The Greek playwright Euripides said you can judge a man by the company he keeps.
On Friday, roughly 24 hours before J. Eric Fuller was going to be arrested for publicly threatening the life of a Tea Party leader at an ABC News town hall meeting, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann praised him via Twitter:
The article Olbermann felt the need to share with his followers went to a Democracy Now transcript of Fuller being interview by Amy Goodman that morning (emphasis added):
ERIC FULLER: Once she walked up to me, she said, "I’ll answer your questions, but you have to wait." And there was a line forming up there, so I went over and I sat down and looked over my questions, only two of them, kind of long ones, and was trying to figure out which one and whether I should, you know, ask those questions, when I heard the sound of gunshots. And I looked over only about 10 or 15 feet away, where Gabrielle Giffords had been standing, and in her place was a very excited gunman who was athletically pumping out the rounds and pointing the gun at anybody that he could get a bead on.
People around me were being hit. I just dove for the ground. And while I was diving for the ground, a round hit me in the knee. I was conscious of that. And while I was on the ground, I guess another one, another round, hit me in the back. A fragment did; it hit me in the back. A woman went over and knocked the clip out of his hand. He was reloading. He had a Glock 9mm with a 30-round clip in it. And my thought on the ground was that he’s going to come and finish us off. But this woman knocked the other clip out of his hand. Then a couple of guys came along, bystanders, and they tackled him, knocked him to the ground.
I was in shock, and I just wandered out into the parking lot. And a woman was pushing a cart full of groceries out there. And I said to her, "I’ve been shot." And she just looked at me like I was crazy. I was taken to the hospital. And even though I was sedated and everything, I stayed up—I was staying up, stayed most of the night. And I didn’t know how to calm myself down, so I wrote down the Declaration of Independence, which I memorized some time ago. And that did help to organize my thoughts. And the first thing that I wrote down and what my reaction was to it was: "How many other people? How many other demented people are out there? It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target. Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled—senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even nine-year-old girls." There was a little girl named Christina Green, nine years old, who is one of the deceased.
Another thing I wrote down was, "Can we have another fundraiser at the target range, Jesse Kelly?" Jesse Kelly ran against her in the election. And I’ve heard him speak several—a couple of times, and I couldn’t believe he was a real candidate. I thought he was just like a fake candidate. It didn’t seem like anybody would consider him seriously. He came within 4,000 votes of winning the election. One of his slogans was: "Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly." Kind of a very marginal personality and a low mentality.
I worked hard to elect Gabrielle Giffords. I would rather she was busy doing her job today than lying in a hospital with a gunshot wound in the head.
Roughly 24 hours later, Fuller, while attending a town hall meeting in Tucson with other survivors, dignitaries, and guests airing on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, took a picture of Tucson Tea Party leader Trent Humphries and said, "You're dead!"
Fuller was arrested and charged with threats and intimidation as well as disorderly conduct.
Makes you wonder what Olbermann thinks of him now.
*****Update: Former NBer Jeff Poor notified me that Olbermann commented to his followers on Saturday again via Twitter, "Fuller had the right to make his initial remarks. When he escalated to an actual threat, there was no option but arrest & no defending him."
If Olbermann makes Fuller his "Worst Person in the World" Monday, that would be something.
Of course, you shouldn't hold your breath for liberals rarely are so recognized by the "Countdown" host.
