They just don't get it.

There are many reasons to watch sports.  One is, it's not politics.

Rush Limbaugh on Monday Night Football?  Bad idea that didn't last long.  Keith Olbermann on the Sunday Night Special?  Worse idea not going away any time soon.

Olberrmann and Limbaugh have in common the ability to turn serious issues into a carnival sideshow.  They also share legions of detractors.  Which meant when Limbaugh was on Monday nights it took away from the enjoyment of half the audience.

Olbermann offends the other half.

Did anyone watch Monday Night Football because of Limbaugh?  Is anyone tuning into Sunday Night Football who wouldn't, just to hear Olbermann?

Not very likely.

So what's the point?

Cross promotion.  The idea that maybe someone will watch Olbermann, enjoy his schtick, and end up watching MSNBC.  Anything to get some kind of a buzz going for a network with lots of ink and not so many viewers.

Watching Olbermann reminds you of the great movie "A Face In The Crowd".  Andy Griffith, in a deadly serious role early in his career, played a huckster who parlayed an image as a good old boy into a national radio program and enough power to influence public opinion.  Enough, as it turned out, to turn him into a loathesome creature consumed with the sound of his own voice.

Griffith's character, "Lonesome Rhodes" eventually was so consumed by his own narcissism he became a parody of himself.  Olbermann is well on his way to being a Saturday Night Live sketch.

On the Andy Warhol Fifteen Minutes of Fame Scale, Olbermann is at 14 minutes and thirty seconds.

But will NBC pull the plug?

Not yet, not until he crosses the line and starts pontificating about politics during his pregame show, or makes some statement so far beyond the pale as to end up in the national headlines.

Let it be quick.

My politics are hard to define.  I happen to think the country functions best when the two parties are pushing against each other in a battle of ideas from which some general consensus often emerges.

In all honesty, my biggest wish for politicians is that they would follow the physicians oath and simply "Do No Harm".  That, alas, is not going to happen.  Most of the problems we face in this country are a result of politicians either ignoring what they should fix, or trying to fix what they should ignore.

Come the weekend the chattering classes usually take a rest from their mischief and leave the rest of us to enjoy sports.  We don't need them, or members of their clown show entourage, turning up on our TV screens.

Olbermann must go.