While part of me is sad that Lawrence isn't in town shopping a new scripted TV-series, he's in his element on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. I liked what I saw so far.
My favorite MSNBC moment featuring Mr. O'Donnell came a couple of months ago when he was guest-hosting the Ed Show for Ed Schultz, and he laid it down on Lobbyists.
Simply put, yes Lobbyists can be cockroaches, but there are some areas where Lobbyists are useful. The good ones are the ones who tell you the benefits of supporting their position, and the costs. It may be too much Washington spin, but that's the way it used to work. "Hell, if you can't drink [the Lobbyists] booze, take [the Lobbyists] money and then vote against [the Lobbyists], you don't belong in this business."
We had a similar moment early on in the Last Word, when Lawrence was talking about the Senate's decision not to pursue the Obama Middle Class Tax Cuts until after the midterms. He said he saw it both ways, which struck me as fundamentally honest. He gets it that holding the vote after the midterms is dumb. At the same time, he understands how vulnerable some Senate Dems are (namely Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid).
In any case, his showpiece for his fist show was an interview with Vice-President Joe Biden, and it was illuminating in a couple of points:
And Part 2:
