Keith Olbermann believes that Republicans are looking to old John Cusack movies for strategy tips.

“Between John McCain’s self-contradiction [on repealing Don’t ask, don’t tell] and Frank Luntz’ position, ‘just lie,’ [about regulatory reform],” Olbermann said Tuesday on his MSNBC show. “The Republicans are slowly revealing their newest policy: say anything.”

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In 2006, John McCain said he would listen to the opinion of military leaders when it came to repealing ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ “I listen to people like General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and literally every military leader that I know and they testified before Congress that they felt that the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy was the most appropriate way to conduct ourselves in the military,” McCain told a student during a Hardball college tour.

Yet McCain seemed to contradict that position after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate Committee that repealing the controversial policy was “the right thing to do.”

“I’m deeply disappointed in your statement,” McCain told Mullen.

It would be far more appropriate, I say with great respect, to determine whether repealing this law is appropriate and what effects it would have on the readiness and effectiveness of the military before deciding on whether we should repeal the law or not and fortunately it is an act of Congress and it requires the agreement of Congress in order to repeal it.

Olbermann was also outraged by Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. Luntz told Republicans to attempt to kill the Democrats’ plan for financial regulatory reform by framing it as part of the unpopular bank bailouts. Olbermann said that the strategy amounted to telling Republicans to “just lie.”

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But of all recent statements by conservatives, Olbermann was most infuriated by Rep. Michele Bachmann, “who has mentally not been on this planet for three years.” The Minnesota Republican told a group of constituents that the government would deny care to people criticized the health care system if reform was passed.

He said that in Japan, to wait and get health care is almost impossible. You get on a list and you wait and you wait and you wait. But he said this is something people don’t know: in Japan, people have stopped voicing their opinion on health care. There are things that are wrong with Japanese health care, but people are afraid of voicing. ‘Well why is that,’ I asked. [He said], ‘Because they know that would get on a list and they wouldn’t get health care. They wouldn’t get in. They wouldn’t get seen. And so people are afraid. They’re afraid to speak back to government. They’re afraid to say anything.’ Is that what we want for our future? That takes us to gangster government at that point!

“So if you criticize American health care, you get on a list in Japan? Or if you criticize American health care you get on a list in America?” asked Olbermann.

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“Or Michelle Bachman believes every random stranger that comes up and tells her a story about Japan, and believes it’s going to come true here?” Olbermann wondered.

Bachmann ended her talk by saying she would fight health care reform “until her last breath.” Olbermann simply agreed with that idea. “Okay,” he said.

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This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast Feb. 2, 2010.





Download video via RawReplay.com