From The Last Word's Rewrite segment this Thursday evening, Lawrence O'Donnell gives his take on Rush Limbaugh "working the refs" by attacking the presidential and vice presidential debate moderators, calling them "far left-wing liberal" Democrats when it's clear to everyone that they are not that.

While I agree with him on why Limbaugh is doing this, I disagree with his characterization of the moderators. They're not neutral. They're corporate, inside the beltway Villagers. And I haven't watched a lot of Lehrer or Raddatz on the air, but I do catch Crowley and Schieffer on a regular basis and they're both neither fair or balanced and are always more hostile to Democrats than they are to Republicans and both are pretty useless when it comes to addressing issues or matters that actually have any real impact on most voters' lives.

Limbaugh knows full well these hacks aren't liberals. You want some real liberals, let someone like an Amy Goodman, or Paul Krugman, or Sam Seder or Rhandi Rhodes moderate the debates and then we can literally watch Limbaugh's head explode in the studio. Although, sadly we'd never get the Democrats agree to have any of them asking questions either because they'd be asking both sides questions they don't like.

Here's more from O'Donnell's blog: Rush Limbaugh attacks debate moderators as 'far left-wing liberal Democrats':

Rush Limbaugh has a problem with the four journalists selected to moderate this year's presidential debates. As Lawrence O'Donnell highlighted on The Last Word, Rush thinks they are all "far left-wing liberal Democrats."

Jim Lehrer of PBS, whjo'll be hosting the first encounter, has previously hosted eleven debates. Limbaugh called him a "far left-wing liberal Democrat."

CNN's Candy Crowley, who will host the second "town-hall" style debate, is a "far, far left-wing liberal Democrat momma," Limbaugh said.

Rush dubbed CBS's Bob Schieffer a "far, far left-wing liberal Democrat...and dinosaur."

And he called ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz, who is hosting the vice presidential debate, the same—except instead of a "dinosaur," Rush dismissed Raddatz as an "infobabe for ABC."

“It’s the same old media hacks handling the debates,” said Limbaugh.

That last line I actually agree with. Just not for the same reasons as Limbaugh. Sadly these so-called "debates" are so scripted and structured that it's not always going to make a whole lot of difference who's moderating them. They're not real debates. They're media events.