Would you seek advice on how to save your marriage from John Edwards? Or how about a teenage girl turning to Paris Hilton for suggestions on how to maintain her purity? If you think those ideas seem silly then take a look at what the recently suspended MSNBC Countdown host is claiming in a New York Times Q&A interview conducted by Deborah Solomon. Keith Olbermann is asserting that Vice President Joe Biden asked him for anger management advice. I kid you not. Here is the perpetually outraged Olbermann making his claim:
Is it fair to describe you as the first left winger to express anger as a television host? Fury used to be the province of right wingers, until that day in 2006 when you delivered a tirade against Donald Rumsfeld.
I once had a conversation with the man who is now the vice president when he was still in the Senate, who asked me for advice about how to turn anger into righteous inspiration.
Joe Biden took you to lunch to ask you for tips on getting angry?
He said, ‘‘I just come across like I’m angry and out of control, and you seem to focus it and make it look useful and expressive.’’
It will be interesting to see how Olbermann's explosive temperament handles it if he is informed that his temporary suspension from MSNBC has been changed to permanent expulsion. Meanwhile reporters should be questioning Joe Biden about Olbermann's anger management claim. If true, that certainly calls into question the judgement of the vice president.
The most amusing part of the interview came at the end when Olbermann was asked about his own anger management problem:
Do you think you have an anger-management problem?
No, not at all. That’s another thing that would have come to the surface long ago in television if it was actually clinical in any way. No, I’ve worked for people with anger-management issues. I am a happy amateur on the subject.
Nope. Anger is not a bit of a problem for Keith Olbermann...according to Keith Olbermann. Yet another reason for MSNBC to announce his permanent removal from their network just as a scientific experiment to see how long he can maintain his cool.
As for Joe Biden... Should he decide to enter the publishing business after leaving office, I know this guy named Jon Meacham who can give him some wonderful "counterintuitive" advice on how to run a successful magazine.
