Lawrence O’Donnell Wants to Be Keith Olbermann’s Brain

So, just imagine you were a hot executive producer in Hollywood with a notch on your belt like winning an Emmy for the hit series “The West Wing.” Further envision you were a regular panelist on the top political talk show in the nation, “The McLaughlin Group.” And, to put a cherry on top of the cake, you were the former Chief of Staff for the Senate Finance Committee. Would your ultimate goal be for a not so adoring nation to think you were Keith Olbermann’s brain? And, let’s say it was, would you actually admit it?

Well, that’s exactly what MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell did at HuffnPuff Tuesday, and regardless of how tongue-in-cheek he was trying to be, it seems that such an accomplished individual, irrespective of his politics, could have loftier goals than being the brain for one of the most despicable personalities on television.

Yet, there it was, for all to see, right in the middle of Larry practically dislocating a shoulder to pat himself on the back for predicting the Democrats would take back both chambers of Congress in last Tuesday’s elections:

I haven't had the time to type a word for HuffPo since the election because I've been too busy gloating on TV. Having predicted every Senate election correctly as well as the outcome in the House and the governors' races, I have been taking every opportunity on MSNBC and the McLaughlin Group to say a few self-congratulatory words and sit back and watch my Republican counterparts' befuddlement.

Larry unashamedly continued:

In my latest round of this, Joe Scarborough asked why I knew who was going to win the elections and Karl Rove, the genius, Karl Rove, "Bush's Brain," didn't know. By the way, how smart do you have to be to be Bush's brain? I didn't want to give up my secret for election predicting. I like being one of the few pundits to accurately predict all the Senate races. Fellow geniuses Eleanor Clift and Mark Shields got it right too, but they're not the gloating type and they never appear on MSNBC, so I was hoping to create a sort of Rove-level genius aura for myself, at least among MSNBC talking heads. You know, maybe "Olbermann's Brain," something like that. But I couldn't come up with a Rove-like rap about metrics because I had never actually used the word in a sentence, so, to avoid the horror of dead air, I went to my fallback position--the truth.

Clever stuff, Larry. Do you need to blog this drivel now because nobody in Hollywood is willing to pay for it? Regardless of the answer, O’Donnell actually had some interesting insights concerning Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker that you won’t likely see in the drive-by media:

The early signs are not good. The day after she backs Arianna's hero John Murtha for majority leader, the Washington Post goes after her with both barrels--a front page story about Murtha and his history of ethics problems, including (unindicted) involvement in Abscam, and an editorial slamming Murtha and endorsing Steny Hoyer for the job. When was the last time the Post made an endorsement in a party leadership race? Ever? There's no possible win here for Pelosi. If Hoyer wins, the new Speaker gets publicly humiliated on her first vote. If Murtha wins, the Pelosi promise of "the most ethical Congress in history" will fall apart quickly with Sean Hannity running Murtha's Abscam FBI video endlessly.

O’Donnell continued:

But the damage Murtha's ethics history can do to the Pelosi Speakership is nothing compared to what Alcee Hastings can do. Pelosi is feuding with her California colleague Jane Harman who is in line to become chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi wants someone else. Next in line is Alcee Hastings, a member of the Black Caucus, which is championing his candidacy for Intelligence chairman. No one outside of the Black Caucus would be happy to see Alcee Hastings in a chairmanship. I first saw Alcee Hastings in his impeachment trial in the Senate.

Hastings was a Florida federal judge who was indicted for extortion and bribery and was found not guilty by a jury. A judicial panel then recommended his removal from the bench, which, for a federal judge means impeachment in the House and trial in the Senate. Hastings was convicted by the Senate in 1989 and removed from the bench, whereupon he ran for Congress and won. That's where Alcee's sweet revenge story should end. But Pelosi is actually considering him for the chairmanship.

If Rove had been smart enough to make Alcee Hastings a household term during the campaign, the Democrats would not have won as many seats. If Pelosi makes Hastings a chairman, Rove won't miss the shot this time. The Democrats would instantly take over as the party of corruption. Voters would get a terrible more-of-the-same feeling right off the bat and their throw-the-bums-out attitude would not subside. The first woman Speaker could be a two-year story.

Interesting stuff, Larry, and likely far more insightful than anything your hero Olbermann could come up with, or would have the guts to share with his vitriol-seeking audience. As such, I'd rethink that Olbermann's brain nonsense. After all, it wasn't funny, and, if indeed this was your goal, all you need is some grey hair, bad glasses, and a frontal lobotomy.