The arrogance of Lawrence O'Donnell knows no bounds.
On Tuesday evening, the host of The Last Word actually offered his name to be interim senator of Massachusetts if John Kerry becomes the new Secretary of State while proposing that newly-retired Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) temporarily fill in for him on MSNBC (video follows with LexisNexis transcript and commentary):
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, HOST: So it is settled. Ed Markey is going to be the next elected senator from Massachusetts. But who -- who is the governor going to appoint in the meantime? The appointed senator will have crucial work to do on the next debt ceiling crisis, on the next round of budget negotiations with Republicans. All of that action will be focused in the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction not over just the debt ceiling but over Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, which the Republicans want to put into play.
Ideally the appointed senator would take John Kerry`s seat on the Senate Finance Committee. And ideally the appointed senator would know exactly how that committee works and how the Senate works on day one. Because ideally the appointed senator would be a former member of the Senate Finance Committee, who has real experience negotiating and legislating huge budget bills.
But there are none of those living in Massachusetts now or from Massachusetts. But there is -- there is one former chief of staff of the Senate Finance Committee who is from Massachusetts, and who, like Ben Affleck, now lives in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB SCHIEFFER, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Have you ever thought about running for public office yourself?
BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR: I do have a great fondness and admiration for the political process in this country. It is a big deal for me to come down here and be on your show that I watched so much. But I won`t get into speculation about my political future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O`DONNELL: Come on. If Ben Affleck can be taken that seriously for the Massachusetts Senate seat, why can`t I? OK, Ben Affleck is a lot better actor, screen writer, director and producer than I am. But I know like so much more than he does about governing. Well, domestic governing anyway.
Look, you know, I mean he knows a lot more than I do about a lot of foreign policy stuff, the Middle East, Africa. But that stuff is not going to be involved in the debt ceiling negotiations.
So I am going to do what I always do when I am faced with a difficult decision. I`m going to avoid it, at least for tonight. I am going to sleep on it. But I think I owe the people of Massachusetts and the governor and those lucky senators who might get to be my colleagues temporarily -- I think I owe them all a decision on this. So tomorrow night on this program, I will announce either my intention to beg the governor for the appointment, or my choice of who the governor should appoint to hold the Senate seat until Ed Markey can be sworn in.
I`m going to need your help with this decision. Let me know on Twitter or Facebook whether I should be appointed senator, whether I should ask the governor to appoint me senator, or if say Barney Frank should be the appointed senator or someone else should be the appointed senator.
You know, maybe I could work something out with Barney Frank. If I become a temporary senator, maybe he can become a temporary host of a 10:00 p.m. program on MSNBC.
When you think about it, this isn't as crazy as it sounds.
MSNBC at this point in time is basically an extension of the Democratic National Committee.
One of its hosts becoming interim senator while a newly-retired Democratic Congressman temporarily replaces him makes perfect sense.
The Senate likely will perceive no difference in O'Donnell's legislative skills and ideology compared with Kerry's, and MSNBC viewers will get exactly the same biased "reporting" at 10 PM that they currently are.
The folks at Comcast, General Electric, and NBC must be pleased to know that their programming is so biased that its on air employees and Democratic elected officials are completely interchangeable.
(HT Mediaite)
