'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
video 'podcast'
screencaps

ShowPlug1: On Wisconsin! "Presidential election levels" of turnout reported in some areas; Governor signs dubious redistricting bill anyway

ShowPlug2: Guests: John Nichols of @TheNation ; Frmr WI Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, + Fond du Lac Teacher Mike Jaber

ShowPlug3: Oh just what we need: Max Baucus one of the Dems in the "Super Congress." So one of the Repubs will be Abe Lincoln?

ShowPlug4: But new polling says the Repubs DID buy the bad economy: 59% disapproval. Analyst: @NiaWaPo Nia-Malika Henderson

ShowPlug5: So POTUS '12 campaign will be ferocious, Bush-Like personal and anti-Romney? How many things sound wrong here? I'll ask @Kos

(tweeted correction:
Always happens in a rush. He's Kos, but Mr. Moulitsas's twitter handle is @Markos I think it's the KO part that trips me up.)

ShowPlug6: Murdoch-Gate: Internal Independent Investigation is led by...Rupert's grandson's Godfather. Nice. My guest: Eliot Spitzer

ShowPlugLast: Worsts: Beck says Obama might be KGB-trained; + story of idot TX Congressman who talked impeachment is better than we knew!


Segments:
watch whole playlist

#5 'Recalling the GOP'
YouTube

#5 'Recalling the GOP', John Nichols (other guests dropped due to technical difficulties)
YouTube

#4 'Not So Grand', Nia-Malika Henderson
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt)

Tweet of the Day: @streicher187 and Time Marches On!
YouTube

#3 'Down and Dirty?', Markos Moulitsas
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt)

#2 Worst Persons: Jon Bruning (R-NE), Glenn Beck, Rep. Michael Burgess
Current.com, YouTube

#1 'Family Ties', Eliot Spitzer
YouTube

Web Extra: Eliot Spitzer on Murdoch-Gate and More
Current.com, podcast


Worst Persons:

Here are Countdown's top three nominees for today's Worst Persons In The World.

The bronze, to Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

You'll be surprised after hearing this comment to discover that Attorney General Bruning is a Republican.

This is how Mr. Bruning is running for the Senate in Nebraska.

He explained the welfare recipients are raccoons.

The set-up?

He told his audience that when they encounter endangered beetles at a construction site, workers are required to lure them into a bucket full of road kill. They then take the bucket elsewhere and release the beetles.

Except, Bruning pointed out, for the fact that raccoons like to eat the beetles, so they attack the bucket before the workers can move it.

"The raccoons figured out the beetles are in the bucket. And its like grapes in a jar. The raccoons - they're not stupid, they're gonna do the easy way if we make it easy for them. Just like welfare recipients all across America. If we don't send them to work, they're gonna take the easy route."

Your Tea Party-endorsed Republican candidate for the Senate from Nebraska.

Who just compared welfare recipients to raccoons.

Our runner-up: Lonesome Rhodes Beck, unfettered and free of those Fox Chains.

Beck -- in Bea Arthur's memorable line on "All In The Family" -- still fighting mental health.

"This President does not believe in the American people. He does not believe in the entrepreneurial spirit. He believes that there are more people that need help that want to help. I believe the exact opposite. Just get out of our way! You know what it is? He can't say these things, he is, he has been trained I believe since birth to blame someone else. It's what leftists do. He was taught that there is an oppressor but there is God that takes justice and then there is your hard work coupled with the American dream." "I don't know what the KGB handlers thought they were sending, you know, Barack Obama to do. Oh Wait. Did I say that out loud?"

Hard to believe that the people at Fox were actually keeping him relatively close to reality.

By the way, Lonesome had another doozy.

"I know what my job is, I don't know it for sure. Gimme a little more. Don't make it so fuzzy. Please lord, I'm asking."

The lord keeps telling you "Shut The Eff Up, Glenn"

And yet ye heareth him not.

But our winner: Congressman Michael Burgess of Lewisville, Texas.

He was one of seven Republicans to vote for the debt deal.

And last night the Tea Party turned on him.

Right after the Dow closed he addressed the North Tarrant County group.

"I came to the conclusion that my country was more important than me," he told them. "And if this meant I wasn't successful in running for re-election, I could not veer into that unknown territory of going past August 2 without a resolution."

Somebody in the crowd asked who in the room disagreed with Burgess.

Nearly everybody raised a hand.

"I didn't want the country to go through what it is going through right now," he replied. "It's not the president's downgrade. The downgrade affected the whole country."

"You caved," shouted a man named Monis.

So, why would we put a Republican Congressman who stood up to the Tea Party, on the Worst Persons list?

Because at this point, perhaps sensing he was losing the crowd, Representative Burgess swung for the fences.

He suddenly came out for the impeachment of President Obama.

"It needs to happen, and I agree with you it would tie things up," he said. "No question about that."

Asked by reporters later, Burgess admitted he had no idea on what grounds, charges, high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachment of the President would be based.

Republican Congressman Michael "I had to save ass in front of the Tea Party is a good enough reason to impeach a president" Burgess of Texas.

Today's Worst Person in the World.