Ed Shultz, my kind of Frenchman

Before I send a note to another Marcotte admirer, I'd like to weigh-in on Big Ed's meltdown over Sam Seder's on-air promotion of Thom Hartman's show.

Regular readers know that I monitor Radio France every day to gather intelligence. Back before Randi Rhodes knocked Schultz off the AAR-XM line up, I listened to Big Ed, and I have to tell you he's my kind of Frenchman.

How can you not love a guy who's worked so long and so hard to sound exactly like Rush Limbaugh? Heck, he's so good at imitating Rush's voice and inflections, it takes me a good 20 minutes to figure out who is who when I'm scanning the dial in an unfamiliar location. Don't believe me--close your eyes and listen to his tirade against Air America.

But it isn't just his voice and style that make it difficult to differentiate him from Big Pharma, many of their views are also interchangeable. Like Our Hero of the Hillbilly Heroin, Big Ed loves Joe Lieberman and the Minutemen*, hates Olbermann, and thinks Richard Perle, Doug Feith, and Elliot Abrams are the bees knees because they all once worked for his hero, the late überhawkish Senator from Boeing, Scoop Jackson*.

Now that's the kind of Frenchman I can respect.

*I heard the shows where he fawningly interviewed a Minutemen spokesperson and praised Perle and company for being Jackson staffers.