laughably incoherent at times, the know-it-all was able to gather around him the witless, the woebegone, and the wasted where he would hold forth every day in the lunchroom, his sycophants hanging on every word.
Reading this transcript of his remarks last night, it is clear that Olbermann has slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of idiocy. To call a fellow journalist a “monkey” is so far beyond what passes for rational discourse that even a lefty blog should find such rhetoric disturbing.
Of course, they don’t. In fact, they are cheering Mr. Olberman on to ever higher flights of rhetorical excess and juvenile name calling. Reporter Wallace is a “monkey.” Bush is a “coward.” This is what passes for reasonable dialogue on lefty blogs and Olbermann doesn’t let his audience down.
But the real dishonesty by Olbermann comes when he ascribes actions to the Bush Administration that he not only offers no proof for but that are also belied by the facts. For instance:
Moreover, for the last five years one month and two weeks, the current administration, and in particular the President, has been given the greatest “pass†for incompetence and malfeasance in American history!
This, of course, is one of the Ãœber talking points on liberal blogs; that the press are a bunch of lapdogs. One wonders how Olbermann and his shipmates on the S.S. Perpetually Outraged got their high school diplomas without benefit of acquiring the ability to read. How, in fact, did we find out about this “incompetence and malfeasance?” A little birdie? Perhaps Olbermann has powers of divination that allows him special access to the supernatural for his Special Comments?
Should we tell Keith and his crew that their ammunition to prove incompetence and malfeasance comes from the press and therefore negates the “Bush is getting a pass” meme? Not if you don’t want to be showered with brain matter following the collective explosion of liberal heads. Logical thought to a lefty is like anti-matter. When it comes in contact with the muddled gray stuff in their confused, limited, and emotionally charged cranium, the two forces annihilate each other thus causing a rupture in the space-time continuum. Thankfully, there isn’t much chance of swaying a liberal with logic so we’re safe for the time being.
Caution: The following will make you want to tear your hair out if you are older than 5, can write complete sentences, and have the wit and reason to know the difference between reality and make believe:
It is not important that the current President’s portable public chorus has described his predecessor’s tone as “crazed.â€Our tone should be crazed. The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation’s marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit.
Nonetheless. The headline is this:
Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years.
He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.
“Portable” public chorus? Olbermann’s strained alliteration is sprinkled throughout his piece and hearkens back to that know-it-all high school kid. And please note the hysterical comparison between al-Qaeda and the Administration. Such over the top stupidity is lapped up by liberal blogs. It fits in perfectly with their worldview that the War on Terror is a sham and that al-Qaeda is no more a threat than the mugger in the park or rapist in the alley.
And believing that “Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years,” by giving the Democratic spin on 9/11 is either sly disingenuousness or Olbermann is oblivious to The Narrative. The “truth” being spun by liberal bloggers, pundits, media, and politicians has been non-stop for 5 years. To give Clinton a privileged position as truth teller is laughable.
More strained and putrid prose from Olbermann with Keith getting out the kneepads to service his hero:
Thus in his supposed emeritus years has Mr. Clinton taken forceful and triumphant action for honesty, and for us; action as vital and as courageous as any of his presidency; action as startling and as liberating, as any, by any one, in these last five long years.
“Forceful and Triumphant?” The awkwardness is embarrassing, jarring to the senses. By trying to sound Murrowesque, Olbermann ends up sounding like Elmer Fudd.
And I hope Clinton has the common decency to respond to Olbermann’s gooey eyed groveling. Such lap dog devotion should be rewarded with at least a Milk Bone or some other doggie treat.
Saving the most calumnious for last, Olbermann then offers up a shocking charge without one scintilla of evidence to back it up:
After five years of skirting even the most inarguable of facts—that he was president on 9/11 and he must bear some responsibility for his, and our, unreadiness, Mr. Bush has now moved, unmistakably and without conscience or shame, towards re-writing history, and attempting to make the responsibility, entirely Mr. Clinton’s.Of course he is not honest enough to do that directly.
As with all the other nefariousness and slime of this, our worst presidency since James Buchanan, he is having it done for him, by proxy.
Thus, the sandbag effort by Fox News Friday afternoon.
No, you are not reading incorrectly. Keith Olbermann is accusing a major national news network of being in cahoots with the White House in an effort to “rewrite” history. He offers no proof of this conspiracy. No proof of this connection. No proof of anything at all, most especially that anyone is trying to “rewrite” anything.
Only in Olbermann’s hysterically juvenile fantasies (and those of his slavering supporters in the lefty blogosphere) does a recitation of the known facts – gathered by the 9/11 Commission, Richard Clark, and others – regarding the inconstancy, the hesitancy, the confusion, the misplaced priorities, the missed chances, and the suicidal underestimation of the capability of our enemies by the Clinton Administration become an effort for the Bushies to dodge responsibility for 9/11.
First of all, the historical record won’t let them. Nor will the historical record be unkind to Clinton’s efforts against terrorism which, despite its many flaws (flaws that when pointed out, for some reason, sends the left into paroxysms of apoplectic anger), at least recognized Bin Laden as a threat.
The fact of the matter is that the left saw a political opening via 9/11 (and found a way to negate the Administration’s political use of that date) and have attempted to shift the entire blame from Osama Bin Laden for the attacks and place it in the oval office. It has largely worked although I sense in the desperation of Clinton’s remarks as well as Olbermann’s rant that this rehash of arguments about 9/11 may be resonating with the American public. The semi-fictitious Path to 9/11, which has set off this debate, has people questioning the dominant lefty Narrative about 9/11 for the first time. It is this that Olbermann and Clinton are railing against; people re-examining the conventional wisdom and putting the American government’s response in a context detrimental to the political aspirations of Democrats.
But Olbermann’s charge of collusion between Fox and the White House is so ridiculous that only in the fringe fever swamps of the left will it get any play. In fact, an encouraging sign that some of the saner liberals are saying enough with regards to Olbermann’s ever more unbalanced “Special Comment” segment:
Knock knock.Who’s there?
Key.
Key who?
Key-th Olbermann is as shrill as Tiny Tim sucking a balloon full of helium and then blowing sixty-four octaves above middle C on a giant dog whistle right in your ear. And not the original recording, mind you – the cover. By Alvin & The Chipmunks.
Um…’kay. At least their hearts are in the right place.
(NOTE: Apparently, I am mistaken. There are no sane lefties out there. Imagine my embarrassment in learning that at the link above, “Shrill” doesn’t mean “strident or intemperate.” Or perhaps it does mean that but it is seen as a badge of honor by some liberals. Kinda like “speaking truth to power” minus the truth and substituting ear muffs. Or maybe the truth is there but you leave out the speaking part. Actually, I believe that many liberals believe that acting and speaking like an ass should be their ultimate goal.
My head hurts…)
Allah is waiting for Olbermann to go completely off the rails and start spouting 9/11 conspiracy theories. He’s already had on as guests several leading truthers so that wouldn’t surprise me one bit. It is evident that Olbermann has given up on trying to impress the kind of liberals who grace the salons of the Upper West Side. The society folk like their Bush hatred warm but not too hot lest it scorch those whose humor tends more toward the cerebral rather than Olberman’s Punch and Bush show physicality.
But I have no doubt he will be handsomely rewarded by the netnuts who luxuriate in his laughable attempts at profundity while egging him on to ever greater heights of irrelevancy.
You almost want to avert your eyes when the inevitable crash comes but, like those of us who watch NASCAR solely for the spin-outs and pile-ups, the entertainment value of watching Olberman melt like the Wicked Witch of the West right before our eyes will be immensely satisfying.
10:26 am
You might want to edit your post. Using “The Poorman” post as an example to prove your point doesn’t hold up. Shrill is a GOOD thing over there.
Unless you want to continue to misrepresent “The Poorman”’s point to make yours,which would be dishonest or something…perhaps just sloppy, but wrong nonetheless. “Saner” liberals will be doubled over in laughter at your gaff.
11:35 am
“More strained and putrid prose from Olberman with Keith getting out the kneepads to service his hero.”
Was that a blue suit Olberman was wearing? DNA tests anyone?
11:49 am
Your equally shrill, yet factually stupid remarks have convinced me.
GO back to your sickbed, get some chickhawk soup, maybe some Ginger Ale with the bubbles stirred out (just like they get at Guantanamo- you know, Club Gitmo) and relax!
12:02 pm
Why?
No conspiracies here. Just fact that our Army is being degraded and two wars are in jeopardy of being lost.
Col. Tom James, who commands the division’s Second Brigade, acknowledged that his unit’s equipment levels had fallen so low that it now had no tanks or other armored vehicles to use in training and that his soldiers were rated as largely untrained in attack and defense.
Normally, armored units preparing for Iraq are sent to Fort Irwin, Calif., for such training, but transporting a brigade’s worth of equipment and soldiers there takes a month, which the schedule would not permit.
So the trainers and Arabic-speaking role players, who will simulate conditions the unit is likely to encounter in Iraq, were brought here to conduct the three-week exercise in a Georgia pine forest, rather than in the California desert.
Making do
It is George Bush who is responsible for making a mess out our response to 9/11.
12:18 pm
Rick: normally, I’d say good post, and great writing, etc.
But Olbermann, is sooooooo representative of the mainstream Leftist/Liberals/Democrats/Nutbags/Richard Bottoms of the world, that actually, it was a waste of time!
12:28 pm
[...] I was about to write a scathing review of Olbermann’s comments regarding the Clinton Interview on MSN last night when I found the following on the Rightwingnuthouse – I could not have said it better myself. [...]
12:29 pm
I agree, Rick. Olbermann is the classic smartass trying to palm off meanspiritedness and mushy thinking as “funny” or “clever”.
As our old friend Euripides stated, “Cleverness is not wisdom.”
1:30 pm
Every time I think you can’t get any stupider, Moran, you put up a post like this one—in which you think that The Poorman is criticizing Olbermann instead of paying him a compliment—and you prove me wrong yet again.
Don’t ever change, little guy. Don’t ever change.
1:32 pm
Rick: Hi, have you seen this? Good stuff; you should blog it:
have you seen this? This would be a great subject to blog:
http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/What%20Extremists%20Say/Letter%20Exposes%20New%20Leader%20in%20Al-Qa`ida%20High%20Command.aspx?PageView=Shared
1:36 pm
And it’s Olbermann, not Olberman. I know most rightwingers can’t spell very well, so you’re getting a free pass on this one.
Incidentally, Olbermann is much smarter than you are, and he proves it every night.
1:47 pm
Thanks for the spelling correction.
And I make no apologies for someone elses’ abuse of the English language. It may be generational but I suspect the reason I didn’t get it is ideological.
For that, I am immensely grateful that my imagination can’t grasp the idiotic liberal penchant for mangling intent when it comes to language.
Guess I’m just not hip enough…
1:51 pm
Interesting Rick. In a post in which you chide Olbermann for making sweeping statements with little evidence, employing coarse and inapprorpriate rhetoric for using the term “monkey” (inappropriate in my opinion as well I should add) and a generally partisan and inflammatory tone, you write the following passages seemingly unaware of the contradiction and double standard:
In fact, it is eerie how like a liberal blog his show has become; wildly accusatory with no evidence to back up outrageous charges; sophomoric flights of logic and reason; an unhinged whining that causes the viewer to actually recoil in disgust at some of the self-pitying “woe is us†rhetoric; and a breathtaking shallowness that outlaws context and substitutes emotion for rational thought….
Logical thought to a lefty is like anti-matter. When it comes in contact with the muddled gray stuff in their confused, limited, and emotionally charged cranium, the two forces annihilate each other thus causing a rupture in the space-time continuum. Thankfully, there isn’t much chance of swaying a liberal with logic so we’re safe for the time being…..
Only in Olberman’s hysterically juvenile fantasies (and those of his slavering supporters in the lefty blogosphere)...
But I have no doubt he will be handsomely rewarded by the netnuts who luxuriate in his laughable attempts at profundity while egging him on to ever greater heights of irrelevancy…
Was that self parody intentional?
2:11 pm
#3 Pinko said…
Your equally shrill, yet factually stupid remarks have convinced me.
nice rebuttal, ass.
hush now, the adults are talking.
2:11 pm
Moran: “Should we tell Keith and his crew that their ammunition to prove incompetence and malfeasance comes from the press and therefore negates the “Bush is getting a pass†meme?”
Your assuming Olberman’s reference to “getting a pass” is referring to the lack of criticism from the press. Maybe Olberman is referring to getting a pass from congressional oversight. In which case he is exactly right. Even with all the examples provided by the press of incompetence and malfeasance by the Bush administration, not to mention down right dishonesty, congress sees no reason to hold the administration to account for anything.
Which is exactly why the Republicans must go!
Olberman puts the “balance” in Fox News’ “Fair and Balanced.” Balancing Hanity, O’Reily, Krauthammer and Barns who read daily from Carl Roves talking points memo…
2:44 pm
Are you planning on adressing the lack of military preparedness anytime soon?
Because I’d sure like an explaination of why, if we are fighting a war on par with taking on Hitler, what reason is it that my Army doesn’t have the tools to train with?
2:48 pm
Keith Monkey-mann- the liberal “missing link”
3:30 pm
I always get a kick out of how Olberman is trying to channel Edward R. Morrow with “good night and good luck” at the end of his “special comments” (aka screed). Then there is the melodramatic switching from camera A to B during the commentary. Is it any wonder that: a) his direct competiton of FOX (Bill O) gets almost four times his viewers and; b) MSNBC doesn’t even bother with a second showing at 11pm Eastern.
4:01 pm
Umm just hysterical.
BTW, I hear the poppy crop in Afghanistan is the largest in history funding our enemies, and that the Taliban are now engaging in stand up fights with the coalition forces.
I know there was this pressing matter of sending troops to Iraq back in 2003, but shouldn’t we have gained control of the country taht attacked us on 9/11 first?
Because now that we are extending tours and sending soldiers back into battle less than 12 months after coming home I am getting a little converned that the commander in chief might not know what the hell he is doing.
Sort of the point Olbermann was making. But maybe you can shed some light on why he is wrong.
Something more constructive than making fun of his name. Less fun perhaps, but maybe more useful.
4:15 pm
To get straight to the point, Wallace asked a simple question, one he has asked our present administration, and seems to me that Clinton was the “Monkey” in the way he reacted. I was surprised he didn’t fling feces at Wallace and start picking fleas off himself.
Clinton overreacted to a very easy question and reminded me of his “what exactly is sex” days.
Clinton should go back to putting cigars inside women and stay off television, it makes him, his party, and his wifes presidential aspirations look very dim witted. (Which they are).
4:23 pm
Rick, hope you feel better soon, but I’m sure after reading all the moonbat comments, it will be tough.
! If fired ass wants to compete with Fox he needs to change his entire show and his smart ass condesending attitude.
EVERYBODY knows fired from sportscasting olbermann is a maniac and he spouts off more crap than an hose pipe in a garbage truck. He never has a conservative on, just lefties, how in the hell is that fair, Fox always has the left opionion as well as the right, THATS WHY THEY CALL IT FAIR AND BALANCED, and it is you loonies. Olbeermann is gonna go too far one night and msnbc is gonna can him. Oh, my God, I mispelled his name.
4:27 pm
An opinion which is quite valid to hold.
But not one I share.
I want see much more of Bill Clinton asking hard questions about the Bush policies and achievements.
Like the asking what Bush plans to do about an state of abysmal military readiness.
I want to know why troops are training in the forest for a desert deployment. About why we are so short of men and material that there isn’t time to send troops to train in California so as to better protect them in Iraq.
Don’t you?
4:47 pm
rickbottoms, I didn’t mention the cigar in my comment, the thought of what he did in the house I pay rent on makes me gag.
Unless you have a hearing loss bill has been making snipping comments about Bush for awhile now and has all his minums out doing it as well. barbara boxer made a fool outta herself today on fox, go to hotair.com and listen.
The dems hate Fox cuz they are the only FAIR AND BALANCED show out there and they are so paranoid something will blow back at them.
I didn’t know our troops were training in the forest, where’d you read that … kos or code pinkie.
I can’t believe you people, just wait, olbermann fired ass will be on at 7P and yall can hear somemore BS.
Have a nice evening, gotta go to my son’s open house at High School, hope he sees the Marine recruiters tomrrow cuz we’re talkin about him joining the Military, Marines, Navy or Air Force. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR TROOPS in the forest.
7:15 pm
Olberman is comedy gold and proof that it’s not the facts that substantiate a charge that is important but the seriousness of the charge (ripping off someone else’s idea of course). But when you already have the dial up to 11, how do you explain your appearance night after night when an administration “without conscience” would have Olby wisked away in the middle of the night?
At what point do the viewers (plural, I double checked) figure out that instead of dodging ‘the man’ Olby IS ‘the man’, feeding dim lefties sweets and pudding so they stay on the plantation in the wake of election loss after election loss?
8:44 pm
Monkey’s can be cute.
Sorry about the moran jokes.
10:49 pm
>GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR TROOPS in the forest.
Umm you seem to be missing the point.
If your son was one of those troops being trained in the forest instead of in the Mojave where they get to experience realistic conditions he would be more likely to be killed in Iraq.
The reason they are training in the forest is because George Bush is mismanaging the military, shortening the time between deployments, hampering realistic training and wait for it… getting more troops killed.
Is there some part of the fact that the military is not adequetly served by its civilian leaders that is not sinking in?
If our troops don’thave tanks or bullets to train with they die in battle.
BTW, best of luck to your son.
Seems like he’ll need it.
12:37 am
I took MSNBC off my TVs when Olberman called Chris Wallace a monkey.
I don’t have to listen to this kind of intelectual tripe from any kind of media outlet whether it be owned by Bill Gates, Ahmadinejad or Sun Myung Moon.
MSNBC is no longer welcome in my home.
12:17 pm
You people writing that you want to hear more of Bill Clinton out there questioning the administration seem to begin from the premise that he was not president for eight years of attack after attack from Islamic extremists, rather he is some beacon of light descending from Mt. Monica to dispense wisdom and truth.
As for Olbermann, he is an unhinged personage and exhibits the tell-tale sign of insecurity – the inability to establish his own persona. At once he tries to channel Edward R. Murrow, his snarky, sarcastic ESPN anchorman image, host of “Talk Soup” and constitutional law co-expert with the fatuous Jonathan Turley (by the way, is Turley the only constitutional lawyer in the United States? One would think so by watching Olbermann’s program).
And as for watching Olbermann’s program, one does so every now and then to see what is being said. The same cannot be said for most everyone who criticizes Fox News Channel. Chris Wallace is no friend of President Bush, and the same can be said for Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Bob Beckel, and the scores of other leftist journos and politicos that appear on FNC with regularity. It would help those of you so quick to criticize FNC to actually, you know, watch the network before commenting.
6:35 pm
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9:47 am
“About why we are so short of men and material that there isn’t time to send troops to train in California so as to better protect them in Iraq.”
Dear Mr. Bottoms,
My nephew just returned from a tour in Iraq and is currently back in Twenty Nine Palms, CA, where he & the rest of his Marine unit trained prior to their deployment. Perhaps that is also George W. Bush’s fault, as well as Olbermann’s rating. Whatever makes you sleep better.
Nonetheless, a little knowledge is a good thing, and you have been duly informed so that you hopefully won’t publicly err in much the same manner in the future (already assuming that the attempt to change the subject notwithstanding, as that’s a staple for the minority party….for a reason).
1:12 pm
Richard Bottoms: “It is George Bush who is responsible for making a mess out our response to 9/11.”
How ironic that you would show the strain that the military is under as some sort of anti-Bush sentiment, and how telling of your level of understanding of the situation. The problems that the military is having in terms of personnel and equipment are a direct result of Clinton’s evisceration in the name of his fabled “peace dividend”, which never materialized. Do you remember this piece of history that occurred during your lifetime, namely how Clinton slashed our military’s ground strength by about 60%? I recall it quite well. I have a National Guardsman nephew in the Middle East right now, helping to pay for Clinton’s foolhardy shortsightedness.
You are clueless, Dick.
8:04 pm
Rick wrote:
“The semi-fictitious Path to 9/11, which has set off this debate, has people questioning the dominant lefty Narrative about 9/11 for the first time.”
Please explain this “dominant lefty Narrative” about 9/11 you mention. It seems to me that the right has always held all the cards pertaining to 9/11 and the GWOT which resulted from it.