King Keith

The times they are a changin':

Just in case you haven't been paying attention-and poll numbers suggest that a frighteningly large number of Americans still aren't-Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC at 8:00 PM Eastern underwent a tremendous shift right around the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That night Keith Olbermann delivered not only the speech of the year but the speech of the millennium. So far. It was a Special Comment that excoriated Pres. Bush for every lie, hypocrisy and dumbheaded policy move he's initiated since the attacks. Overnight, the spirit of Edward R. Murrow was reborn. And finally real patriotic Americans had a mainstream media show they could watch without having to be restrained by family or loved ones when the urge to throw something hard and solid at the television screen overcame them.

Since that groundbreaking moment, Keith Olbermann has delivered several more Special Comments, most of them taking direct aim at the astounding lack of leadership qualities in the President of the United States. Olbermann has taken the White House to task for everything from spewing more venom at his Democrat opponents than the terrorists to believing that the Constitution doesn't really apply to them. In the process he has become the premier spokesman for the disenfranchised American patriot who has watched in disbelief as Americans by the millions-come on, you know you're one of them-confused supporting the eternal ideal of America with supporting a patently delusional spoiled brat rummy whose decision to send men and women to war is based on nothing more substantial that wanting to prove to mommy that he's the real man in the family.

Keith Olbermann has filled a deep chasm in America; a chasm the existence of which allowed a madman to lie and swindle his way to the mass murder of far more people than Osama Bin-Laden was responsible for killing on 9/11. Had there been just a handful of Edward R. Murrow five years ago, maybe some tough questions would have been demanded of Bush. Maybe instead of joyously "embedding" themselves in tanks, speaking as mouthpieces for the Pentagon, those reporters might have asked to see some actual physical evidence of those WMDs that Donald Rumsfailed and Dick Cheney-fact: The Vice President of the United States shot a man in the face, fact!---were so fond of telling Americans existed.

Well, better late than never. If there is one thing we can rely upon, it's the desire of American television network heads to copy whatever is popular at the time. Therefore, since Keith Olbermann is clearly on a roll, can we perhaps look forward to other networks-Fox exempted, of course, since their CEO is also the President of the United States, apparently-copying MSNBC's success? CNN already has Jack Cafferty daily stinging the White House on the Situation Room; why not replace Glen "Islam is the only religion that endorses violence" Beck with Cafferty. (And while we're at it, give Cafferty an extra hour and remove the excessively shrill Nancy Grace from the airwaves forever.)