'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
video podcast
screencaps
Video via MSNBC: Oddball, Tea Time, Worst Persons
The toss: Kagan memos
Guests: Tom Goldstein, Ezra Klein, David Corn, Markos Moulitsas, Richard
Wolffe.
HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will you
be talking about tomorrow?
The attack on Elena Kagan and by extension on Justice Thurgood
Marshall. The senator from the Keebler tree speaks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: She clerked for two activist judges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: But is Kagan clerked only for Judge Abner Mikva and
Justice Thurgood Marshall?
Other Republicans deploy both of their faces, Mitch McConnell on the
Senate floor -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: She's never had to
develop the judicial habit of saying "no" to an administration, and we
can't simply assume that she would.
(END VIDEO CLILP)
OLBERMANN: Then Mitch McConnell in his office with Ms. Kagan within
ear shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: I want to welcome Solicitor General Kagan to the Capitol.
Congratulate her on her nomination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Rig cementing fails pressure test. Naturally, hours
later, commence drilling. The Hill spill thrill moves to the House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: If the largest oil and oil service
companies in the world had been more careful, 11 lives might have been
saved and our coastlines protected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Not a year for incumbents. West Virginia House Democrat
defeated in primary after 14 terms after his father had served seven terms.
Big bad sheriff McCain promises to finish the dang fence. And Specter
thanks his party - not his current party.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I think the Allegheny
Republican committee for endorsing me for the Democratic nomination.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: "Tea Time": "If I could issue hunting permits, I would
officially declare today opening day for liberals," writes a California
congressional wannabe. "The season would extend through November 2 and
have no limits on how many taken as we desperately need to thin the herd."
He pronounces his last name "gearing."
And "Worsts": more on the clown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: Follow up segment tonight, most Americans
can't name the nine Supreme Court justices even though they are the most
powerful people in the country with the exception of President Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: He then proceeds to not be able to name the nine Supreme
Court justices.
All the news and commentary - now on Countdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I was really surprised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.
The top Republican now on the Senate Judiciary Committee, his own
nomination as a federal district judge rejected when two Republicans on
that committee voted against him because of racist statements he had made
while U.S. attorney. That same individual today denouncing the Supreme
Court nomination of Elena Kagan, solicitor general of the United States,
for coming out of a, quote, "tradition of activist judges" by which he
meant her clerkships for Justice Thurgood Marshall and a federal judge
named Abner Mikva. Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, at least
waiting until after his meeting with Ms. Kagan to weigh in, thusly.
Not so his party's leadership - Senator McConnell of Kentucky, the
minority leader, taking to the floor of the Senate to question Ms. Kagan's
independence from the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: It's my hope that the Obama administration doesn't think
the ideal Supreme Court nominee is someone who would rubber-stamp its
policies. But this nomination does raise the question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Compare that to what Mr. McConnell had said once he had
Ms. Kagan sitting at his side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: I want to welcome Solicitor General Kagan to the Capitol.
Congratulate her on her nomination. But I want to assure her and assure
the public that we intend to go through a thorough process. It is,
however, not a rush to judgment. And we'll have an opportunity to examine
the solicitor general's credentials.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: McConnell's office also saying in an e-mail to reporters
this morning, reading, quote, "shot, a trailblazer throughout her career,
2010 White House on Elena Kagan." "Chaser - these are alcohol terms - a
trailblazer for women lawyers, 2005 White House on Harriet Miers."
The implosion of the Miers nomination having begun on this comparable
day during the Bush administration when Ms. Miers began meeting with
senators on Capitol Hill and fellow Republicans begun to question whether
President Bush's nominee was actually qualified for the lifetime position.
Not so, Ms. Kagan's fellow Democrats. After his meeting, Majority
Leader Reid is issuing a statement, saying he is confident that Ms. Kagan
is the right choice to succeed Justice Stevens on the court.
Chairman Leahy of the judiciary committee left his encounter, saying
he was reassured, adding that the former Harvard Law School dean could
become a welcome counterbalance to what he called the "activist
conservative majority" that currently dominates the court. I guess Mr.
Leahy had not read the memo redefining only liberal judges as activist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SESSIONS: She's been politically active throughout her life. She's
identifying with the American liberal position. She clerked for two
activist judges, and so, I guess I did ask her, did she feel like - did
she understand that, as a judge, she may be called upon to render rulings
that many of her fans and supporters over the years would be very
disappointed in.
My view is that her experience is very thin. You do not have to be a
judge to go on the Supreme Court. I acknowledge that. But I think if
you're not a judge, I would like to have seen somebody in the harness of
the practice of law for a number of years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Let's turn now to Tom Goldstein, a veteran Supreme Court
litigator and founder of SCOTUSblog.com.
Thank you for some of your time tonight, sir.
TOM GOLDSTEIN, SCOTUSBLOG.COM: Good evening.
OLBERMANN: How important are these meetings actually between the
Supreme Court nominee and the senators who are ultimately going to vote on
his or her nomination?
GOLDSTEIN: Well, all the Democrats except Arlen Specter I think you
can count on as being locked in. There's a handful, maybe 10 moderate
Republicans that this could actually influence whether or not they would
vote for her.
Beyond that, what it matters for is the tenor of the debate. If -
even the more conservative Republican senators at least respect her, think
she's really smart, that she's being respectful, that she's not extremist.
Then it's unlikely to turn into a thermonuclear war in the Senate which has
a thread of respect left in it.
OLBERMANN: Well, then, give - Mr. Sessions that we're seeing there,
his statement about - implying I guess that Thurgood Marshall was an
activist judge. Put that: "A," in Supreme Court history, and "B," in the
context of how these meetings with the senators are going for the solicitor
general.
GOLDSTEIN: Well, I would say that with respect to Senator Sessions,
Senator McConnell, who are judicial conservatives, they - after careful
study - they realized she had been nominated by Barack Obama and decided
to vote against her. They - you know, that's just their perspective.
Nonetheless, I do think that they're probably actually serious about
having a respectful process when she's going through the Senate; that they
don't intend to try and muck up the process, they do think it should move
along. I think they're speaking more to their base than they are really a
genuine criticism of the nominee.
OLBERMANN: By taking to the floor of the Senate though an hour and a
half before his meeting with her, did the minority leader give the
impression that he was prejudging Ms. Kagan?
GOLDSTEIN: Well, I think he just has a perspective on Democratic
nominees. I think that anybody that came out of that meeting with -
standing between the vice president and President Obama, he was going to
have pretty of the same take. I don't think he's - finds it necessary to
learn a lot more about her than that she was appointed by a Democratic
president.
Now, remember, there were Democrats who had the same view with respect
to President Bush. So, there - it is fair to remember that there are that
sort of six to 10 Republicans, people like Lindsey Graham, maybe Orrin
Hatch, the women senators from Maine. There are some votes that are in
play here that will decide whether it's 65 or 70 that she gets.
OLBERMANN: But to that point of experience, Sam Stein from the
"Huffington Post" compared the resumes of Kagan and William Rehnquist
before Rehnquist ascended to the court and he concluded that Rehnquist -
the quote is - "would be considered something of a novice by the standards
some are applying to Kagan."
What does that do to the - and this is not the first time the word
"thin" has been used, but Senator Sessions used it today - what would they
what does that do to the Sessions claim that her experience is thin?
GOLDSTEIN: The argument is thin, I suppose. William Rehnquist was in
the Office of Legal Counsel, part of the Department of Justice. He's a
conservative hero for goodness sakes, became an historic chief justice.
Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School, solicitor general of the
United States, two of the highest positions in all of the law, to turn
around and then say, well, you know, I just don't know she's qualified for
the job comes across as a little silly.
OLBERMANN: And let me get back to Thurgood Marshall. Why invoke him
in those - in those negative terms even by extension and certainly he's
not - I don't know anybody who's on the history of the court who would
label him an activist judge.
GOLDSTEIN: Well, so a couple things about that - it is really weird
to say what we want is someone who has a lot of experience litigating. I
don't want you to be like Thurgood Marshall. He's one of the great
litigators in American history. Thurgood Marshall was part of the civil
rights revolution - something to which conservative Republicans really
think was activist by the Warren Court, even the Burger Court. And they do
object to that kind of law.
But Thurgood Marshall is a historic figure. Elena Kagan says that she
learned an awful lot from that position. She was exposed to the Supreme
Court as a law clerk and having been there.
It's not the end of the world, but it's a - you know, it's a
legitimate part of the body of her qualifications. Having clerked at the
Supreme Court, been the dean, been the solicitor general, having worked in
the White House both as a lawyer and in the policy shop, it's really hard
to make the case that this woman is unqualified.
OLBERMANN: Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSBlog.com - great thanks for your
insight and thanks for your time tonight.
GOLDSTEIN: Thanks so much for having me.
OLBERMANN: Meanwhile, for more on the Republicans' attempt to paint
Ms. Kagan as President Obama's Harriet Miers, let's turn to Ezra Klein of
"The Washington Post" and "Newsweek."
Ezra, good evening.
EZRA KLEIN, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good evening.
OLBERMANN: Well, the "Associated Press" admitted at the beginning of
the week that the B.P. oil spill is not President Obama's Katrina. So,
instead, now we have Mr. McConnell sending out what is in effect a joke e-
mail to shut chaser business which is trying to transform Elena Kagan into
this president's Harriet Miers. Is that working and does that not - if it
does work, doesn't it come as something with a sting in its tail?
KLEIN: Well, I think it's working to keep a deputy press secretary in
the minority leader's office employed.
But it doesn't really work for them. The people this works for very
well is Barack Obama, in fact. Elena Kagan is no Harriet Miers. I mean,
let's be clear here. The issue with Harriet Miers is she was under-
qualified and got where she was by being a loyalist to a particular
politician, right, George W. Bush.
Elena Kagan, not so. She's worked for two White Houses. She's
clerked on the Supreme Court. She's dean of Harvard Law. It's very hard
to find somebody who has held more high level positions in different
contexts than she has.
But, of course, there are legitimate criticisms of Kagan, namely that
we actually don't know that much about her personal views on the law. And
if Mitch McConnell makes this an issue on whether or not she's Harriet
Miers, she's going to get through it easy and we're not actually going to
ever have that conversation.
So, the only people this helps are arguably Mitch McConnell, and
definitely, Barack Obama and the White House.
OLBERMANN: The Miers nomination failed not because - Democrats
pointed this out - but because Republicans wanted to sink it, not to
mention that the Bush White House hadn't really vetted her for the position
before nominating her. But even based on the Kagan background, as we keep
saying, solicitor general, dean of Harvard law, nomination of position as
D.C. circuit court of appeals judge, clerked for Justice Marshall, clerked
for the Federal Judge Mikva, attended Harvard Law - is it really fair to
claim that she had a lack of experience comparable to Harriet Miers?
KLEIN: No, not at all. I mean, the claim itself is patently absurd.
But again, this is the problem with that claim. There is a real - I
think, a genuine issue that people should be seriously looking at here.
Elena Kagan has held a number of positions where she has proven herself to
be a very, very adept political staffer and legal thinker.
But none of these positions where we have a real sense of what she
would do when faced with a decision like Citizens United, right? So, she
argued the Citizens United for the government. She tried to get the
Supreme Court to not make the decision it did.
But we don't know how she would have voted if she was on the other
side of that bench. No one does. There's a big argument going on among
electoral legal experts.
So, you do have that situation. But instead, we're going to sit here
and talk about her really quite incredible credentials because the
Republicans went for the easy attack here rather than the slightly tougher
one. They didn't go for the tougher one I think because Elena Kagan can
answer what her views are. It's harder to answer simply a smear comparing
here to Harriet Miers.
OLBERMANN: There was a defense today of the solicitor general against
right-wing attacks on with our own Monica Novotny. This gentleman said, "I
don't think it serves the country well." The gentleman in question was Ken
Starr. Does that tell us anything about this?
KLEIN: I think it tells us a lot and I think Ken Starr is right. You
have a situation happening here, whereas these nomination fights get more
and more polarized and more and more cheap, you begin to have more and more
of an incentive for both sides to bring up people who can't really be
attacked because you don't really know what they think.
John Roberts was somewhat this way. He had a fairly thin record of
what he actually thought. And so, when he got on to the court, he turned
out to be a surprise to many of the people who voted for him. And on the
other side, I think, Elena Kagan, one of the virtues the White House saw in
her was that not - she didn't have much of a paper trail, so she'd be
harder to attack in terms of what would really stick. And that's no good
for the country at the end of the day when the two sides are ducking
Supreme Court fights. And so, we don't really know what we're getting.
OLBERMANN: Poor judgment on Mr. Sessions part to - by not using the
name but by one distance remove, evoke or invoke the name of Justice
Marshall as an activist judge?
KLEIN: Justice Marshall, I think, is rightfully considered one of the
heroes of American legal history. So, I think that's not a fight Senator
Sessions should really take on.
OLBERMANN: Yes. He might want to bring up John Marshall while he's
at it as well.
Ezra Klein of "The Washington Post" - those First Amendment guys,
they really changed the Constitution or activists who put in the Bill of
Rights. Ezra Klein of "The Washington Post" and "Newsweek" - as always,
great thanks, Ezra.
KLEIN: Thank you.
OLBERMANN: By the way, if the Gulf is now officially not Obama's
Katrina, who's Katrina is it, anyway? More testimony about the repair work
on the ocean floor, this time to the House. And it sounds like one of the
stories about how the demolition company screwed up the address and knocked
down the wrong house only you have to add in the 200,000 gallons of oil
poisoning the Gulf every day. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: And Toyota of oil companies with a new problem tonight,
400,000 gallons of stuff B.P. has pumped into the Gulf to try to clean up
the 200,000 gallons a day of oil it is still pumping into the Gulf. The
cleanup stuff may be just as damaging to the environment.
A tea party candidate for the House from California writes on Facebook
that he'd like to declare hunting season on liberals. He spells his last
name G-O-E-H-R-I-N-G. I wonder how you pronounce that.
He wasn't proving the point but he proved the point most Americans
can't name the nine Supreme Court justices. He sure couldn't.
And Sister Sarah's big book of bendy straws? Another Palin book? But
all the table legs in my house are even.
Ahead on Countdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Twenty-fours ago, we told you that the three oil companies
involved in the Gulf spill had all testified the other companies were at
fault.
In our fourth story tonight: we now know they were all right. As this
video taken yesterday shows oil continues to gush into the Gulf at the rate
of about 200,000 gallons a day, almost 4 million gallons all told so far.
B.P.'s efforts to contain the spill, including last week's failed
placement of a 100-ton cap, are both untested at this depth and so far
unsuccessful, with environmental groups now questioning the environmental
impacts of B.P.'s cleanup efforts, specifically a chemical used to disperse
the oil, nearly 400,000 gallons which B.P. has already dumped into the Gulf
now.
Yesterday, an executive from Halliburton described in what sounded
then like positive terms, testing done earlier on the day of the blast to
make sure Halliburton's cement seal would prevent gases from leaking into
the oil line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM PROBERT, HALLIBURTON CHIEF SAFETY OFFICER: The next step included
the performance of the negative pressure test which tests the integrity of
the casing seal assembly and it's conducted by the drilling contractor at
the direction of the well owner and in accordance with MMS requirements.
We understand that Halliburton was instructed to record drill pipe pressure
during this test. After being advised by the drilling contract of a
negative test had been completed, Halliburton cementing personnel were
placed on standby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Today, Congressman Henry Waxman revealed the truth about
that supposedly fail-safe blowout preventer and the cementing test that
Halliburton had described so positively yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAXMAN: Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil service
companies, says it had secured the well through a procedure called
cementing, and that the well had passed a key pressure test. But we now
know this is an incomplete account. The well did pass positive pressure
tests, but there is evidence that it may not have passed crucial negative
pressure tests. According to a senior B.P. official, significant pressure
discrepancies were observed in at least two of these tests which were
conducted just hours before the explosion.
Transocean, one of the world's largest operators of drilling rigs,
says it has no reason to believe that the rigs fail-safe device called a
blowout preventer was not fully operational. But we've learned from
Cameron, the manufacturer of the blowout preventer, that the device had a
leak in a crucial hydraulic system and a defectively configured ram.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Internal Transocean documents reveal the fail-safe blowout
preventer had 260 known scenarios for failure back in 2001. And this one
had been modified so that one of the rams it uses to force the pipe shut
did not work - which no one knew for the first 24 hours of trying to make
it work and stop the spill, perhaps because the schematics they were
working from did not reflect those modifications. Another ram did not work
because hydraulic fluid had leaked out through a loose fitting beforehand.
The dead man trigger did not activate either, maybe because the battery was
dead.
How could a fail-safe have so many failures? "Huffington Post" today
quoting an oil industry whistleblower who says he witnessed cheating on
blowout preventer testing, including some of B.P.'s. And on the same day
we learned all this, Senators John Kerry and Lieberman had introduced a
long-awaited climate change bill that gives coastal states veto power but
still encourages offshore drilling.
Let's turn now to David Corn, Washington bureau chief of "Mother
Jones" magazine an a columnist for politicsdaily.com.
David, good evening.
DAVID CORN, "MOTHER JONES" MAGAZINE: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: What do the revelations today tell us about the
distinction between, quote, "routine offshore drilling" and this deep water
casino gambling version?
CORN: Well, big difference. And I think a big point to keep in mind
is that there was another hearing today down in Kenner, Louisiana, before
the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, who was supposed to
regulate these sort of rigs. And it turns out that the regulations that
cover these rigs were written back in 1978, when you and I were both young
men. And back in those days, too, they didn't have this type of deep water
offshore drilling. Drilling was much closer in.
So, we've had decades of oil companies moving further, further out,
deeper, deeper down, and now, the government saying, hey, you know this
equipment that works in a couple hundred feet of water and all the safety
precautions we've come up with for that, it may not be applicable when we
get too far out and too far down. And no one was thinking about that.
And the oil companies, of course, and Halliburton and the
manufacturers were not thinking, too, about how to make their rigs and
their products safe for such use. It was just - let's find the oil, and,
you know, I think it was Markey or Congressman Markey who said they were
conducting just one big science experiment.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
CORN: And guess what? It went bad.
OLBERMANN: Well, and to that, the point, the executives testified
today that blowout preventers cannot handle every situation, especially if
they get clogged with debris from something like, you know, a blowout -
which then raises the question: is it fair to punish these companies for
promising their blowout preventers would prevent blowouts when, of course,
blowout preventers might not work properly if there's, you know, a blowout?
CORN: So, maybe they should be called blowout maybe preventers.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
CORN: They may work. I mean, again, the stuff had not been tested
appropriately. Regulations had not been set for these things, and, you
know, we, collectively, the U.S. government and people out there who always
talk about, you know, and decry big government bureaucrats and, you know,
and burn out (ph) the regulations, you know, there was no culture in the
Department of Interior and the Mineral Management Service to, you know,
take into account what was going on and how to regulate this.
So, we just basically, as came out in all the hearings so far, this
was sort of self-regulation. Industry got to self-certify that the things
they called blowout preventers would actually prevent blowouts even if they
didn't.
OLBERMANN: It's a brand name and, in fact, the shorthand for it -
CORN: Yes.
OLBERMANN: - for blowout preventers, the shorthand is just blow.
Are the companies going to be, you know, speaking of deep, are in deep
sheep dip or will they end up doing just as well as Exxon has its Valdez?
CORN: I think B.P. is still pretty deep in it. You know, they've
gone on record saying they're going to cover all the costs, not, you know,
that includes economic losses that result from this. I mean, you know, we
still haven't stopped this oil from spilling out.
I was on a call with the White House and administration advisers, this
could take weeks, it could take months. We don't know what the total bill
is going to be. So, B.P. could still be on the hook at end of the day and
may not - you know, conceivably might not survive.
Halliburton seems to always survive. I don't know why that is.
Transocean, the company that built the rig, you know, these companies are a
little bit, I think, less in the public eye than B.P. So, they're gone.
And, of course, there are other companies out there drilling away. We
haven't, you know, closed down these rigs and they're all using, I assume,
similar equipment, and operating under similar set of principles and
regulations that didn't work in this case. So, maybe there are other
companies that are worrying about becoming the next B.P.
OLBERMANN: Well, big picture, though, obviously there have been
public opinion against offshore drilling before today's news. Is offshore
drilling going to survive in this Kerry/Lieberman climate change bill?
CORN: Well, we don't know if the bill will survive and what legs it
has. But in the bill, as released, it had sort of a push me/pull you
attitude towards offshore drilling. It has a moratorium until this current
spill is investigated, and it gives states that are - that may be affected
by spills the ability to veto, you know, offshore drilling.
But, at the same time, it gave states that want to go ahead with
offshore drilling a real powerful financial incentive. They get a lot of
money if they do this. So, there are both sides there, and it certainly
doesn't shut down offshore drilling in the long run.
OLBERMANN: David Corn of "Mother Jones" magazine and
politicsdaily.com - thank you, again, David.
CORN: Thanks, Keith.
OLBERMANN: The silly quote was attributed to no one. It came to the
author via an unnamed source. So, naturally, "The New York Post" says the
quote was stated by the president of the United States. "Worst Persons" is
ahead on Countdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: The Tea Party in California reeling after one of its
congressional hopefuls posts on Facebook that it'd be a good idea to have
hunting season on liberals with no limit. His last name is spelled G-O-E-
H-R-I-N-G. The Twitter report - good news, Twerst persons in the world
will be back tonight. Bad news, I was only on Twitter for like three
minutes today. So there's no Tweet of the day.
Two birthdays to note, to two of the great influences of my life. To
the late George Carlin, would have been 73 today, and to my equally great
high school English teacher, Arthur Nadling, who is 39. Let's play
Oddball.
We begin on the set of "Live With Regis and Kelly." This morning,
Beth Ostrosky Stern (ph), wife of Howard Stern, was on hand to share summer
safety tips for your dog. She was joined by her bulldog Bianca, Lady Bug,
the Chihuahua, and Scooter. Scooter was recently rescued from the floods
in Tennessee. So you'll have to excuse Scooter. Those fake bushes look
real to old Scooter. The animal care segment continued, as did the dog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make sure you follow the instructions on the
back of the package and then - so -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Howard Stern's wife was there? Baba-pooey. Baba-pooey.
Scooter is awaiting adoption at the North Shore Animal League. If you get
hem today, you don't have to walk him until tomorrow.
To an actual garden at 10 Downing Street in London, where new Prime
Minister David Cameron and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today, the odd
couple, held a joint press conference to kick the tires on their newly
formed coalition government that could last all the way to the end of
summer. A reporter asks the new PM how he will reconcile some of the
cheeky campaign language he previously aimed at his new partner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prime Minister, do you now regret when once asked
what your favorite joke was, you replied Nick Clegg? And deputy prime
minister, what do you think of that?
DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN: We're all going -
I'm afraid I did. We're all - come back!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: I told you it wouldn't last.
Finally, to a children's playground in St. Johns, New Brunswick,
Canada, where this moose is a little woozy after having ridden the merry
go-round. Despite a mad dash past the news crew, police were able to
confine this female inside the park. And once animal control got on to the
scene, they gave Mrs. Moosey a free ride on the tranq dart express. She
was then carted back to her tree swing in the woods.
Desperate incumbents; Arlen Specter can't remember which party he
switched to and which he switched from. Speaking of not remembering, Bill-
O tries to name the Supreme Court justices and includes in his list one who
is already retired. And the age old hunting argument in California, duck
season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season. No, says the Tea Party
congressional candidate. Liberal season.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: The latest hard evidence that being an incumbent can be a
hard sell, in our third story tonight, some of it ridiculous, offensive, as
when Senator John McCain, desperate to survive his own primary challenge,
puts out an ad in which he says "complete the dang fence." But first, the
minor political earthquake from a Democratic congressman from the first
district of West Virginia, Alan Mollohan, defeated in the Democratic
primary yesterday by state Senator Mike Olviero (ph). Congressman Mollohan
has held this seat for 28 years. His father had held it before him for 14
years.
In Pennsylvania, Republican turned Democrat Senator Arlen Specter not
only having a hard time convincing rank and file Democrats that he is one
of them, he's having a hard time keeping that part of the story straight.
Yesterday, speaking to the Allegheny County Democrats in Pittsburgh,
Specter twice referred to them as Republicans. Specter's Democratic
primary opponent, Congressman Joe Sestak, evidently packaged the mistakes
into a tidy Youtube video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I thank the Allegheny
Republican Committee for endorsing me for the Democratic nomination. Great
pleasure to be endorsed by the Allegheny County Republicans. And together
we'll win for a victory for a better state and a better nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Also known as the magic single-party theory. In some
recent polls, Sestak is tied with Specter or ahead of him. The primary
election for that race is next Tuesday. By specter's switcheroo is nothing
compared to Senator John McCain's latest flip-flop.
First, a reminder, in a presidential primary debate, Senator McCain
had this to say about immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: It's still the land of opportunity and
it is a beacon of hope and liberty. And as Ronald Reagan said, a shining
city on the hill. And we're not going to erect barriers and fences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: In case you did not catch that last part, Mr. McCain said
we're not going to erect barriers and fences. But now, in his senatorial
primary fight McCain has released this where he walks along the border in
the southern Arizona town of Nogales telling the sheriff about his ten-
point border security plan and the ad ends with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: And complete the dang fence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will work this time. Senator, you're one of
us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: One of us. And we're not going to erect barriers and
fences. But us Think Progress notes, McCain either also got his sheriffs
confused, or didn't care about total accuracy. That sheriff walking along
with McCain there, he is from Pinal County, 115 miles north of the border
in central Arizona. In fact, the assistant police chief in Nogales, a man
not shown in McCain's ad, has said that the border town has not witnessed
spill-over violence from Mexico.
On that note, let's turn to the publisher of Daily Kos, Markos
Moulitsas, also the author of "Taking on the System." Markos, good
evening.
MARKOS MOULITSAS, DAILY KOS FOUNDER: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Senator McCain, is he down to this stage of say anything
to any sheriff, even if it was the sheriff of Nottingham who happened to be
there in front of the camera with him?
MOULITSAS: Yes, McCain's getting a little bit worried. He still has
a fairly comfortable double-digit lead in most of the polling in the race.
But he's under 50 percent. The 50 percent mark is quite significant. I
went back and looked at Senate candidates in 2006 and 2008. Of those who
were polling over 50 percent throughout the campaign, not a single one of
those guys lost. Those who were polling under 50 percent, half of them
lost.
So McCain has real reason to worry. And, of course, now he'll try to
pander himself into a primary victory.
OLBERMANN: Clearly in Pennsylvania the issue is not pandering.
Senator Specter has the support of Governor Rendell, much of the Democratic
Party establishment, the president. But he may be on the verge of getting
kind of a big message from Democratic voters, and it's not, hey, we're
Democrats, we're not the Republicans. It's something bigger than that,
right?
MOULITSAS: I think it's even bigger than that. I think voters in
general like to make up their own minds about the top of the ticket races.
So endorsements in such things as presidential races, Senate races, even
some House races don't really mean as much as they would for, say, a city
council member or a county commissioner, because people don't know who
those county commissioners may be. They know who Ed Rendell is. They know
who Joe Sestak is. They know who Arlen Specter is. They are going to make
up their own mind.
We're seeing the same dynamic in Arkansas as well, as the Obama and
establishment-backed Blanche Lincoln has seen her lead decrease against
Bill Halter, who is running an insurgent campaign against her.
OLBERMANN: What happened with the incumbent Democrat in the House in
West Virginia?
MOULITSAS: Well, that incumbent was one of most corrupt not just
Democrats - one of the most corrupt congressmen in the entire Congress.
Given the state of Congress, that's actually saying quite a bit.
OLBERMANN: Seriously.
MOULITSAS: That guy funneled almost 250 million dollars to five
charities that were run by his friends and family. Those charities
funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars back to him. It was disgusting.
Here's the thing - this is what's different, is that his corruption
has been known for at least four years. This is not a new revelation. But
in this environment, any incumbent is in trouble. And if have you any kind
of baggage, like Mollohan did, then you have real reason to worry.
OLBERMANN: If there is an anti-incumbency strain at the primary stage
to those with baggage and otherwise, to what degree does the dynamic hobble
Democratic incumbents as they move into the general elections in November?
Is there any way to judge that yet?
MOULITSAS: It's going to hobble all incumbents of both parties moving
into November. Voters are angry at the way Washington, D.C. has not
worked. And they have every reason to be angry on both sides of the aisle.
Right now, voters are hopping mad. They're going to take it out on
incumbents. And right now, obviously, that hurts Democrats more because
there are more of us in both the House and the Senate. But it's not a
partisan problem that's affecting the Democrats. It's actually a problem
that's affecting anybody that can be related closely to the establishment.
OLBERMANN: Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, as always, great thanks for
your time, sir.
MOULITSAS: Thank you very much.
OLBERMANN: And now, because you asked for it - you didn't ask for
it? Well, she's writing another book anyway. Not writing exactly, sort of
borrowing.
Bill Orly points out few Americans could name all the Supreme Court
justices and then proves it by naming one who is already retired.
And when Rachel joins you at the top of the hour, release the Kagan
memos. What the ones from the nominee's stint in the Clinton White House
may tell about her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Quick, Bill O'Reilly, name nine Supreme Court justices.
All right, just four. No, four current ones. All right, try again, get
back to me.
First, no, that's not your water coming to a boil. It is our nightly
check up on the something for nothing crowd. It's Tea Time. G-O-E-H-R-I-
N-G, how would you pronounce that? The Tea Party guy for next month's
primary in the California 11th pronounces it Goehring, which was pretty
smart of him, until this week, anyway, when it stopped mattering.
Brad Goehring posted something on his Facebook page. He scrubbed it
since, but the joys of the cached page. "If I could issue hunting permits,
I would officially declare today opening day for liberals. The season
would extend through November 2, and have no limits on how many taken, as
we desperately need to thin the herd."
The local station in that district, the local Fox TV station, went out
looking for people who did not think that was an atrocity or something.
They found instead a man wearing a t-shirt with President Obama's face on
it and the face crossed out with one of those red "no" symbols, with the
slanty thing. He said what Goehring wrote was, quote, "pretty insane."
A spokesman for Brad Goehring said the candidate was just using a
metaphor. The Tea Party person said it was a joke. But guess what? When
the guy in the No-Obama t-shirt says it's pretty insane, it's not a
metaphor, it's not a joke, it's a G-O-E-H-R-I-N-g.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: A new book from Sister Sarah. Well, naturally, since they
were able to give away so many copies of her first one.
Sell? Oh, sorry, sell.
That's next, but first tonight's worst persons in the world.
The bronze to Jennifer Thomas, cited by the Scottsdale, Arizona,
police department for allegedly reacting poorly when she asked a hotel
valet to get her a cab and he called her a yellow cab, but she wanted a
livery car, you know, a black sedan. Ms. Thomas allegedly hit the valet in
the head with her high-heeled shoe. She's described by police as a, quote,
upscale companion escort. And the facility which this all occurred is
called the Hotel Valley Ho. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. Well - wait a
minute. Yes, it is. The Hotel Valley Ho. Scottsdale, Arizona. Hotel
Valley Ho, hello.
Runner-up, Rupert Murdoch. His "New York Post" pulled off a low-low,
quoting a book by a Zeb Chafets (ph), called "Rush Limbaugh, An Army of
One." Evidently the book is about the Hindenberg. "When President Obama
was asked if he would play a round of golf with his talk radio nemesis,
Rush Limbaugh, the response, relayed by a top Democrat, was, 'Limbaugh can
play with himself.'"
Only later on does the post reveal, quote, "Chafets writes that he
reached out to Obama advisor David Axelrod, quote, 'whom I know slightly,'
but Axelrod didn't return calls. Then Chafets spoke to a very senior
Democratic activist with whom I'm friendly, who said he would convey the
message. A day or two later, the adviser responded 'Limbaugh can play with
himself.' Chafets wouldn't name the aide or say whether the quote was
directly from Obama."
So the author got the quote from an activist. Doesn't know who it
came from. Naturally, the "Post" attributes it to the president. The
"Post" and Mr. Murdoch have as their sole purpose electing Republicans,
period. Anything else, including profit, is incidental. Shocking, I know.
But our winner, in one of the all time great definitions of the
Shakespearean term, hoist on his own petard, Bill O'Reilly. Take it away,
Bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O' REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Time for our follow up segment
tonight. Most Americans can't name the nine Supreme Court justices, even
though they are the most powerful people in the country, with the exception
of President Obama.
Here's my problem: I think the speculation about Elena Kagan is
foolish. And I don't want to waste the audience's time. We don't know how
this woman is going to behave on the Supreme Court. We do know she'll be
confirmed, unless there is some big skeleton in her closet we don't know
about.
But she will join Sonya Sotomayor. She will join Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and David Souter as four hardcore liberals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breyer.
O'REILLY: Breyer. I'm sorry, OK. As four hardcore liberals.
Correct?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: First off, he sounds drunk. Can you name the nine Supreme
Court justices? Secondly, there are the four liberals on the court, Sonya
Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Meinhoff, Bruce Souter, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Holland, Venezuela, Africa, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Switzerland.
OK, here's my problem - Bill O'Reilly, justice league - there I got
one, justice league - today's worst person in the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Perhaps she was inspired by her own disastrous one-time
Fixed News TV guest hosting gig, because it seems like Sarah Palin is
following a pattern. Take somebody else's work, then repackage it as your
own. Our number one story, a second helping of Sister Sarah's famous word
salad "Going Rogue," the sequel. But instead of her stories about snow
machining and moose stewing, the book will feature other people's stories
and speeches and sermons and letters.
"Sarah Palin's America by Heart, Reflections on Family, Faith and
Flag," to be released November 23rd, right after the midterms, just in time
for the holiday shopping season. A press release from the books publisher,
the Rupert Murdoch owned Harper Collins, giving the details; "it will be
written in her own refreshingly candid voice, and feature reflections from
classic and contemporary readings that have moved her."
The book's inspiration stemming from, you guessed it, Palin's strong
faith in the importance of family, faith and patriotism. And also by some
of the people met last year while she was promoting her first book.
Hundreds of folks paying for "Going Rogue," and waiting in line for
hours, truly inspirational.
As for the actual content, it will be drawn from, to quote Sister
Sarah's self-proclaimed newspapers habits, "a vast variety of sources,
including the nation's founding documents, to great speeches, sermons,
letters, literature, and poetry, biography, and even some her favorite
songs and movies."
"America By Heart" priced at 25.99 until, that is News Max buys up
hundreds of copies and practically gives them away. Although perhaps a
more appropriate title for the book would be "America by Hand."
Time now to call in MSNBC political analyst and author of "Renegade,
The Making of a President," a different kind of book entirely, Richard
Wolffe. Richard, good evening.
RICHARD WOLFFE, AUTHOR, "RENEGADE": Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: It occurs to me, listening to all this, this sounds like a
giant, like, iTunes play list that she's going to publish. Is this what
this sounds like to you?
WOLFFE: You know, what it actually sounds to me like is, you know,
she did quote from her resignation speech from her parent's fridge magnets.
It actually sounds like this has been - you know, that poetry, write your
own poetry by fridge magnets, they only use the F words, the faith, family
and flag. I'm told the other F-words she had on her list were Facebook,
fruit flies, fish and fridge magnets. That's the next book.
OLBERMANN: I'm sorry. You should have written those on your hand.
The timing of this couldn't be better, it looks like, at least from this
perspective, from the money making point of view, from the political buzz
creating point of view. It's sufficiently after the midterms. Assuming
there will be a book tour, does it serve as a de facto presidential
candidate listening to her that's underwritten by Harper Collins? Or does
the timing lead you to think that she would, in fact, not have White House
ambitions?
WOLFFE: Of course, the beauty of this is it could go both ways. She
has become a new paradigm. You used to have to raise money to run for
president. Now she can run for president to raise money. So she can -
it's not too late. She can make lots of money, flirt with the presidency
and be relevant. Most of all, this is someone who gave up her job halfway
through at a time when there were going to be all of these people who were
seriously running for president, who may well have completed a term in
office, at least one or maybe two - they will then be in the national
spotlight and this is her way of saying, hey, me too.
OLBERMANN: A spokesperson for the publisher, Harper Collins, says
that she's going to have a collaborator. The last time she had a
collaborator, that was a Christian Evangelical writer. Should we expecting
something different this time around in the way of a collaborator?
WOLFFE: I realize that many of Sarah Palin's fans don't think I know
much about books or writing, and I actually don't know much about geometry,
either. But last time I checked, an anthology doesn't require that much
writing. And the connective tissue here is a fairly limited thing to
write, maybe like her Facebook entries. You would think that she could put
this together herself.
If she has a collaborator, it makes me wonder if she's even Tweeting
on her own.
OLBERMANN: The variety - I guess have you to credit her for the
variety here. The nation's founding documents, conceivably the Netflix
list, as I suggested before. It's a published iPhone best hits. Just for
the record on the movies that she might be quoting, her favorite movies,
when she talked to Katie Couric about this, "Hoosiers" and "Rudy," and we
don't mean Giuliani. This is a pretty eclectic thing to choose from. Is
it going to sound like one of those jack radio station, where they just
sort of randomly push the buttons and play whatever comes up next?
WOLFFE: I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to say that I
think she probably draws inspiration from the Star Spangled Banner. That
would not be, of course, the Jimi Hendrix version. Maybe the movies of Mel
Gibson. I could think of maybe "The Passion of Christ." "Apocalypto," of
course, is the name of her national security strategy. So that's off the
table.
Movie-wise, "Hoosiers" is an interesting one. Can you imagine Gene
Hackman as a coach saying to her, as she is going to quit as governor,
yeah, that's what I call a winner? I don't think so.
OLBERMANN: Very nice. Richard Wolffe of MSNBC, author of "Renegade,"
as always great thanks.
WOLFFE: Thank you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: That's Countdown for this 2,568th day since the previous
president declared mission accomplished in Iraq. I'm Keith Olbermann, good
night and good luck.
And now, let me just do this one last time. Release the Kagan memos.
Ladies and gentlemen, to review the nominee's White House documents is
Rachel Maddow. Good evening, Rachel.
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: The totally inscrutable, impenetrable
White House memos that are nevertheless very exciting.
OLBERMANN: Good. I'm looking forward to them. Proceed.
MADDOW: Thank you, Keith. And thanks to you at home for staying with
us for the next hour.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED. END