Olbermann is on fire!

When I first started paying attention to Keith Olbermann, he struck me as kind of the David Letterman of liberal punditry: a button-up sophisticate with a snarky, caustic wit and a soft spot for stupid pet tricks. But as time goes by and the outrages accrue, he seems to have found his voice articulating the frustration of those of us who lean left, something like Howard Beale with better impulse control. On the matter of the right-wing media, he has exposed Bill O'Reilly's outrageous mischaracterization of war crimes committed in World War II, delivered us a withering denunciation of Ann Coulter's invidious screed, and thrown a klieg light on the journalistic degeneracy of Roger Ailes and the enterprise under his control. Likewise, his devastating critiques of the current administration regularly make the rounds on the blogosphere, lending a measured and reasonable voice to those of us who feel shut out of the national discourse.

Now, cutting through the fog of the Foley coverup scandal, Keith set aside a full ten minutes at the end of last night's episode and opened up with both barrels against the Machiavellian machinations of the Bush administration. In the cut-away at the end, Joe Scarborough looked stone-faced; I'd pay real money to know what was running through his mind at that moment. If you're a regular at this blog, you've probably already seen it, but in case you haven't, get the whole commentary here.