Keith Olbermann talks impeachment

Wow. I *heart* Keith Olbermann. And boy, is he on a roll at the moment!

A couple of weeks ago he used the words of another great broadcaster, Edward Murrow, to comment on Donald Rumsfeld's pathetic attempts to paint the majority of American as "unpatriotic". It was an amazing piece, full of sober passion and serious poetry.

Today I think he outdid himself, with a blistering piece on Bush's woeful response to 9/11, that there is still a gaping hole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood, a gaping hole in the fabric of the nation, and, worse, that this represents "the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath reduced to lazy execution."

It's an absolutely brilliantly argued, beautifully presented cry of anguish for everything that America (and the world) has lost, and for all that Bush has squandered in the past five years.

And he uses the "I" word. (That's "I" for "impeachment", folks.)

Take a look...



Crooks and Liars have the full transcript up here: Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Bush

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government, by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused; as appeasers; as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."

They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken... a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated Al-Qaeda as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do with 9/11', is "lying by implication."

The impolite phrase, is "impeachable offense."

When those who dissent are told time and time again - as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus - that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...

When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"… look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?
We have not forgotten, Mr. President.
You have.
May this country forgive you.

Wow.

And here's his piece on Rumsfeld, in case you missed it:



You can read the full transcript at Crooks and Liars here: Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty - of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land; worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our employees - with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Keith Olbermann, I think I love you.

Interesting links:

Bloggermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld
Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Bush
The Olbermann factor
The Worst Person in the World: And 202 Strong Contenders

Technorati tags: Keith Olbermann, Countdown, George Bush, 9/11, impeachment, Donald Rumsfeld, fascism.