KEITH OLBERMANN: But first, because there is nothing super about these folks, here are Countdown's top three nominees for today's "Worst Persons in the World."
The bronze? To Charles Payne, of the political whorehouse that is Fox News. Mr. Payne has become the latest victim of Fox's dilemma. It must simultaneously assert that the economy is not getting any better, even though it is, while also telling its audience that poor people actually have it pretty great in America.
Thus, here is Mr. Payne, who attempted to jump that Snake River Canyon of logical chasms and just didn't make it:
(Excerpt from video clip) CHARLES PAYNE: People aren't dying in America. You know, in fact, the very poor suffer from gout. In the 1920s and '30s that was called "the rich man's disease."
OLBERMANN: See! They're really rich! They have a disease, that ninety years ago, people who didn't know any better, called "the rich man's disease." You know what else we used to say, ninety years ago? Smoking was good for your throat and segregation was legal.
Gout hasn't changed, it's still connected to obesity and hypertension and poor people are prone to bad diets that cause all three of them.
The runner-up? Indiana's Secretary of State Charlie White.
Republicans willing to take voting rights away from minorities, the poor, and the elderly on the specious claim of widespread national voting fraud — the idea that there are people voting who shouldn't be voting — finally have some evidence to support their claim.
A court in Noblesville, Indiana has convicted a man on three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury, and one count of theft — six felonies — he faces three to 18 years in jail. The man lived in one place, claimed he lived in another and voted illegally in the latter place.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, the man was Indiana's secretary of state, Republican Charlie White.
But our winner tonight? John Fleming, Republican congressman from the 4th district of Louisiana. No, seriously, he's really a U.S. congressman.
Congressman Fleming saw this — "Planned Parenthood Opens Eight Billion Dollar Abortionplex" — supposedly about a new clinic in Topeka, Kansas, that could conduct a million abortions a month, and offered its patients such amenities as restaurants, malls, and a three-story nightclub.
The story goes on to include this quote, allegedly from a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman: "'Although we've traditionally dedicated 97 percent of our resources to other important services such as contraception distribution, cancer screening and STD testing, this new complex allows us to devote our full attention to what has always been our true passion, abortion, said Richards, standing under a banner emblazoned with Planned Parenthood's new slogan, 'No Life Is Sacred.'"
By now, you or I would've thought, "'No Life Is Sacred,' that sounds like a pretty self-defeating slogan," not just for Planned Parenthood but for any group on Earth. Unless they were those Mayans with the human sacrifice thing. And then you would've said, "Ohhh, that's from The Onion. I knew there was something wrong there! The Onion is a satire site."
That's what you or I would've said, but not Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana. He posted the article on his Facebook page, complete with the comment, "More on Planned Parenthood, abortion by the wholesale."
Punchline? Not only did a sitting, second-term, U.S. congressman fall for this, but one more detail about Congressman John Fleming: he's a medical doctor. Doctor congressman John Fleming, easily led — today's "Worst Person in the World."
