Olbermann: 'Good riddance' to 'delusional liar' Lieberman

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann didn't hold anything back Wednesday when he announced the news that the "delusional liar" Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) was planning on retiring.

Lieberman, Connecticut's state's former Attorney General who rose to become the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, spoke to reporters during a press conference and depicted himself as a victim of Washington's modern brand of partisan politics.

"Along the way, I have not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes -- maybe you've noticed that -- Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative," Lieberman said. "I have always thought that my first responsibility is not to serve a political party but to serve my constituents, my state, and my country, and then to work across party lines to make sure good things get done for them."

"The end of the line for Joe Lieberman, self-described 'moderate Democrat,'" Olbermann began his show by announcing. "Don`t let the delusional liar door hit you in the delusional liar butt on the delusional liar way out."

"Tonight, goodbye, Joe Lieberman, and good riddance," he later said.

The MSNBC host noted that in comparing himself to President John F. Kennedy, Lieberman had implied that today's Democrats were either anti-civil rights, anti-growth or weak on defense.

"As far as his civil rights record, he was rightly praised for helping to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' in the Senate," Olbermann said. "Civil rights for Muslims on the other hand? Unlike JFK, Mr. Lieberman supported the American government tossing Muslim suspects into detention, denying them Miranda rights, seeking to strip even US citizens suspected of terrorism of their basic civil rights."

"On tax policies, Mr. Lieberman, like Mr. Bush, supported taxing the rich at the lowest rates they could get, about half of the 65 percent rate favored by President Kennedy," he noted.

"Mr. Lieberman's standard formulation is that he was a Republican on foreign policy and Democrat on domestic, except for the estate tax, the Bush tax cuts, school vouchers, gay marriage, homeland security, the public option, the Medicare buy-in, privatizing Social Security, and tort reform. Did I leave anything off the list?" Olbermann asked Slate's Dave Weigel.

"That was almost complete," Weigel replied. "I think you might have left off in 2006, when Lieberman supported -- opposed a bill in Connecticut that would have forced all hospitals to treat rape victims, even if they were seen to be ovulating. It was the Catholic hospitals were against it. He took the side of them. At the time he famously said, in Connecticut, it's only a short ride to the next hospital, in case you are going to one of these hospitals that doesn`t allow you to get the treatment you need."

"So OK, add that to the list and I think you have got a pretty comprehensive list of reasons why liberals do not like him," he concluded.

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 19, 2010.

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-- With earlier reporting by Sahil Kapur