Lawrence O'Donnell Unhinged: Dick Cheney

After Dick Cheney delivered his speech on national security yesterday, Lawrence O'Donnell was seething. Again, he came unhinged.

And when O'Donnell flips out, he really flips out.

On Thursday, he had one of his trademark meltdowns. It was a struggle for him, but he did manage to maintain some semblance of control on this occasion. Still, his statements were nuts, he was irrational, and his physical bearing indicated a need for immediate and heavy sedation.

 Transcript

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Well, he came today to -- obviously to do nothing much other than defend torture, which he calls 'tough questioning.' This was as sleazy a presentation by a vice president as we've had since Spiro Agnew. This was an absolute abomination. He cannot, ever, frame the other side's position honestly. What you saw with Obama earlier was Obama describes the other side's position fairly. He then goes on to advance his position. Cheney comes out and lies about the other side, it's the only way he can talk. He says that Obama will not use the word 'terrorist,' when Obama does indeed use that word. He pretends that all we did was tough questioning. He says that 9/11 -- he says that 9/11 made everyone take a second look at the threat. That is a lie. Dick Cheney and the President were in possession of memos that said this threat was present, this particular methodology was going to come, that they were going to use airliners. He and the President failed in their first nine months in office to pay any attention to the A.Q. Khan network, who he now wants to take credit for dismantling. What did Cheney do before 9/11? He denies, in this speech, that 9/11 changed him and then describes his very specific activities on 9/11, which were frightening for the Vice President. Then he goes on to say that he thinks about it every day. This guy just has to lie from beginning to end through his setup of his opposition's position in order to advance any of his ideas at all, none of which have any proof to them at all....

O'DONNELL: The President said very clearly he's not going to release any terrorist -- and he uses the word terrorist -- who could endanger Americans. Now Chris, you've pointed out another very clear Dick Cheney lie. It is just a lie. Who is paying for the daily existence of the terrorists in Gitmo now? Who is paying for that? The American taxpayer. This is the kind of sleazy arguing that this guy does in these speeches. It is just ridiculous. It is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who's listening to him.

ANDREA MITCHELL: There was one clever thing, also, that he did do, was to challenge the President to declassify those memos, which he claims prove that he's correct, that the techniques worked and kept us safer.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well we'll be back-

O'DONNELL: But after objecting to the release of top-secret information. The Vice President objects to the release of top-secret information. In the next sentence, he advocates it.

PAT BUCHANAN: Lawrence's reaction tells you that Cheney's speech worked.

Buchanan is exactly right. That's all that needs to be said. The fact that O'Donnell is so livid reveals that Cheney hit a raw nerve. 

 O'Donnell keeps throwing around the word "lie." That's a clear signal that O'Donnell is losing it and he's ready to erupt in a fit of rage. O'Donnell accuses Cheney of lie after lie. In reality, O'Donnell is lying about President Bush and Vice President Cheney when he declares that they were warned of the 9/11 attacks and had precise knowledge that could have prevented the horror of that day.

"Dick Cheney and the President were in possession of memos that said this threat was present, this particular methodology was going to come, that they were going to use airliners. He and the President failed in their first nine months in office to pay any attention...."

O'Donnell makes it sound like Bush and Cheney had details about the 9/11 attacks and ignored them. That, of course, is completely ridiculous. It's positively deranged. 

 My God, O'Donnell HATES Dick Cheney. Actually, I think what he really hates is the truth. When he feels threatened by it, he goes nuts. He's an embarrassment to MSNBC and to himself. ______________  

Other infamous O'Donnell meltdowns: 

 In December 2007 on The McLaughlin Group, O'Donnell mercilessly and unashamedly slammed Mitt Romney, Mormons, and Mormonism.

 I think his all-time craziest display came on October 22, 2004, when O'Donnell was on Scarborough Country, talking with John O'Neill, author of Unfit for Command. O'Donnell went absolutely berserk. It really should have been a career ender for him. It was that bad.
 


Complete transcript here.

(Excerpt)

O'DONNELL: You lie in that book endlessly claiming that reports belonged to Kerry that don‘t have his name on it, John O'Neill.

You lie about documents endlessly. His name is not on the reports.

You‘re just lying about it.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: And you lied about Thurlow‘s Bronze Star. You lied about it as long as you could until “The New York Times” found the wording of what was on the citation that you, as a lying writer, refused to put in your pack-of-lies book.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: Disgusting, lying book.

BUCHANAN: John, let me ask you this.

O'NEILL: And you, Larry, are a professional liar.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: You have no standards, John O'Neill, as an author. And you know it. It's a pack of lies. You are unfit to publish.

(CROSSTALK)

O'NEILL: There are 254 of us, Larry. It's a little hard to call us all liars.

BUCHANAN: All right, John O'Neill, let me ask you a quick question. How do you know for certain that John Kerry wrote the after-action report that said the boats were under fire?

O'NEILL: It has been tracked down specifically in...

O'DONNELL: Lies.

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Oh, let him talk.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: He just lies. He just spews out lies.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: Point to his name on the report, you liar. Point to his name, you liar. These are military records. Point to a name.

(CROSSTALK)

O'NEILL: I will, if you'll shut up, Larry. You can't just scream everybody down.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: There's no name. You just spew lies.

(CROSSTALK)

O'NEILL: ... let everybody talk, isn't...

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Look, Lawrence, take it easy. You've made your point.

We're going to take a break. We‘re going to give John O'Neill a chance to answer that when we come back. We'll continue this discussion after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BUCHANAN: Welcome back.

We're talking with the author of “Unfit For Command,” John O'Neill, and Lawrence O'Donnell is with me here in the studio Washington.

BUCHANAN: We have an e-mail, Lawrence, that says: “Why is Mr. O'Donnell so angry? In fact, why are Democrats so angry? If they don't calm themselves down, they're going to have a heart attack.”

O'DONNELL: I just hate the lies of John O'Neill.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: I hate lies.

BUCHANAN: I know. Now, you've argued that these are lies, but let me suggest...

O'DONNELL: It‘s not an argument. They're proven lies. Every single journalistic look at this book has ripped it apart, left it in shreds. O'Neill is a liar. He's been a liar for 35 years about this. And he found other liars to...

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Why cannot John Kerry's band of brothers and Max Cleland come on and take this...

O'DONNELL: They have come on. They have told you. Every single person who served with John Kerry...

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: I've gone through every single incident.

O'DONNELL: O'Neill never served with them, never met them until Vietnam. Everybody who was on that boat with Kerry says all of this stuff is a lie.

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Why have none of them signed the sworn affidavits that admirals and others have signed?

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: Those affidavits have no legal meaning. They are fraudulent.

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: They're fraudulent? Twenty people got up and lied and signed their name to it?

O'DONNELL: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: Because some of those people have signed their names to reports that say John Kerry‘s conduct in Vietnam was exemplary, reports written at the time. You can't sign both documents. They are lying somewhere.

(CROSSTALK)

O'NEILL: Can I say one thing?

BUCHANAN: John O'Neill, go ahead, John.

O'NEILL: Pat, Mr. O'Donnell has certainly shown he has a good pair of lungs.

But to try and return a little bit to just basic information, you asked the question, how do we know the report was written by Kerry? The first way we know that is that the other four officers that day, all four of them, say Kerry wrote it.

The second way we know it is the journalist Tom Lipscomb tracked the report to a Coast Guard cutter and proved that the only one on the cutter to write the report was John Kerry. Third, the report is compatible with John Kerry's account, which as late as the Democratic Convention.

O'DONNELL: What are the initials on the report?

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Let him finish.

(CROSSTALK)

O'NEILL: Mr. O'Donnell, this is what you all did to the POWs.

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: Just tell me the initials, you liar.

O'NEILL: You're afraid of the American people getting the truth.

That's why you scream and you yell.

O'DONNELL: Creepy liar.

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Hey, listen, we don't need the personal insults to you.

O'DONNELL: Does that matter to you? They're not his initials? Does that matter to you at all?

O'NEILL: You‘re totally afraid of the truth. Can I speak or you're going to yell...

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: ... liar who makes things up.

(CROSSTALK)

That exchange is unbelievable.

CREEPY LIAR! LIAR WHO MAKES THINGS UP!

What adult talks like that?

Lawrence O'Donnell.

Utterly embarrassing.