i love keith olbermann

[carrie721]

Olbermann to Bush: ‘Your hypocrisy is so vast’
A reaction to Thursday’s press conference: the president was the one who interjected Gen. Petraeus into the political dialogue in the first place
SPECIAL COMMENT
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
Updated: 9:59 p.m. ET Sept 20, 2007

So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we would all interrupt him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, stepped before the press conference microphone and after side-stepping most of the substantive issues like the Israeli raid on Syria, in condescending and infuriating fashion, produced a big political finish that indicates, certainly, that if it wasn’t already – the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway.

“I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military.”

“And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

“And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military.”

“That was a sorry deal.”

First off, it’s “Democrat-ic” party.

You keep pretending you’re not a politician, so stop using words your party made up. Show a little respect.

Secondly, you could say this seriously after the advertising/mugging of Senator Max Cleland? After the swift-boating of John Kerry?

But most importantly, making that the last question?

So that there was no chance at a follow-up?

So nobody could point out, as Chris Matthews so incisively did, a week ago tonight, that you were the one who inappropriately interjected General Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place!

Deliberately, premeditatedly, and virtually without precedent, you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman and now you’re complaining about the outcome, and then running away from the microphone?

Eleven months ago the President’s own party, the Republican National Committee, introduced this very different kind of advertisement, just nineteen days before the mid-term elections.

Bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri’s rumored quote of six years ago about having bought “suitcase bombs.”

All set against a ticking clock, and finally a blinding explosion and the dire announcement:

“These are the stakes - vote, November 7th.”

That one was ok, Mr. Bush?

Terrorizing your own people in hopes of getting them to vote for your own party has never brought as much as a public comment from you?

The Republican Hamstringing of Captain Max Cleland and lying about Lieutenant John Kerry met with your approval?

But a shot at General Petraeus, about whom you conveniently ignore it, was you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack, merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?

Your hypocrisy is so vast that if we could somehow use it to fill the ranks in Iraq you could realize your dream and keep us fighting there until the year 3000.

The line between the military and the civilian government is not to be crossed.

When Douglas MacArthur attempted to make policy for the United States in Korea half a century ago, President Truman moved quickly to fire him, even though Truman knew it meant his own political suicide, and the deification of a General who history suggests had begun to lose his mind.

When George McClellan tried to make policy for the Union in the Civil War, President Lincoln finally fired his chief General, even though he knew McClellan could galvanize political opposition which he did when McClellan ran as Lincoln’s presidential opponent in 1864, nearly defeating our greatest president.

Even when the conduit flowed the other way and Senator Joseph McCarthy tried to smear the Army because it wouldn’t defer the service of one of McCarthy’s staff aides, the entire civilian and Defense Department structures, after four years of fearful servitude, rose up against McCarthy and said “enough” and buried him.

The list is not endless but it is instructive.

Air Force General LeMay—who broke with Kennedy over the Cuban Missile Crisis and was retired.

Army General Edwin Anderson Walker—who started passing out John Birch Society leaflets to his soldiers.

Marine General Smedley Butler—who revealed to Congress the makings of a plot to remove FDR as President and for merely being approached by the plotters, was phased out of the military hierarchy.

These careers were ended because the line between the military and the civilian is not to be crossed!

Mr. Bush, you had no right to order General Petraeus to become your front man.

And he obviously should have refused that order and resigned rather than ruin his military career.

The upshot is and contrary it is, to the MoveOn advertisement he betrayed himself more than he did us.

But there has been in his actions a sort of reflexive courage, some twisted vision of duty at a time of crisis. That the man doesn’t understand that serving officers cannot double as serving political ops, is not so much his fault as it is your good, exploitable, fortune.

But Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General’s skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of ‘the planted last question’ at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond.

That is not only un-American but it is dictatorial.

And in pimping General David Petraeus and in the violation of everything this country has been assiduously and vigilantly against for 220 years, you have tried to blur the gleaming radioactive demarcation between the military and the political, and to portray your party as the one associated with the military, and your opponents as the ones somehow antithetical to it.

You did it again today and you need to know how history will judge the line you just crossed.

It is a line thankfully only the first of a series that makes the military political, and the political, military.

It is a line which history shows is always the first one crossed when a democratic government in some other country has started down the long, slippery, suicidal slope towards a Military Junta.

Get back behind that line, Mr. Bush, before some of your supporters mistake your dangerous transgression, for a call to further politicize our military.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20896378/

[irishgrl]

I love him too

[Nixxxed]

Banneresurrection:



That was a great commentary, as usual. For me though, nothing will beat his first one while the Katrina disaster was unfolding:

"And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water."

I found it interesting that Keith didn't mention Dubya's pre-swiftboating swiftboating of McCain during the 99/00 primary season. I'm sure he left it out on purpose, but I can't quite figure out what trap he was placing.

[buckymcnix]

Oh man - I love Keith -

I only have 2 things on my Permanent DVR Record list.
Keith's Countdown and The Soup. (i don't record re-runs of simpsons, fam guy etc so they go off the list for part of the year.)

I generally skip the last segment of countdown cos it is generally a segment he admits that his producers make him do and it is typically about Brit, Oj, paris, the cruises . . .

sometimes i wonder how they let him say some of those things - not because i think it is treasonous or anything but because there is such a lack of anyone else saying it on a mainstream outlet that i just assumed they weren't allowed to say these things.

[carrie721]

Originally Posted by Nixxxed

Banneresurrection:

perfect.

That was a great commentary, as usual. For me though, nothing will beat his first one while the Katrina disaster was unfolding:

"And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water."

yikes. ****ing pathetic but true.

Originally Posted by buckymcnix

Oh man - I love Keith -

I only have 2 things on my Permanent DVR Record list.
Keith's Countdown and The Soup. (i don't record re-runs of simpsons, fam guy etc so they go off the list for part of the year.)

I generally skip the last segment of countdown cos it is generally a segment he admits that his producers make him do and it is typically about Brit, Oj, paris, the cruises . . .

sometimes i wonder how they let him say some of those things - not because i think it is treasonous or anything but because there is such a lack of anyone else saying it on a mainstream outlet that i just assumed they weren't allowed to say these things.

dude. you. me. countdown. soup. vanilla ice cream w/blackberries. now.

oh, and i completely agree. i'm always shocked by his commentary not because it's radical or at odds with my own beliefs but just as you said, nobody else is saying these things on cable news. i love him.

[gldstwmn]

Keith O is pretty much the closest thing to a "real" newscast there is these days. He's been calling out this administration for a long time now and when it was not popular to do so. Usually a good 20 minutes of his show is devoted to real news and then he does a little tabloid-y stuff and some schtick. Whether or not that stuff is Keith's idea or the network is kind of irrelevant to me. I'll take what I can get in today's news climate.
Also, I have to say I've got to give big props to my man Anderson Cooper. He has continued to followed the Katrina story long after others have forgotten about it.

[kathy1]

i watch the show also. but not all the time.

[buckymcnix]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Also, I have to say I've got to give big props to my man Anderson Cooper. He has continued to followed the Katrina story long after others have forgotten about it.

yes to the things you said about keith being closest thing to "real" newscast.
I also watch a democracy now broadcast - and it is real news and oh so depressing -lol

His ratings are jumping bigtime and yet no one else has noticed the growing market for commentators willing to criticizie this administration.


And i am not a fan of anderson (not that i dislike him, just that i haven't seen him much) but i am curious about your comments on Katrina. Is he really still covering the Katrina thing? if so - good on him huh?

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by buckymcnix

And i am not a fan of anderson (not that i dislike him, just that i haven't seen him much) but i am curious about your comments on Katrina. Is he really still covering the Katrina thing? if so - good on him huh?

Yes. He flew back from his vacation in Europe to do his show live from New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina.