Keith Olbermann is not one to pass up an opportunity to attack anything that even hints at being right of center. The repugnant MSNBC host devoted some three-quarters of his Sept. 16 show to claim criticism of President Barack Obama had to have elements of racism, no matter how you sliced it. And therefore, those critics were all despicable human beings, end of story.
However, he did manage to find time to revert to old tried and true method of appeasing his angry left-wing desires – a little bashing of former Republican vice-presidential nominee and Gov. Sarah Palin, with an assist from Michael Musto, columnist for The Village Voice and author of “La Dolce Musto.” [1]
Olbermann exhibited some displeasure that the Washington Speakers Bureau would have a flowery Web page touting Palin's accomplishments [2]. But, noted the language on the page didn't include “maverick.” However, Musto was there to make his own suggestions.
“I know – I guess that goes without saying, sort of like giant douche nozzle,” Musto said. “I don't know, four eyes, whatever label fits her – Forever 21?”
Olbermann asked Musto for suggestions, assuming he was playing the role of representing the former Alaska governor, to which Musto said he'd “rather go to hell,” but offered some ideas anyway.
“That people – that people might confuse her with Tina Fey and think that's who they're going to see,” Musto continued. “In fact, I think Sarah should go along with that, get a fake Emmy award, pretend to be Tina Fey. And as people crack up over everything she says, she can just say, well, it's supposed to be funny, wink, wink.”
But the more outrageous of Musto's remarks came after that and after all the effort Olbermann put into his Sept. 16 show trying to portray conservative and/or Republicans as evil, mean-spirited rotten racists. Olbermann suggested Palin might not show up, but Musto pointed out she would for the right price, since she needed desperate for income to support an “out-of-wedlock grandchild” and to help “special-needs children.”
“You're thinking of Liza Minnelli,” Musto said. “With Sarah Palin lately, you rattle the cash, she's there. She need that's money to pay extra day care for her out-of-wedlock grandchild, and to help special-needs adults [sic] – special-needs children. The problem with her actually is that she's starting to show up and talk. She should learn from Liza, stay home and practice her arm gestures.”
That's an especially cheap shot at Palin, since her youngest child Trig has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Palin's first speaking engagement will be for the annual CLSA Investors' Forum Sept. 23 in Hong Kong. According to some reports [3], Palin is expected to get upwards of six figures for her speaking engagements. However, the event is closed to press, but that doesn't matter because according to Musto, no press cares.
“I think they wanted to close it to the press,” Musto said. “Then they found out even in China even the press doesn't care, except for the Chinese bureau of Mad Magazine. So it's basically just closed to the Chinese bureau of Mad Magazine.”
However, it's ironic, if not even hypocritical to some degree, that Olbermann and Musto dedicated over a minute-and-a-half of MSNBC primetime news coverage to discuss Palin public speaking deal, even though Musto attempted to convey the idea no media outlet deemed her worthy of coverage.
This latest attack is keeping with the MSNBC strategy of attacking conservative women [4]. MSNBC personalities refer to a Republican congresswoman as a “Mata Hari,” and call a former female Republican vice-presidential nominee a “mail order bride” and characterize her as a dragon and a dog, and there's no apology and no outrage.