The right hates him, so you know he's doing something good

There's a good profile here in The Nation of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who hosts that network's highest-rated show, "Countdown."

The article notes his ratings have spiked since he started offering occasional "Special Comments," which have been some of the most blistering attacks on the Bush administration in American journalism.

With much of the cable news universe being dominated by the right-wing leaning Fox, and, of course, talk radio being almost exclusively right-wing 24/7, it's refreshing to hear someone in broadcasting go after Bush and the conservatives on a regular basis. MSNBC is supposedly happy with Olbermann, and the higher visibility he's brought to the perennial third place net, but, then again, these are the same geniuses who fired Phil Donahue a few years ago because he was seen as too liberal and too anti-war - even though he, at the time, had the highest ratings on the channel.

I've always liked Olbermann, from his first go around at MSNBC, during the ridiculous GOP drive to impeach Bill Clinton because he - gasp - got a bob job. He made it clear he was tired of the never-ending story and was suspicious of the partisan motivations of all those super patriots who were saying Clinton had to go (a view the American people clearly did not agree with.)

And in addition to being a smart, articulate voice of sanity over these last few months, Olbermann is very funny. Especially when he goes after Rush Limbaugh or arch-nemesis Bill O'Reilly, who he calls The Big Giant Head or Bill O'Really? after one of the Fox broadcaster's silly rants - like that "War on Christmas" crap he trots out every year to assure his audience they are being persecuted by us secular, godless liberals.

Here he is in a great comment he did in September, on the fifth anniversary of 9-11.