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Olbermann wants Bush, Obama for new show

Keith Olbermann says politics won’t be off limits in his new ESPN show and he wants to snag President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush as guests, according to a new interview.

Any political segments would have a sports angle, Olbermann told the Hollywood Reporter. His producers have already reached out to Bush, who used to own the Texas Rangers.

“I would like to sit down and talk baseball with George Bush because I think it would be astounding, and I think there’s a small chance his Secret Service detail would tackle me and throw me to the ground, just for the hell of it,” he said in a video accompanying the story.

Olbermann’s upcoming late-night weekday show on ESPN2, called “Olbermann,” begins on Aug. 26. He has been off the air since being fired at Current TV, and in a lawsuit that was settled out of court reportedly cited being unable to get another network job.

The journalist told the entertainment magazine that he was looking to rehab his image and career after public departures from MSNBC and Current TV.

“"I could see it on my tombstone, or at least in my obit: 'Keith Olbermann, who left ESPN in a tempest,’” Olbermann said. "What I would like to go for is: 'Keith Olbermann, who left ESPN in a tempest in 1997 and then returned later and retired with a gold watch.' I'd like to give that a shot, having repaired most of the damage. I think that really would be great.”

He said he wanted to be known as something besides "this intense, belligerent, political polemicist. … I left ESPN as a sportscaster mostly known for humor and insight."

But Olbermann didn’t hold back from criticizing his former boss, Al Gore, for the way Current TV dismissed him.

"When you're working for somebody whom you admired politically, who turns out to be a clod, the scales fall from your eyes,” Olbermann said. “Sorry. Al underdelivered. I mean, that's just simply the case. I don't want to dwell on it, but it's true.”