Thursday, May 13, 2010

O’Reilly twits ‘most’ Americans, then makes Supreme flub

By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Fox News host Bill O'Relly apparently sees himself as more knowledgeable than "most Americans," but MSBNC's Keith Olbermann has discovered that even O'Reilly falls short of his own standards of perfection.

In a segment this week on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, O'Reilly announced smugly that "most Americans can't name the nine Supreme Court justices." He was apparently referring to a 2006 poll which found 57% of the country unable to name even one member of the Court.

O'Reilly then went on to say, "We don't know how this woman is going to behave on the Supreme Court. ... But she will join Sonia Sotomayor, she will join Ruth Bader Ginsberg and David Souter as four hard-core liberals."

"Breyer," Fox's Megyn Kelly corrected, softly reminding O'Relly that Souter retired last year .

"Oh, Breyer. I'm sorry," O'Relly agreed. "As four hard-core liberals. Correct?"

A couple of years ago, O'Reilly defended voter ID laws by saying, "If I’m on the Supreme Court, as I should be, I say what is the down side of having somebody prove who they are?" But this latest exchange suggests that the first move by a Justice O'Reilly might be to demand that Stephen Breyer prove he isn't David Souter.

Since Breyer came in at the bottom of that 2006 poll, however, with only 3% of Americans able to come up with his name, O'Reilly can still boast that he is superior to 97% of his fellow citizens.

"He sounds drunk," Olbermann commented, mockingly suggesting that O'Relly had listed "Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader-Meinhoff, Bruce Souter, Poland, Czechoslovakia ... Hanging Gardens of Babylon ..."

"Bill Orally," Olbermann concluded. "Today's Worst Person in the World!"

This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast May 12, 2010.

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