Lawrence O'Donnell is a Tool

Dear Lawrence O’Donnell:
You are a tool. I mean that in most modern sense. You are not an instrument of aid, like the type we use to build things and create things. You are just a tool; obtuse and incapable of independent operation. Your interview with Herman Cain last Thursday was a prime example of your tool-ish-ness. I see you decided to hop into your time machine and travel all the way back to 1992, when Americans actually considered military service a deal breaker and race baiting was a surefire way to fluster a candidate, because the media remained steadfast in its refusal to break the Democrat Party lines or retract their many distortions and lies. Back in 1992 there was no conservative media, no Andrew Breitbart, no talk radio domination and no conservative internet industry. There was only Rush Limbaugh to fight the media. In 1992, you could effectively discredit a candidate simply by inferring he was a draft dodger. There would no information push to combat what was then considered a negative characterization. I realize you’re getting old, so I’ll try to be gentle in reminding you that this is 2011. While Vietnam played a major role in the lives of people your age and older, it is not much more than a historical event for voters like me. Oh yes, we recognize the importance of that war, and we respect and honor those who served there. But it doesn’t hold the emotional pull that it used to. Those of us in our 30’s and 40’s had our lives shaped by 9/11 and the ensuing war on terror. Mentioning Vietnam service in any interview does nothing to characterize you as a hard-hitting journalist, it only makes you look old and out of touch. Herman Cain worked for the navy at the time…as a ROCKET scientist. You didn’t seem to be embarrassed at all about missing that fact. In fact, you doubled down on your Mr.Mc-Tool act by using John Kerry’s “service” to compare to Herman Cain. John Kerry, who “served” in Vietnam and lost a presidential campaign. John “Swiftboat” Kerry. Smooth, O’Donnell. Vietnam was important in our nation’s history, and affected the lives of many Americans; but when you are a 37-year-old mother struggling to make ends meet, unable to secure credit and forced to raid her kids’ college funds to stay afloat, a candidate’s service history during a war fought nearly 40 years ago is not on the radar. Snap to, O’Donnell! Its 2011; we have cell phones and everything.

You did not have the decency or intellectual fortitude to stop Oldies but Goodies hit parade there. Straight from top of the charts, 1992-style – race! Before there was Andrew Breitbart and internet domination by conservative pundits, tools like you could get away with pseudo-journalism disguised as race baiting. You- rich, White guy- have the nerve to try to paint Herman Cain as a racist (you know he’s Black, right?) because he chose to be in school instead of giving up his soap bar and toothbrush to sit in college offices and public parks as a “protester” during the civil rights movement. Excuse me, Tool Hand Luke, but for Black people, education is one of the most important and coveted privileges we have. Black families all over America sacrifice every day to make sure their children can attend college. For many who live in the inner city, college is that last hope of escaping the ghetto life. Many Black people feel an almost desperate need to see their children through higher education, as a direct result of what our community has suffered in the history of this country. That’s what Herman Cain was doing during the civil rights movement. He was doing what every other Black parent in America at that time and even today asked their child to do – get an education and break out of the lower class lifestyle Blacks had traditionally been relegated to. Your arrogance in suggesting Cain was somehow “selling out” for choosing education over public protests is astounding. As if that is the measure of a human being! I guess rich, privileged White guys like you don’t understand what its like to scrape and work for every advancement in your life. Here’s a suggestion for you to add to your Toolbag: until you’re willing to give up every comfort in your life to go protest on behalf of disadvantaged minorities across the country, shut up about others doing the same.

Cain seems like a good-natured fellow, and was able to laugh off your tired and ridiculous line of questioning. Do you remember laughing, Lawrence? Its something that happens around your mouth area when you are enjoying a conversation or activity. I realize you thought this interview was going to make you look like a hard-hitting, no nonsense reporter, but it actually just made you look like Janeane Garofalo – not a compliment by the way. You both wear that same smug, superior, self-satisfied look on your faces when discussing the intelligence of Black Americans. Do you use the same plastic surgeon, I wonder?

MSNBC seems determined to solidify its place in the gutter of cable news programming. You seem just as satisfied to lay in the sewage with them. That’s a common trait among tools – they love the smell of their own feces. You, sir, are a slime and it infuriates me to think that people like you make millions of dollars while hard-working, honest families like my own struggle to provide a decent life. Do me a favor, won’t you? While you’re visiting the ’90s stay away from that Lewinsky girl; we don’t need you messing with the time-space continuum. And when your time machine finally does makes it back to the present, look up the word shame on the internet. It should have your picture right next to it.