Lawrence O’Donnell gone crazy and wild!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Did his rants make any sense: The NRA is one of the dumbest lobbying groups in the country.

It went around the bend long ago. Its leading spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, has behaved like a madman for years.

That said, is LaPierre anti-Semitic? Over and over, Lawrence O’Donnell teased that pleasing idea on last Wednesday’s program. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/15/13.

He teased his claim again and again. But when it came time to deliver the goods, was Lawrence able to back up his latest rant—his very serious charge?

We’d have to say he was not. Lawrence went on and on and on and on, making a very serious claim. But when he finally tried to deliver the goods, this is the way he started:

O’DONNELL (2/14/13): What does the AARP have in common with the Gray Panthers? Well, yes, they both advocate on behalf of seniors.

But there is something else they have in common, something that has nothing to do with senior citizens.

What does the American Civil Liberties Union have in common with the Congress of Neurological Surgeons? It is the same thing that the United States Catholic Conference has in common with the Police Foundation. The Police Foundation’s stated purpose is, quote, "to help the police be more effective in doing their job," which of course means the Police Foundation, the country’s leading think tank on effective and just police work, is on the NRA’s enemies list.

As is every other group I have mentioned.

Now let’s take a look at that list of enemies of the National Rifle Association, and see if we can make any sense of it at all. The American Association of Retired People, the Gray Panthers, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the United States Catholic Conference and the Police Foundation.

That list makes absolutely no sense. What could the Gray Panthers possibly have done to get on the NRA’s enemies list? And neurological surgeons? Really? No one in the four million NRA members has ever had a brain tumor? Neurological surgeons are enemies of the NRA?

And so is the American Nurses Association and the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, along with, naturally I guess, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners, and the National Association of Children`s Hospitals.

If you have anything to do with the health care of children, you are on the NRA’s enemies list. As is, of course, the American Medical Association.

Lawrence was only starting his rant, a rant which would run ten minutes. But for the record, this was his second such rant of the week; it followed a similar rant on Monday evening's program. (For links to both videos, see below. On Tuesday night, he took a break for the State of the Union Address.)

For the record, Lawrence never explained, in either rant, why he was using the freighted term, “enemies list,” to get us all excited. He never explained what list he was referring to, or what the list actually said.

But just from the start of this rant, you can see an obvious point—you can see that everyone seems to be on the NRA’s list. Indeed, that seemed to be Lawrence’s point!

This list of enemies makes no earthly sense. Everybody is on it! Soon, Lawrence started naming more names from the list. As he did, he seemed to establish this point:

O’DONNELL: The AMC Theater chain is on the NRA enemies list, which makes me want to only see movies at AMC Theaters now. And Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is on the enemies list, which makes me want to get even fatter.

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals are on the NRA’s enemies list. So if you’re a football or baseball fan in Kansas City and an NRA member, you had better find a Chicago team to follow. Because don’t think the nearby St. Louis Rams are the answer. Because they, too, are on the NRA’s enemies list.

Stoney Field Farm’s Yogurt has just become my yogurt of choice by getting itself on the NRA’s enemies list. How crazy are Wayne LaPierre and the other blood-drenched lobbyists for mass murderers who run the NRA at their Washington headquarters? How crazy? Their enemies list perfectly describes just how crazy they really are.

And I’m just giving you the tip of the iceberg of this list here, the tip of The Crazy. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores is on the list. The National Association of Secondary School Principals is on the list, as is the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

Please understand—Lawrence still hadn’t explained why he called this an “enemies list.” But his point seemed fairly clear:

If this really is an enemies list, everyone on the planet is on it! On Monday night, Lawrence had started with Jessica Alba and Kevin Costner. They're both on the list too!

How crazy is the NRA? If this really is an enemies list, this makes them extremely crazy!

Of course, watching Lawrence go on and on, we found ourselves asking another question: How crazy is Lawrence O'Donnell? Because all night long, he had teased this list as proof of the NRA’s anti-Semitism. But if everyone’s on the NRA’s list, in what way are they anti-Semitic?

Why had Lawrence spent the evening making this very serious charge? Finally, this crazy man started to share his “reasoning” with us:

O’DONNELL: The YMCA of the USA is not on the NRA’s enemies list, but the YWCA is. Go figure. It is a goofy list, but it is also a poisonous list, filled with hatred and paranoia.

And where there is the paranoia in America, there is always racism and anti-Semitism. And so the NAACP is on the list. The National Black Nurses Association is on the list. The National Council of Negro Women is on the list. And the National Political Congress of Black Women is on the NRA`s enemies list.

The Urban League is on the NRA’s enemies list. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is on the NRA’s hate list.

According to Lawrence, a bunch of black and civil rights groups are on the list. But why exactly would that show “racism?” Everybody else in the world is apparently on the list too!

At this point, Lawrence finally began to document the charge he had pimped all evening. “But by far the easiest possible way to get your organization on the NRA’s enemies list is to be a Jewish organization,” he said. At this point, he named eight Jewish organizations which are on the still mysterious list.

From here, Lawrence ranted on and on to the end of the ten-minute segment. You the viewer were left to judge the sanity of this rant, in which Lawrence tossed around a charge we are normally asked to regard as quite serious.

We liberals get mad when neocons act like this, if we remember correctly.

Is Wayne LaPierre really “crazy,” the way Lawrence said? We’d be somewhat more inclined to assume that he just plays crazy.

In the case of Lawrence, we’re more convinced. This doesn’t look like an act.

Treat yourself to a pair of rants: Lawrence never did explain the nature of the list he called an enemies list. Since everyone seems to be on the list, he never explained how he knew that including the B’nai B’rith made LaPierre anti-Semitic.

Is Lawrence O’Donnell crazy? You have to judge that one for yourself. To watch last Monday night’s rant, click here. For Wednesday night’s sequel, just click this.

To watch one of Lawrence’s hate-rants about Mormons, hie thee to YouTube. You'll find some of them there.

Lawrence seems to be out of his mind. Does it advance progressive values to have this big nut on the air?