'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Monday, August 8th, 2011
video 'podcast'
screencaps

ShowPlug1: The Tea Party Downgrade. Did GOP just unintentionally buy back the economy? W/Robert Kuttner of @TheProspect + @SamSteinhp

ShowPlug2: Perry Runs for POTUS despite 50k empty seats at his Tent Revival. Bachmann's Sharks-With-Fricking-Laser-Beams Newsweek cover

ShowPlug3: @RyanLizza of The New Yorker with latest, plus his deconstruction of Bachmann, and anti-gay sermon she sat through

ShowPlug4: 80% turnout in Fond du Lac? Wisconsin Recall Eve with John Nichols of @TheNation + State Senate Dem Leader Mark Miller

ShowPlug5: The Lt. Governor & The Penthouse Pet Pants-less Party Bartender + Rupert Murdoch's dream of a Pirate Logo in Worsts

ShowPlugLast: And Broadway, Mormons, and the confessions of a Furious Liberal w/special guest @JoshGad of @BookOfMormonBWY


Segments:
watch whole playlist

#5 'Wall Street Plunge' / 'Tea and Downgrades', Sam Stein and Robert Kuttner
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt, Kuttner)

#4 'Power of Prayer', Ryan Lizza
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt)

Time Marches On!
YouTube

#3 'Heated Political Battle', John Nichols and Mark Miller (D-WI)
YouTube

#2 Worst Persons: critics of Keith's excellent Rupert Murdoch impression, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Fox & Friends & Amber Hahn
Current.com, YouTube

#1 'You Gad Me At Hello', Josh Gad
YouTube

Web Extra: 'Book of Mormon' Co-star Josh Gad Talks About the Hit Musical, Politics
Current.com, podcast
screencaps


#3 'Heated Political Battle', Mark Miller (D-WI):

Keith Olbermann: As promised. Sen. Mark Miller, Democratic leader in the Wisconsin state Senate. Thank you for your time, sir.

Mark Miller: Good evening, Keith.

Keith Olbermann: Do you think you are going to get that net three swing thing and put the Democrats back in charge of the state senate?

Mark Miller: I do, indeed. Like John Nichols said, the enthusiasm is all on behalf of the Democratic candidates, and Gov. Walker has created a grassroots rebellion in our state that is that is just going to motivate so many people to come out and say, we want our democracy back. We want our state back. You can't take it away from us.

Keith Olbermann: Is there any way to accurately gauge in a non-partisan fashion to what degree Gov. Walker overplayed his or his Koch Brother's hand last winter? Is there a way to assess that that leaves Democrats versus Republicans out of the equation.

Mark Miller: That will have to be decided by the voters tomorrow. From my point of view, he grossly over played his hand. He pitted ordinary people against the economic elite and corporations. He has given to the corporations and to the rich a lot. People who already have a lot, he has given them more and taken it from the middle class and from low-income workers. And he has done it in a way that has used Wisconsin's sense of fairness. I think that the verdict will be rendered by the voters tomorrow.

Keith Olbermann: Have you had to frame this issue, any of the issues for the voters, or are they coming up to you telling you what they think rather than the other way around in most elections?

Mark Miller: You know, this is a spectacularly grassroots movement. It started with people rebelling against the extreme agenda that the governor pursued and in which the Republican leaders rubber stamped one after another. Even those that knew they weren't doing the right thing, they still went along with it. That's why they are being recalled today.

Keith Olbermann: Are there any fears, even among Democrats, that if the Democrats regain the Wisconsin senate then you have got an election November 2010, a recall earlier this summer, there is going to be a recall tomorrow, a recall vote next week and the general election in 2012. Is there any fear we are actually going to become a nation of not figuratively but literally, perpetual elections. That after every election everywhere, Republicans well funded by corporate interests will go after every democratic officer who is elected?

Mark Miller: They certainly have the money to try to do that. They have been putting it in for years, and but I think now is that people understand what is at stake and they are not going to allow them to be bamboozled the way all of this money has done in the past. People understand what was really at stake. I have had so many people, including Republicans, who said they never really understood exactly how import voting was, how important it was to understand the issues, how important it was to look into it.

We had Republicans out on the campaign trail campaigning for Democrats. So it's an extraordinary time. And what I am hoping, what I think will come from this is that if this right-wing agenda is turned back and turned back solidly that there will be a recognition that you have gone too far. We need to get back to normal give and take that actually serves the people quite well.

Keith Olbermann: Sen. Mark Miller, the Democratic leader in the Wisconsin state Senate, great luck tomorrow. We have a rooting interest here. All the best. Thank you.

Mark Miller: Thank you.


#2 Worst Persons:

The co-star -- among 30 perfect performances -- in the Broadway musical "The Book Of Mormon," Josh Gad, joins me next.

First, because they haven't come up with a musical about these goofballs, here are today's Worst Persons In The World.

The bronze, to everybody who ever beat me up for reading Rupert Murdoch quotes in a Pirate voice, matey.

This is our friend Michael Wolff, writing today in Adweek:

"Just after the company acquired Dow Jones, Murdoch was being encouraged to think about a new branding campaign for the company...the notion he fastened on and had to be talked out of involved making the symbol of the company a pirate ship."

Why you better be keepin' a civil tongue in your head when you're talkin' to the cap'n of this here tub.

The runner-up: Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder of Missouri.

That's him on the left. The woman on the right -- we'll get to in a moment.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that the Tea Party and Republican Kinder, who campaigned on a platform of "Every Dollar Counts" and who recently criticized Democratic Governor Jay Nixon for enjoying "the perks of the job," has in fact spent more time in hotel rooms in Missouri than any other state official -- five times more.

Since 2009, Kinder has billed the state for 152 nights, compared to 29 for the Attorney General, and just six for the Governor. Since 2006, he's billed the state for his stays -- averaging more than two months a year -- at swanky St. Louis hotels.

236 nights at the Chase Hotel.

Which is two miles from a bar called Verlin's.

Which brings us back to the photo.

Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder at the left, and a bartender at Verlin's on the right. Identified as August, 1992 Penthouse Pet Of The Month, Tammy Chapman.

Verlin's -- where as the ads say -- "Every night's a pantless party."

The governor's spokesman says: "I really highly doubt the lieutenant governor is going to a bar where they don't wear pants on a night when they don't wear pants."

Another bartender there says the Lieutenant Governor is a regular at Verlin's.

He keeps his pants on.

At Verlin's.

Tea Party -- you bet!

But our winners: the morons at Fox and Friends, and a woman named Amber Hahn.

February, it was, when they put on a guest identified as an "upset Wisconsin parent."

At the height of the Scott Walker/Koke Brothers assault on unions, Amber Hahn protested that the public schools in Wisconsin were teaching labor union history.

At no point did the hosts identify what "upset Wisconsin parent" Amber Hahn did for a living.

She was the Republican Party chairwoman of Columbia County Missouri.

Was.

Amber Hahn has now resigned that post...

After she crashed her car while driving drunk last week.

With...her three kids in her car.

Amber Hahn, concerned parent? My ass.

Amber Hahn and the buffoons of Fox and Friends...

Although now... See? They were right? There was no reason to mention she was a Republican Party official! Cause she's not any more!

Today's Worst Persons In The World.