Stand Aside: Greenwald and Olbermann Battle

I wrote about the leftosphere's split over Barack Obama's FISA vote yesterday (here).

Well the fighting's picked up some steam overnight, with Keith Olbermann reponding to Glenn Greenwald's personal blindsiding attack. The Huffington Post has the details:

A war of words has broken out between two of the progressive blogosphere's most beloved figures: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and blogger/author Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com.

In a post yesterday, Greenwald charged that Olbermann's "blind devotion to Barack Obama" had let him to excuse and defend Obama's support of the FISA 'compromise' legislation. Greenwald noted that Olbermann has previously condemned the idea of giving immunity to telecom companies that spied on Americans, calling it a "shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of Fascism" and comparing it to the actions of the Third Reich.

"But," Greenwald wrote, "[n]ow that Barack Obama supports a law that does the same thing -- and now that Obama justifies that support by claiming that this bill is necessary to keep us Safe from the Terrorists -- everything has changed."

Last night, Olbermann invited Newsweek's Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama's support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill (video of the segment is here). There wasn't a syllable uttered about "immunizing corporate criminals" or "textbook examples of Fascism" or the Third Reich. There wasn't a word of rational criticism of the bill either. Instead, the two media stars jointly hailed Obama's bravery and strength -- as evidenced by his "standing up to the left" in order to support this important centrist FISA compromise. [...]

Grave warning on Olbermann's show that telecom amnesty and FISA revisions were hallmarks of Bush Fascism instantaneously transformed into a celebration that Obama, by supporting the same things, was leading a courageous, centrist crusade in defense of our Constitution.

There's much more - you can read Greenwald's full post here. And Olbermann responded with a post last night on Daily Kos.

I don't watch Olbermann, so perhaps readers here can tell me what's up with MSNBC's resident spew-master? Caught up in Obamania, one presumes.

No matter ... I can't help enjoying these folks mash each other up.

Maybe today's show of unity between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will help folks on the left patch things up before November (although Greenwald will remain angry no matter what happens - it's his rage at the non-Glenn-Greenwald power structure.

Related: "Keith Olbermann: 100% Hacktacular."