'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Monday, May 17th 2010
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Video via MSNBC: Twitter Report, Oddball, Tea Time, Worst Persons
The toss: Pig Latin
Guests: Jonathan Alter, Rep. Ed Markey, David Corn
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will
you be talking about tomorrow?
As the former chief of gas and oil leases in the Gulf quits the
MMS, the new B.P. siphon system has cut the oil spill by nearly 2
percent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should be able to get more than 1,000
barrels a day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Out of an estimated 50,000 barrels a day. It's a
straw in a swimming pool, a bendy straw in a swimming pool.
Why won't B.P. bring in outside scientists? With Congressman Ed
Markey. When does the government cut out B.P. altogether? With David
Corn.
Only James Bond did a better job of beating Specter - Joe Biden
in Pennsylvania on the eve of the Democratic senatorial primary, not
campaigning.
Richard Wolffe on Arlen Specter, Blanche Lincoln and the rest.
The Alter tapes -
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had gallows
humor the day after the election, when Axelrod said, you know, I really
feel bad that we've done this to you.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: The interviews and the interviewer behind Jonathan
Alter's book "The Promise." And the stunner: everybody in the White
House wanted to skip health care reform except for one guy.
"Tea Time": and the state of Hawaii can now legally ignore
requests for copies of the president's birth certificate. The birthers
might now have to find jobs.
And the crackpots crack further. Lonesome Rhodes is having
static visions again, burning bushes, hearing voices, seeing a finger -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS: It is God's finger that wrote the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This is God's
country. These are God's rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: That finger is not the finger you think it is.
And little "Miss Bendy Straws" endorses racial profiling and
hatred.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: It's time for Americans
across this great country to stand up and say, "We're all Arizonians
now."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: No, actually, Arizona says it's time for Americans in
this great country to stand up and say: "No, really, we're Americans.
We have papers."
That woman is an idiot.
All the news and commentary - now on Countdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALIN: If you thought pit bulls were tough -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.
Finally, from the great undulating blob of oil in the Gulf of
Mexico tonight - a glimmer. The removal of a large deposit of gunk,
part of a year's long buildup, specifically the retirement of a
government regulator whose previous failures are estimated to have cost
the taxpayers $10 billion.
The other good news - in our fifth story tonight - B.P.
succeeding in getting a mile-long pipe into the gushing hole. B.P. is
now pumping the oil to a collection ship on the surface at a rate of
1,000 barrels a day - nearly, 2 percent of the estimated best case
scenario that the spill is gushing at least 50,000 barrels a day.
A research ship this weekend is reporting an unknown number of
oil plumes far beneath the surface. One estimated it 10 miles long,
three miles wide and 300 feet thick. Computer models estimating that
oil is already in or about to be in the current known as "The Loop,"
which would take it to the Florida Keys and more of the Atlantic Coast.
In testimony today, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano
defended the administration's response to the spill, saying chemical
dispersants have been approved to break up the plumes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The EPA has
approved the undersea use of dispersants. As I mentioned in my
statement, this is very novel. It's being done in a very controlled way
because every time we do something like that you have to - you know,
you have you to explore kind of the environmental tradeoffs that are
being made. But EPA has a very rigorous protocol for how that will be
done, and the continuous monitoring that will happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: This, as Louisiana officials complain the
administration ignored their questions about the dispersants and those
tradeoffs - 436,000 gallons of dispersants already dumped into the
gulf; another 800,000 on order. It's the same dispersant used on the
Valdez spill after which cleanup workers reported heart problems,
including liver and kidney disorders.
The dispersant, Corexit, sold by a company whose board members
include members of Exxon's board and B.P. The environmental news site,
Green Wire, reporting, despite Napolitano's assurances about EPA rigor,
that B.P., free to choose any approved dispersant, went with Corexit -
that Corexit with an X - despite the fact that most other approved
dispersants were both less toxic and more effective on southern
Louisiana crude, 100 percent effective in some cases compared to about
60 percent for Corexit.
The Transocean, operator of the rig, announcing Friday $1 billion
in dividends for its investors and now being sued by shareholders who
claim that the company knew about the failures by the blowout preventer
prior to last month's failure but covered them up. One whistleblower
telling "60 Minutes" that a chunk of this blowout preventer's part of
this rubber seal was sheared off in an accident four weeks before the
blowout and nothing was done about it.
As we mentioned, the man in charge of offshore leasing at MMS,
the Minerals Management Service, Chrys Oynes, we learned today
submitting his resignation just after the explosion. Oynes appointed to
the post by then MMS director Johnnie Burton in 2007, promoted by
Burton, a Wyoming oil acquaintance of Vice President Cheney, despite or
because of the fact that on his watch, MMS leases and let oil companies
walk off with $10 billion in taxpayer money.
We're now joined by Congressman Ed Markey, the Democrat of
Massachusetts, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy
Independence and Global Warming.
Great thanks for your time tonight, Congressman.
REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you for having me.
OLBERMANN: We asked B.P. on Friday whether or not they had the
backup devices that are acoustic switches on the two relief wells that
they were putting into that site, and whether the blowout preventers on
those rigs had been checked out by government regulators so the same
thing didn't happen all over again. And the answer we got from B.P.
was: "We don't know."
How are you doing getting your information from them?
MARKEY: Well, as we know, B.P. certified last summer that they
could handle a spill 50 times greater than the one they claim is
happening right now. And so, in answer to your question, I think it's
pretty clear they're making it up. When you talk about shooting golf
balls down to clog up this hole, when you talk about nylons and hair to
sop up the oil, it's pretty clear that they spent a lot of money on new
drills, but they didn't spend a lot of money in dealing with what
happens if those drills don't work.
OLBERMANN: This issue of the dispersants - why is the EPA
letting B.P. chose dispersants made by a company that they have a tie to
and, obviously, that presents at least the appearance of a conflict of
interest, especially when the local officials are having their questions
about the efficacy and the safety of the dispersant?
MARKEY: Well, I wrote a letter to the EPA today on the issue of
the dispersants. We have to learn a lot more about this science
experiment which is being conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. We are in
all new territory, and I think that the American people have to know a
lot more about it.
And I'm going to make sure that Congress gets the answers early
on before we go too far down this track of shooting these chemicals into
the water, which could have long-term catastrophic consequences that
invoke the law of unattended consequences. We just don't know.
OLBERMANN: Congressman Markey, why exactly do we need B.P. to
get anything done here? Seems they've done enough. Why not just bring
in people to estimate the size and the location of the plumes and attend
to them and then hand B.P. a bill afterwards? Why is B.P. running the
show?
MARKEY: My opinion, I think that we should have independent
people in. I think that there are experts from Woods Hole to MIT, to
Cal Tech down in the universities in the Gulf Region who are ready,
willing and able to move in, and give the long-term scientific expertise
to solve these problems.
But so far, B.P. is pretending that this is just one big
privatized program that doesn't need outside help. But I think the
evidence is clear that they don't know what they're doing. And I think
the quicker we get in the independent scientists is, the quicker we're
going to bring an end to this catastrophe.
OLBERMANN: We're assuming it can't be a coincidence that Mr.
Oynes is out and we find out about this now and he resigned right after
the explosion on this rig. He'd been promoted after he told
investigators he did not remember the oil companies telling -
themselves telling him about the $10 billion mistake - the taxpayer
money that they got in addition to what they deserved.
Why was he, in your opinion, still running things a year and a
half after the president had put in former Senator Salazar to clean
things up at that administration?
MARKEY: Well, a lot of the decisions, as you're putting out,
were made during the Bush administration or during the time that
President Obama was putting his own people over there right up through
last July. So, unfortunately, we're still living with the consequences
of decisions that were made by Bush appointees right up through the
middle of last year when President Obama was finally able to put his own
people in. And his resignation is just an indication of how cozy the
cooperation was between the Bush administration and the oil industry.
OLBERMANN: Congressman Ed Markey, the Democrat of Massachusetts
great thanks for your time tonight and good luck as you pursue this,
sir.
MARKEY: Thank you, sir.
OLBERMANN: Let's turn now to David Corn, the Washington bureau
chief for "Mother Jones" magazine, columnist of PoliticsDaily.com.
David, good evening.
DAVID CORN, "MOTHER JONES" MAGAZINE: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: What should we conclude from the latitude that the
administration continues to extend to B.P. during this crisis?
CORN: Well, I think one thing that we can conclude is that the
federal government is just not equipped to deal with the disaster of
this magnitude. Robert Gibbs told us in the press room a couple days
ago: listen, if we had some super secret submarine that we - the
federal government, that we could take down to the bottom of the ocean
floor and fix this, we would.
This - you know, this is, as you've noted already, a problem of
regulatory laxness in the administration's past. The whole point is,
this is where the phrase, "an ounce of prevention is worth a - you
know, a pound of cure." The federal government's responsibility is to
make sure that corporations, if they're going to engage in these
endeavors, do it responsibly and correctly.
But as we know, the regulations for offshore drilling have not
been changed since 1978. And so, regulations that were written to
basically govern drilling a couple miles out and a couple hundred feet
of water have nothing to do with what happens when you get 42 miles out
and you go 1,000 - go a mile deep.
So, that's been the big government failure. And I think now, the
Obama administration feels probably a bit impotent in terms of doing the
actual work of the cleanup. There aren't a lot of people out there who
know how to get to the bottom of the ocean floor.
OLBERMANN: Well, then, that begs the question about how we're
allowing - as a government or as a people, how we're allowing a system
to be in place in which there is no independent corrective. Is that -
I mean, don't have you to essentially shut down nearly all offshore
drilling at least at that depth without some sort of new system?
CORN: Yes. I think at this point in time, you have to shut it
down and have you to say: Listen, you guys out there who are doing this
drilling, do you have any idea how to handle this problem? Or, what I
like to see in any review, the other 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 problems of this
type that could also go wrong in an operation of this sort.
It's quite clear that MMS, you know, never thought along those
lines, and you had - you know, this happened through Republican and
Democratic administrations. You know, it was Clinton years, the Bush
years, the Reagan years, and now, it's Obama's responsibility as he
tries to, you know, do whatever he can to force B.P. or anybody else to
do the cleanup to make sure that we're not put into this position again.
OLBERMANN: But once again, you just hit another key here: B.P.
forced to do the cleanup. This is not a company -
CORN: Yes.
OLBERMANN: This is not like a company that just had a really bad
bit of luck for the first time in its history. It's a criminal history
here. It goes from price manipulation -
CORN: Sure.
OLBERMANN: - to the safety violations in and after Texas City -
which we're showing here - the refinery fire there.
Can you think of another set of circumstances in which the
criminals get to clean up after and investigate what might turn out to
be the latest crime? I mean, how often do we let the murderers draw the
chalk lines around their own victims?
CORN: Listen, we see this again and again in corporate America.
Companies that have deadly explosions, petrochemical companies, nuclear
power utilities that have safety mishaps or near-accidents, you know,
they may pay a fine, they may get a slap on the wrist from regulators,
but they're allowed to stay in business. And even, better yet, the
people in charge of those companies, the actual individuals, don't see
personal liability in most instances.
So, we have a system that's really easy for corporations who are
engaged in very dangerous work to game and to sort of - they can pursue
their profits. They get to keep them. They pay maybe little taxes.
They try to avoid that. But if something goes wrong, we all pay the
real price.
OLBERMANN: David Corn of "Mother Jones" and PoliticsDaily.com -
as always, David, great thanks.
CORN: Thank you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Sestak, 42, Specter 41 - the president not providing
a last-minute miracle of a campaign appearance for the senior senator
from Pennsylvania, but did he did record a robocall for him. And for
Senator Lincoln on the eve of her primary?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Do you believe in signs, switching parties a year
before the election and slipping a couple of times and implying you were
still in your old party, and then the day of your primary, your new
party's president will fly over your state but he will not land long
enough to just say, vote for this guy. Bad signs. Primary eve with
Richard Wolffe.
The colloquy is on tape and in Jonathan Alter's new book, "I
begged him not to do this," says one key adviser about health care. "I
think we can get it done," said the title character.
Bad time for tea party, bad time for birthers. The Republican
governor of Hawaii signs a law allowing her state to ignore them.
Damned liberal power structure.
And, "We are all Arizonians," says little Miss Bendy Straws.
Yes? Well, then, show me your papers, please.
Ahead on Countdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Tomorrow, Democrats in Pennsylvania will decide if
Senator Arlen Specter is their kind of Democrat or whether they even see
him as a Democrat at all.
In our fourth story on the Countdown: The five-term formerly
Republican senator is even with his primary opponent, Congressman Joe
Sestak.
In Arkansas, Senator Blanche Lincoln is about to discover if her
tepid and highly conditional support of health care reform, among other
issues, will end her senatorial career.
In Pennsylvania, with the primary election tomorrow, Congressman
Sestak leads Senator Specter 42 to 41. In the latest Quinnipiac Poll,
it's a statistical tie, obviously, 16 percent undecided.
Senator Specter is still struggling to portray himself as a
Democrat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I had a clear shot at re-
election. If I had stayed with the obstructionist Republican Caucus, I
would have been re-elected easily, especially in an out-year when the
party out of power is favored.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Nevertheless, Congressman Sestak has drawn even with
Specter in part by featuring Specter's own words from April of last year
in a political advertisement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOE SESTAK (D), PENNSYLVANIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Joe
Sestak, the Democrat. I authorize this message.
SPECTER: My change in party will enable me to be re-elected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: President Obama meantime did not campaign for Senator
Specter although Specter's campaign confirms the president has recorded
a robocall on Specter's behalf that went out to 100,000 homes. The
White House is reportedly privately bracing for Specter to lose,
according to CBS' Bob Schieffer, via Greg Sargent.
Vice President Biden did not campaign for Specter in the final
stretch either, although the vice president has done radio interviews on
his behalf.
Another Democratic primary tomorrow, this one in Arkansas, will
determine whether or not Senator Lincoln will be denied another term by
the voters of her own party. The senator needs to surpass 50 percent to
avoid a runoff. But against two other Democratic primary opponents, she
has been polling only in the high 40s.
Let's turn now to MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe, also
the author of "Renegade: The Making of a President."
Richard, good evening.
RICHARD WOLFFE, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: When Senator Specter switched from the Republicans to
the Democrats, he expected support from the Democratic establishment.
We talked at length about what the deal might have been, and for the
most part, he got the support and they got what they need from him,
particularly in health care. But President Obama hasn't actually
campaigned for Specter and will be flying over the state on primary day
- that doesn't sound like that's a full deal there.
WOLFFE: Yes, you know how hard it is to schedule a stop just
across the state line.
Look, here's the deal: The White House feels very ambivalent.
It's not usual, by the way, for White Houses of any color to get
involved in a state - a party primary. So, not that unusual. What was
actually unusual was hearing the vice president say he was going to show
up and do something for Specter and then a few days later it turns out
he's not going to make it, either.
But, in the end, there is this ambivalence in the White House and
that's because they still need Specter's vote. They understand the
polls - just like everyone else - Specter is looking in a much worse
situation than Sestak when you put him up against the Republican, Pat
Toomey. So, in the end, they don't care which one of these candidates
wins, they want to hold on to the seat.
And, frankly, both of these individuals have what they say in
polite political circles, an independent mind. But to you and I, it
just means that they're difficult to work with.
OLBERMANN: How situation - how dire is that situation for
Specter at the moment? Would a high turnout in a closed primary benefit
Specter or would it benefit Sestak?
WOLFFE: Well, let's just be honest here. It's going to be a low
turnout and there are two schools of thought here. One low turnout
should help Sestak in the sense that he has an edge in enthusiasm. If
there's an enthusiastic turnout, generally, people want to kick out the
bums - in this case, the bum is the Republican-turned-Democrat,
whatever you want to call him, that's Arlen Specter.
On the other side, there are folks on in the White House who say
the party machine in Pennsylvania is behind Specter. And nobody, at
least of all folks in the White House, vote against or would bet against
the machine of people like Ed Rendell, because they know two years ago
when Rendell swung behind Hillary Clinton, they were toast as well.
OLBERMANN: Now, it's kind of a different situation in Arkansas
with Senator Lincoln. Her problems: organized labor, many other
progressive elements in the state aligned against her sufficiently to
dethrone her or just to force her into a runoff?
WOLFFE: It looks like they're going to damage her. I mean,
remember, the labor folks are campaigning essentially on the single
issue of Employee Free Choice, sometimes known as "card check."
Obviously, progressives don't like her position on the public option,
but she's also got conservative Democrats and there are still plenty of
them in Arkansas, who don't like her ultimate vote for health care
reform.
So, it looks like she's going to be weakened and challenged, but
she has run a campaign which, frankly again, the White House does not
particularly enjoy, where she's taking potshots at them, at Washington
in general. But she is - she seems to be navigating the path to being
bloodied and bruised but ultimately a survivor.
OLBERMANN: The Republican side of this, in Kentucky - the
establishment or more establishments, the choice is Trey Grayson,
probably going to lose despite Mitch McConnell's endorsement, support.
And the theme of the Republican primaries has largely been establishment
versus tea party. Is there some sort of ideological fight in the
Democratic primaries that's even close to the level on the Republican
side or are these spot for spot kind of dustups?
WOLFFE: There is an ideological edge but it's nothing the same.
The remarkable irony here is that Mitch McConnell can have such success
at keeping discipline with his Republican Caucus in Washington. And
yet, in his home state, his leadership is challenged to the point where,
really, his candidate is doomed right now.
You know, this is a failure of his leadership. It shows that the
point we've been making all through this year on this show, that the tea
party is a danger to the Republican establishment is true. These guys
are taking down incumbents of all types.
OLBERMANN: MSNBC analyst, Richard Wolffe, the author of
"Renegade" - as always, Richard, thanks for your time tonight. Have a
good night.
WOLFFE: Thank you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Recent history rewritten - only one White House
figure supported pushing for health care reform in 2009, and 2010. Want
to take a guess which one? Want to guess as to who led the opposition
inside the White House? Jonathan Alter with explosive details from his
new book, "The Promise" - ahead on Countdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Jon Alter's "The Promise" and his promise to play for
you some of the interviews on which his new book about the president's
first year is based.
First, the tweet of the Day from Anitajac, "OK, try to get Sarah
Palin for your show? What I wouldn't pay for that. I've asked Rachel
to do it as well." OK, Ms. Palin says she'll do it, as long as it's not
on MSNBC and as long as it is on FOX. As long as it's not me or Rachel,
as long as it's Hannity and as long as she can edit out anything she
doesn't like.
Let's play "Oddball."
(MUSIC)
OLBERMANN: We begin in Tokyo at the wedding of Satoko Inoue and
Tomohiro Shibata, officiated by a robot. That's the I-Fairy robot to be
exact. Do you male carbon-based life - OK. Take this female carbon
based life form.
The bride works for a company that makes the I-Fairy. You might
want to repackage that idea for the name of the thing. Since she
planned the wedding, she picked the officiant, the I-Fairy, which
normally serves as a visitors' guide at museums, conflicting the story
sufficiently, it was reprogrammed to lead the couple as they changed
their wedding vows after a rumba served as the ring bearer.
When the ceremony was over, the couple and their families retire
to the reception hall. The robot was not invited.
Nor was the dancing dog - which partied outside with some sweet
techno beats. Or perhaps the noise was so loud he couldn't hold still.
Actually, this video has nothing to do with the I-Fairy. It's
just a dog getting down. Who can't get behind that? And that's exactly
enough.
Jonathan Alter and his new book "The Promise," the tapes from it,
and the rather jarring account from the president on what the plans were
had his inauguration been attacked.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: A president who sternly dressed down military
leaders who were testing him, a president who, contrary to the portrayal
of the opposition, said, quote, "what I have no interest in doing is
running GM," and a president who, in pushing for health care reform,
when it seemed most at peril, did not ignore the remarkable fact of his
own election, quoting, "My name is Barack Hussein Obama and I'm sitting
here. So yes, I'm feeling pretty lucky."
Our third story tonight, Jonathan Alter joins me to talk about his
new book, "The Promise." That feeling lucky moment for the president
coming after week during August of last year in which White House Chief
of Staff Rahm Emanuel tried to convince him to settle for a severely
scaled down version of the health care plan. Emanuel telling Alter,
quote, "I begged him not to do this. The president told advisers,
quote, I think we can get it done."
And in the potentially higher stakes theater of war, the president
felt manipulated. Quoting the book, "in the first week of October 2009,
Defense Secretary Gates and Chairman of Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen
were summoned to the Oval Office. In a cold fury, Obama said he wanted
to know, here and now, if the Pentagon would be on board with any
presidential decision and could faithfully implement it."
As for the entirety of the mess that Obama inherited from his
predecessor, the president was candid in his interview with Jon for the
book.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said during the
transition that my political capital would go down pretty rapidly. I
actually think that it has held up better than I expected. We had
gallows humor the day after the election when Axelrod said, "you know, I
really feel bad that we've done this to you."
JONATHAN ALTER, AUTHOR, "THE PROMISE": You talked about being a
one-term president before the election.
OBAMA: We knew we were going to have this huge mess to clean up,
and it was going to require really difficult decisions. So the fact
that my political capital got spent down fairly quickly - I mean, even
the decision before I was elected for me to lobby Congress to free up
the second tranche of Tarp, which at that point everybody knew was
political suicide - but as I said, we had no idea whether or not you
were going to see successive collapses of other major financial
institutions that would require intervention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Joining me now, "Newsweek Magazine's" national affairs
columnist, MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter, and author of "The
Promise, President Obama Year One." Good evening, Jon.
ALTER: Hi, Keith.
OLBERMANN: The health care reform thing first, the exchange
between the president and Rahm Emanuel. But besides that, essentially
everybody in the White House was lined up against doing this last year
and this year?
ALTER: This was one of the most stunning things that I found, was
at the beginning in 2009, Vice President Biden said, don't do this now.
We've got to prevent a Depression first. The people will understand.
Rahm Emanuel, as you saw, said, "I begged the president not to do this."
That's what he told me.
The Chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina
Roemer, argued against it. Chuck Schumer on the Hill and others argued
against it. They said, Mr. President, you only promised in the campaign
to do this by the end of your first four years. You don't have to do it
now.
And Obama proceeded essentially alone. I asked him, why? Why did
you do this in year one? He said, I told Nancy Pelosi that I'd go down
ten to 15 points in the polls, as he did, and I might be a one-term
president, but we had to do this. And he said if we didn't do it now,
it wouldn't happen. And he had said to himself on election night in
November 2008, if I can do one thing for the average person, what would
it be. And his answer, even though he hadn't campaigned on it that
much, was health care.
OLBERMANN: The impression I got when I talked to him last year was
that there had been something of a learning curve in a hurry about the
idea that the Republicans would not engage him, in any good faith way,
on this particular issue, in fact on almost all issues, including the
desperate nature of the economy. Was there - does he feel that there
was a learning curve? And does he feel that because he was essentially
on his own in the White House, that perhaps these two factors may have
reduced his ability to get a stronger package?
ALTER: Well, he wouldn't quite cop to that. And what I tried to
do in the book is take you behind that closed door of the Oval Office,
into the Situation Room. And I talked to a lot of aides and other
people who dealt with him to get what he said when the cameras were off.
And some of them admitted we should have said to Baucus earlier, "it's
over, Max," and tried to move the bill. They also completely messed up
the messaging.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
ALTER: They had, as Valerie Jarrett conceded - and the president
did concede on this - the wrong vocabulary all year long on framing it.
They completely mishandled seniors, who were sort of scared by this,
even though this was a good thing for them, and they've been loyal to
the Democratic party in the past. So there were plenty of mistakes.
And I tried to paint a full picture, not just health care, but on all
the various issues that he confronted.
OLBERMANN: To one of those, the military leaders - the story in
here about the military leaders testing the president on Afghanistan.
You have no doubts in your mind that it was a test and the response was
a passing grade on the president's part?
ALTER: He pushed back hard. Now, Joe Biden wanted him to fire
somebody over this, because essentially what you had was in the middle
of the process, before they had decided what to do in Afghanistan, you
had the Pentagon essentially out there - you know, McChrystal and
others giving speeches saying it has to be 80,000 open-ended
counterinsurgency commitment. And that they couldn't support Biden if
the president opted to go with the Biden plan, a much reduced plan.
That's essentially insubordination, Keith. He comes back. He
pushes back very hard and says, you're doing a great disservice to the
men and women in uniform. I want to know here and now that this
behavior will change. They gave him those assurances. So, I had - and
then there was another confrontation with General Petraeus inside the
Situation Room.
So, I talked to a tremendous number of people who were at these
meetings, some of them larger meetings, some of them quite small, to
paint a picture of what was described to me as the sharpest
confrontation between a president and the military since Truman fired
MacArthur in 1951.
OLBERMANN: Wow. This, fortunately, is almost anecdotal in the
book, but obviously it's your Harrison Ford stars in "Air Force One"
moment. Back to Inauguration and reports, as there always are now, the
possibility of a terrorist attack. There were plans and there was a
debate over what the plans should be if something would happen during
the speech?
ALTER: There were meeting between the outgoing Bush folks and the
incoming Obama National Security team because of what was considered to
be a very serious al Qaeda-connected threat coming out of Kenya, of all
places, where Obama's father was from. And Obama canceled some of his
rehearsals for his Inaugural.
But Hillary Clinton first raised the point that you're not
suggesting that we would interrupt the swearing in of the president,
even if a bomb goes off. That's just not possible. We will not let
terrorists disrupt this Inauguration, and Obama agreed.
OLBERMANN: She put it more colorfully than that, didn't she,
according to your book?
ALTER: She essentially said that, you know, even if something went
off - she was a little bit almost sarcastic about the idea of -
OLBERMANN: Yeah, that's going to happen?
ALTER: Yeah, that's going to happen. We're really going to cancel
this thing? And it turned out that the threat receded by the time of
the inauguration.
OLBERMANN: A quick point about her. I get rather the impression
that they now - many people went into this about her being secretary of
state like, uh-oh, and now everybody's saying it's one of the best
decision that she and he made. Correct?
ALTER: Yes. And at the beginning, and not surprisingly, quite a
number of the Obama advisers were against it. They raised all kinds of
objections. There had been very hard feelings left over from the
campaign. And finally Obama said, look, she's the best qualified, and
kind of put an end to it.
And I go through - the transition was tumultuous. They went
there, as one person put it, from singing Kumbaya to the theme song from
"Jaws" by the end of the transition. They excluded Joe Biden from a lot
of the personnel meetings because of his big mouth. But later, he
really earned the president's trust and he was very important in those
Afghanistan deliberations.
OLBERMANN: The book is "The Promise, President Obama Year One."
It's in bookstores tomorrow. Congratulations on a great read, Jon, and
thanks for sharing it with us beforehand.
ALTER: Thanks, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Take care. The man who throws the word "Nazi" around
like it was a super ball announces he's sick and tired of being called a
Nazi. Well, I can't speak to tired, Glenn.
Worst, good for the people of Nashville not being all pushy and
uppity during their disaster, he says, you know, the way people were in
other cities.
And when Rachel joins you at the top of the hour, she will be
joined by Governor Ed Rendell to talk about the Arizona immigration law
and how immigration never has worked as an election issue for the GOP.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: Lonesome Rhodes insisting America should say our family
doesn't accept stuff we didn't earn, as he accepts an honorary degree,
ahead. First, no, that's not your water coming to a boil. It's our
nightly checkup on the something for nothing crowd. It's Tea Time.
The shark is jumped slowly. The wheels wobble for a long time
before coming off. Orly Tates reports that she and Michele Bachmann
both spoke at a Tea Party event Friday in California. Look, there's
even a picture. Cheese for brains.
Ms. Tates reveals neither of them talked Birther Talk. "It is my
ode to the new law just signed in Hawaii," signed by its right wing
governor, which has really left the Tea Party Birthers feeling like one
of those Apocalyptic cults after the universal expiration date has
passed, again.
The Hawaii Department of Health says it gets about 50 requests for
President Obama's birth certificate per month. But only four or five
different people send them in per year. The Freedom of Information Act
provides an out if the state can determine and prove it is just getting
nuisance requests. Hawaii determined just that. The Department of
Health there can now simply ignore further requests. And worst yet,
Governor Linda Lingle, whose political views are not exactly a day at
Waikiki beach from a progressive point of view, say she and the state
health director had both personally viewed Obama's certificate of live
birth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR LINDA LINGLE (R), HAWAII: The president was, in fact,
born at Kapi'Olani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. And that's just a
fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: And at that point, somewhere steam started to come off
a Birther who cried, look what you've done. I'm melting. I'm melting.
What a world, what a world. (INAUDIBLE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: What's the next step up from over the top? Over the
Moon? Lonesome Rhodes Beck and Little Miss Bendy Straws go over the
Moon. Our quote and rebut segment next, rapid response, next.
That's next, as I said. But first, tonight's worst persons in the
world.
The bronze to Chris Myers of Fox Sports, filling in on a radio
program. Ahem. Sharing with us what he thought was the best of the
weekend. "It's a great country here. We have disastrous issues where
people pull themselves together and help themselves. And I thought the
people in Tennessee, unlike - and I'm not going to name names - when a
natural disaster hits, people were not standing on a roof top trying to
blame the government. OK, they helped each other out through this.
Middle Tennessee, where a lot of hard working, taxpaying, legal American
citizens have been affected by the floods, and they're trying to rebuild
their lives, and they're helping out. And I think the people around the
country - of course, this music industry in and around Nashville
helping without making a big deal out of it. And I think that's a good
thing. I know you will."
That's a lot of insults against blacks and Hispanics and the people
of New Orleans and a lot of political dribble who's biggest test is
usually getting through a 45-second side line report without blinking so
many damn times that his head falls off. Heart of an assassin, aim of
Squeaky Fromme (ph).
The runner up, Sean Hannity, reporting to you live from the
parallel universe. Told his sheep, quote, about President Obama, "he's
cutting troops' pay right now as we speak. He's cutting back on the
military spending now as we speak. The only area he wants to cut is the
military."
In fact, the new Pentagon budget has an increase of 1.4 percent for
troops and an increase of military spending of 3.4 percent. That's 18
billion dollars. Where did Hannity get his news of military cuts? His
heiney.
But our winner, Newt Gingrich, who has another book coming out,
might be a coloring book. We're not sure. Who got raked over the
coals on Fox? New Gingrich did.
Chris Wallace, "you also write this - and let's put it up on the
screen - quote, 'the secular socialist machine represents as great a
threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.' Mr.
Speaker, respectfully, isn't that wildly over the top?"
Newt, "no, not if by America you mean - just listen to President
Obama's language. He gets to decide who earns how much. He gets to
decide when it's too much."
Wallace, "no, he's not. He's said that some Americans earn too
much."
Look, it's one thing for an over-heated carnival clown like Beck to
compare Obama to a Nazi. But when a former speaker of the House does it
- admittedly a former speaker of the House who was forced out by his
own party while he was trying to force out the other party's president,
and admittedly a former speaker of the House whose poll numbers are as
bad today as they were the day he quit, and admittedly a former speaker
of the House who's talked about shredding the First - never mind. When
a former speaker of the House like that tries to compare Obama to the
Nazis, it's just as buffoonish as when the over-heated carnival clown
does it.
Newt Gingrich, over-heated carnival clown, today's worst person in
the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: It was William Hurt as the character Ned Racine in the
1981 movie "Body Heat" who would unknowingly prophesied the politics of
this nation 29 years hence. Our number one story, sometimes the spit
comes down so heavy I feel like I should wear a hat. The half-governor
of Alaska and Lonesome Rhodes Beck both emerged from their caves over
the weekend to hit the nation with double barrels of the kind of corn
clone simplistic brain washing for which they have become infamous.
Each addressed the National Rifle Association's Celebration of American
Values Forum in North Carolina. Palin also appeared alongside embattled
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and Beck gave the commencement address at
Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Wearing that backwards.
The sap in the trees rises come spring, and so do the saps in our
national discourse. Let's apply our rapid response system of separating
the wheat from the chaff, content-wise. Still looking for the first
wheat, by the way. We start with Sister Sarah doing what she does best,
assuming that the caricatures of reality that exist inside her own brain
are accepted, provable fact.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, FMR. GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: Some of these anti-hunting
activists are in love with kind of a Disney cartoon version of animals.
And they're against harvesting this resource, this wildlife resource,
because they think we're killing Bambi's mother. And I don't know how
to break this to them without sounding heartless, because I do love
animals, but here is the truth: Bambi's mother is dinner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Bambi's mother, the other white meat. After that
warning, she had a few laughs, spent two and a half minutes reading "you
might be a redneck jokes" off her Blackberry. You thought I was going
to say hand, didn't you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALIN: If you saved a lot of money on your Honeymoon by going
hunting - we did. It was August. It was hunting season. So we did.
See, I'm reading these going, what did they open my diaries and read
this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Wait for the Drudge headline: Palin, they're opening my
diaries and reading them. Back to Mrs. Palin presently. First, we'll
see the NRA's other featured speaker, in what appears to have been some
sort of a competition to prove its claim that guns don't kill people,
people kill people. Paranoid people kill people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The old hatreds are starting to come
back in Europe. And that's not who we are. And I am sick and tired of
being called a Nazi because that's not the right in this country. The
right in this country is small government. Naziism is national
socialist worker's union. It's giant government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Yell louder and move your hands more if you want to not
be mistaken for a Nazi. Even at Liberty University, of course, there
was some kid out there in the audience who actually took a history
course, that showed that the Nazis weren't some sort of union, and were
as about as socialist as Mary Matalin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: They're dividing us. I've got news for you. If the people
will pull their heads out of the sand and actually look at the people we
have running our country - these are not Democrats. These are
revolutionaries. They are Marxist revolutionaries. They are not
Democrats. We need to make sure we reach out to the good Democrats and
say, are you a revolutionary Marxist? No. Good, then stand up, man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Wait. I'm confused. Am I one of the people running
this country or one of the people with their heads in the sand? Or am I
running this country while my head is in the sand? Am I supposed to
stand up only if I'm a Marxist revolutionary? Or am I supposed to stand
up only if I'm not a Marxist revolutionary? Or am I supposed to stand
only if I've had enough of your damn speech?
Meanwhile, back at the waterworks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: A scripture that changed my life was Ezekiel 33. "I don't
want to be the man who brings the news. There are many things that I
say that I do not want to say. But each of us, as we come to the
understanding of what time it is, we have a responsibility, for the
blood of everyone who could have heard our voice will be on our hands."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Yeah, verily, at that time, it is written in the Book
of Obadiah (ph), a man shall strike his donkey and his nephew's donkey,
and anyone in the vicinity of his nephew or the donkey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: It is God's finger that wrote the Declaration of the
Independence and the Constitution. This is God's country. These are
God's rights. I have no idea what he wants us to do with them other
than protect them and stand with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: How he sacrificed for your desire to not pay your full
share of taxes. He did not even make it for himself a holy pen, but
yeah, he did finger-painteth by his instrument, Thomas Jefferson, his
loyal - crap, what do you mean Jefferson was a deist?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: You go to your PTA meetings, when somebody says something
stupid - you go to your softball games, and when your kids win a trophy
for just showing up, you take that trophy and you say our family doesn't
accept stuff we didn't earn. This is a loser trophy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Well, I have you to admit he's got a point - wait a
minute. Hours before that moment - hours before that moment of holier
than thou rapture, what is that that Mr. Beck is receiving at Liberty U
university and crying over? An honorary doctorate of humanities degree.
That's your cue, Mr. Beck. That's where you're supposed to say, our
family doesn't accept stuff we didn't earn. This is a loser honorary
degree.
Finally, as promised, back to the prophet-ess from Alaska. Another
movie quote applies, adapted from Rodney Dangerfield, offered to either
Mrs. Palin or her host, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona. "Take it from
me, Thorton Mellon, you want to look smart, you hang out with dumb
people."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: Our border is being erased. And the
president apparently considers it a wonderful opportunity to divide
people along racial lines for his personal political convenience.
PALIN: It's time for Americans across this great country to stand
up and say, we're all Arizonians now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Actually, madam, given who the innocent, fully legal
Americans against whom this law is actually directed are, you call
yourself whatever you want. The rest of us, the real Americans, it's
time for us to stand up and say, we're all Hispanic Arizonians now.
I'm Keith Olbermann, good night and good luck.
And now to discuss with her guest, Governor Ed Rendell of
Pennsylvania, how immigration never works as an election issue for the
GOP - I sort of get the feeling maybe we shouldn't tell them - ladies
and gentlemen, here is Rachel Maddow. Good evening, Rachel.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND
MAY BE UPDATED. END