Alec Baldwin calls Breitbart a 'festering boil on the anus of public discourse'

Apparently Keith Olbermann isn't the only person who thinks Andrew Breitbart's recent attempt to smear the "Occupy" movement as serial rapists is a bit beyond the pale. Mediaite is reporting that actor Alec Baldwin took to Twitter today to excoriate the Big Government blogger and media provocateur, calling him a "festering boil on the anus of public discourse."

The dust-up began when a Twitter user asked Baldwin's opinion as to whether Breitbart was using the so-called "rape rant" as a smoke screen to distract public attention away from the Shirley Sherrod scandal. (Sherrod was a USDA employee whose career and reputation were impugned in a heavily doctored video that was first aired on Breitbart's website.)

Baldwin replied to the query with the very descriptive phrase mentioned above, which prompted a great deal of back and forth between the 30 Rock star and Breitbart, as well as many of Breitbart's and Baldwin's fans. The actor threw in the towel around 2:00 pm, Tweeting, "OK, enough festering boils for this weekend."

Interested readers can view screen grabs of the Twitter feeds and a detailed timeline at Mediaite.

(image via David Shankbone and Flickr Commons)