The Markup
Keith Olbermann's Comic Timing
03/02 08:54 PMKeith Olbermann's history of baseless conspiracy-mongering is well-documented, and he was at it again tonight. First, he showed the tapes from the day before Katrina hit, which the press and the Democrats have been using to attack Bush. He didn't question where they came from or why they became such big news this week. Then he showed the tapes from the day of the storm, which show Michael Brown praising Bush's response. But first, he noted that the latter had been leaked by "Republican officials" and called their release "conveniently timed."
Funny how Olbermann didn't see anything "convenient" about a Katrina-tape "scandal" that broke just as the furor over the last "scandal" — the Dubai ports deal — was starting to die down.
Olbermann also seems to think Bush's trip to India is another "convenient" way for him to change the subject from Katrina — as if this major international visit was just slapped together on Tuesday.
Next, Olbermann and Dana Milbank had a dishonest conversation about why Bush is such a big liar. The previous segment had shown a clip of Bush saying, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," followed by a clip of National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield from the first video saying, "I don't think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very very grave concern." The segment then showed a clip of Mayfield explaining his comments (excerpted below from MSNBC.com):
"Nobody talked about the possibility of a levee breech or failure until after it happened,” Mayfield told NBC News. “I am about the least political person you could imagine, but on this point, I think the president is getting a bad rap,” referring to accusations that Bush might be lying when he said he was not warned of a possible levee failure.
“I warned only that the levees might be overtopped,” Mayfield said.
So despite the fact that the clip he had just watched demonstrated that Bush had merely been misunderstood, Olbermann said this to Milbank:
OLBERMANN: These are not the Nixon White House tapes, though. These [videos] are things that he should have known were there and had the prospect of coming out. Why try to get away with something that, as you point out, clearly was not true, when sophisticated tapes existed and were just sort of waiting to come out like the new release of Network on DVD?
Keith... you're killing me. If I could only stop laughing long enough to type, I might suggest that the answer to your question is that Bush wasn't lying. And because that possibility isn't even conceivable to you, here's an alternative explanation: He thought that these tapes would only get played on your show, and so no one would ever see them except you and Dana Milbank.
Video here.
UPDATE: LOTS more on Olbermann at Expose the Left.
Malkin: How to Fight the Brainwashers / Unhinged Teacher Caught on Tape--When a Liberal tapes someone they are a whistle blower but when a Conservative does it, it is called eavesdropping.
best known for the Web log called Instapundit, but he is also a musician, the creator of a record label, a law professor, an expert on space (he drafted a position paper on the matter for Al Gore's 1988 campaign) and an unpublished novelist.
