Moron of the Week

And I'm not gonna lie--this week, I *do* wonder if the M.o.t.W. is going to be alerted to his being so-named, largely in part because I have sent several e-mails to his program without receiving any response, and as you'll see, this week's dimwit has a history of reading and responding to his e-mail critics. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand anybody with a television show probably gets a bunch of e-mail, both pro and con. I don't expect an answer every time I mail,even from a lackey. But perhaps if this column winds up in the hands of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, I'll get an answer to my question regarding Olbermann's egregious hypocrisy as regards one Donald Rumsfeld.

Here's how Keith-O got on the hit list. About two weeks ago, I'm reading an article in the Washington Post online by David Bauder of the Associated Press, in which Olbermann ripped into Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, over comments Rumsfeld had made in an address to the American Legion. No big deal, right? Plenty of people have ripped Rummy during the past few years and a lot of them have had valid points. Olbermann's point, however, may as well have been his skull, his statement was so pinheaded. Responding to remarks Rumsfeld made (not singling out Olbermann) that the host of MSNBC's Countdown felt equated certain vocal critics of the Iraq war to pre-war appeasers leading up to WWII (easy to see why this offended the modern-day Neville Chamberlains), Olbermann told Bauder:

"As a critic of the administration, I will be damned if you can get away with calling me the equivalent of a Nazi appeaser," Olbermann told The Associated Press. "No one has the right to say that about any free-speaking American in this country."

Get away with??? Nobody has the right???Gee, Keith, are you suggesting that Rumsfeld criticizing the administration's critics isn't just as protected as *your* criticism?

Sure seems that way to me.

This is a theme I hit pretty often. It irks me when people who *should* understand the concept of freedom of speech aren't bright enough to understand that the same freedom Olbermann trumpets--the freedom to be a critic of the administration--is the *same* freedom that enables Donald Rumsfeld to categorize those critical of the administration...well...pretty much any way he wants. The adjectives, so long as they aren't libel or slander, are up to him. Just as Olbermann can go out and criticize Bush, call him a liar, call the administration inept, etc., so can Rumsfeld call out anybody *he* so chooses. See how that works, Keith? It's a two-way street. You get to criticize, but in return, you *don't* get to tell *anybody* that they don't have "any right" to do so. You can't open your big mouth and speak out of both sides of it this way without recognizing the hypocrisy. Damn straight Rumsfeld has the right, and yet, there you are, championing your own free speech privileges, while denying Rumsfeld his. I wonder if it even struck the former ESPN broadcaster when he read the Washington Post. Did he notice how idiotic it sounded to defend his free speech rights in the same mouthful as he suggested Rumsfeld somehow *didn't* have the same protections?

But this shouldn't be a surprise. Remember, Olbermann, while repulsed it would seem by any comparison to Nazi sympathizers--much less Nazis themselves--is the *same* schmuck who donned a Bill O'Reilly mask and gave the Seig Heil Nazi salute at the TCA press tour. Yep, that's the same Keith Olbermann who wrote, regarding using Nazi references to disparage adversaries:

"There's no place for the reference in this culture. Not about the Republican tactics, not about the Democratic tactics, not about Guantanamo Bay. The Republicans are not the SS, and the Democrats are not the Gestapo, and Gitmo is not Buchenwald. Apologize profoundly and profusely, burst into tears if you will, but the analogies are wrong, offensive, and deeply hurtful."

Yet there he was, thrusting out his right arm and taking a cheap shot at the guy who regularly kicks his ass in the 8:00 p.m. time slot on competitor FOX News. Olbermann, in fact, goes out of his way to talk more about Bill O'Reilly than O'Reilly talks about himself, if you can believe it, and O'Reilly is often Olbermann's choice for Worst Person in the World on Countdown, sometimes taking top honors several times in the same week. (Countdown might be a prophetic name for Olbermann's program, which it appears is being tossed overboard to CNBC as NBC tries to trim $750 million out of its budget next year.) But hey, the hypocrisy doesn't end there. Oh no, Keith just oozes it. Some of you may recall that a while back, while on vacation, Olbermann sent a bunch of offensive e-mails (for which he later apologized when their existence came to light in the media) to--guess who? Yep, *critics* of Keith Olbermann. According to Lloyd Grove's in the New York Daily News, Olbermann wrote to one critic:

"You 'Americans' still watching that evil f--- O'Reilly?"

'Americans'??? Is that so, Keith? You have the gall to rip Donald Rumsfeld for his remark about appeasers, yet you had no trouble calling into question a critic's patriotism as a true American? If Rumsfeld doesn't have the right, what gave you the right to insult a critic of yours by throwing his/her nationality into question? Well, what would you expect? One of Keith's other e-mail replies was much simpler:

"Go --- your mother."

The Daily News used dashes. But I think we can figure out, based on Keith's first response, what choice four letter word he used. Touchy guy about critics, eh? Seems he thinks he can go out and be critical of anybody/everybody he wishes, but he runs and hides or resorts to schoolyard behavior when the criticism is directed at him. We used to have a saying about guys like Olbermann back in grade school. We described kids like Olbermann this way, "He can dish it out...but he can't take it."

When it comes to the offensive nature of likening somebody to a Nazi, Olbermann can Sieg Heil with the worst of them, while wearing the mask of his dreaded competitor. But so much as be mentioned in the same breath as appeasers, and he starts telling the Associated Press that the person who said *that* has no right to say it. He can go out on television night after night, bash and bash and bash, yet somebody sends him an e-mail he doesn't like, he can't just find his DELETE key, he responds with profanity and vulgarities. Is it any wonder then, when you pile the hypocrisy on top of the immaturity you wind up with a moron who surpasses all others, at least for this week?

Nope, didn't think so.