Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann covered the WCPAC confrontation between John Ziegler and David Keene. Amid the obligatory and well-worn “chuckling about the end of conservatives as we know them” routine Keith likes to trot out 9 or 10 times per episode, he suggests that perhaps Ziegler is just “defending his own crush.” You get that? See Palin is a woman. So people who support must want to bed her. If you think that is an unusual or out of character point of view for Keith, well … think again.

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher asked Ziegler for a comment on the segment. His response is priceless. Well, not exactly “priceless” … here’s an excerpt (emphasis added):

This may shock people, but my defense of her is not even politically based. It is motivated purely by the level of unfairness of the coverage of her. I honestly believe that I would have reacted the same way if she were ugly and a Democrat (not that it would have ever happened to her if that was the case), but I can understand why Olbermann couldn’t possibly understand such principled consistency or being motivated by something other than one’s own self interest and/or what they feel in their pants.

I will make this offer to Olbermann. If he has me on the show to debate Palin-related issues, live, for a full hour, I will pay his favorite charity $100,000, which is more than any profit I am ever likely to make from my film “Media Malpractice.” This offer is 100% real.

Will Keith man up? Doubtful. But I’ll tell you one thing if he does, I’m cooking popcorn, setting the DVR, and wearing my three-wolf moon shirt because THAT, sir, is what you call must-see TV.

There has been no small amount of buzz on the right the last few days in the wake of Western CPAC. There were two dramas this weekend, one decidedly more dramatic than the other, which are both symptomatic of some deep problems with the conference and, generally, with the state of activism on the right.

The less dramatic of the two involved my friend Ed Morrissey of Hot Air. While participating in a “New Media” panel, Ed was ambushed by another panel member who accused him of “rudeness” for disagreeing with an earlier presentation in an article published at Hot Air. More bizarrely, the “New Media’ panel member proceeded to belittle the importance of new media, urging people to “pick up the phone.” It is certainly worth noting that the panel member, Christopher Carmouche, is in the fax blasting business. Yes. Really. A number of bloggers and attendees speculate that Carmouche “donated” his way onto the panel.

Which is a pretty good segue to the much bigger drama to come out of this weekend: Ziegler vs. Keene.

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Not a single politically aware person does not remember John McCain’s surprise announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate on August 29, 2008. The Democrat National Convention was wrapping up, Obama had made his grand speech, but all the political world was abuzz over the impending selection of Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty as McCain’s running mate. The surprise and expertly choreographed announcement of Sarah Palin was one of a few grand McCain campaign moments.

The conservative world, conditioned by a generation of horribly biased media now enchanted by the charismatic Obama, was braced for the media onslaught that would immediately descend on McCain’s choice, no matter who it was.

And still, we were utterly unprepared.

John Ziegler takes us through the experience, and what a year has taught us about Sarah Palin, the media, and the political landscape we now find ourselves in. Ziegler, you will recall, famously exposed in the movie Media Malpractice the true extent of media complicity in the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Previously he helped sink John Kerry’s 2008 chances by bringing to the public eye Kerry’s silly “stuck in Iraq” statement in 2006.

Read the whole thing here:

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Please take a look at this interchange between John Ziegler and Contessa Brewer on Barack Obama’s MSNBC. (H/T: crippy)

John Ziegler just demonstrated the picture-perfect attitude to take towards the “reporters” and “anchors” at any and all of the Democratic networks; ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Some variant of disdain, contempt or somewhere in between. No liberal-talking point assertion or premise should be left unchallenged. Openly and repeatedly question their honesty and integrity. Highlight their hypocrisy in their coverage. Change the subject when you feel like it or stay on a subject even if they want to move on. Ask them questions that they have to answer before the interview can go further.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking; Ziegler only made a few mistakes as far as I can see;

1. not directly asking Contessa Brewer if she thinks it’s fine that David Letterman attacked Palin’s 14 year old daughter and why she didn’t show that part of Letterman’s act? Why is she deliberately ignoring the attack on Willow Palin? As a mother, would she let it slide? Is she a mother? Why is she and her network trying to make the American people think Palin was only complaining about the attack on her while deliberately, dishonestly, keeping the creepy attack on her daughter off the radar?
2. when Brewer brought up the silly factoid about the poll showing Palin as not being seen as one of the spokesmen for the GOP, he should have pointed it out and dismissed it for the irrelevancy that it is, and pointed out that it’s only out-of-touch journalists who think it’s significant - Palin is the Governor of a vast state, with an environment tougher than any other state, she doesn’t have time to waste on such nonsense as an irrelevant poll.
3. when he touched on the fact of the media portraying the GOP as being solely comprised of old white men {NRSC endorsing Charlie Crist doesn’t help} Ziegler should have added that the only time the media covers Governor Palin is when they’re attacking her with knowingly false Democratic talking points (like Keith Olbermann on “plagiarism”) or from the fever swamps of the Left-wing blogosphere, so of course, the poll results will reflect that.
4. when Contessa Brewer (at 3:50) challenged Ziegler about asking Palin “tough questions“, he should have reacted, first of all, by letting loose with a long and hard laugh. And then he should have answered that the day any reporter at MSNBC stops swooning at Obama’s feet and actually asks Obama a question tougher than “Why are you so soooo dreamy? Can I have your autograph? On my chest?”, that’ll be the day MSNBC can question anyone else on asking tough questions.

But then, I wasn’t the one in the hot seat, I’m critiquing in hindsight, and even with all that Ziegler did very very well in that interview. He was properly mocking, disdainful, disbelieving and made it very clear that he considered Contessa Brewer and her network to be no more than Democratic mouthpieces.

Which happens to have the benefit of being the truth.

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