Oh, bitter, bitter irony. We all make mistakes. But there’s something so wonderfully hilarious about seeing someone make a mistake at the most perfectly wrong time. Case in point; a few minutes ago, Countdown aired parts of senatorial candidate, media sensation, and bobblehead inspiration Alvin Greene’s first big public speech. Right at the point where Greene was speaking about his state of South Carolina’s poor educational record, a chyron appeared with his name. Which they misspelled. Oops.

As the Eric Massa story continues to unfold, the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of it becomes thinner and thinner. On last night’s Countdown, fill-in host Lawrence O’Donnell spent 3 entire segments on the Massa story, alternately cracking wise about the Navy and obsessing over the sexual slang term “snorkeling.” Drew Grant points out the offensiveness of some of O’Donnell’s treatment, but the show was also guilty of the lesser crime of dullness.

Okay, we get that some left-leaning members of the MSM are (rightfully!) pissed at Eric Massa for using the Democratic Party’s shortcomings as a sort of scape-goat for his own alleged sexual misconduct, but MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took it over the line tonight on Countdown when he set out to use the stories some of Massa’s former Navy-mates to find out if those tickle-fights and “Massa Massages” were pro-the-course on the high seas.

Lawrence O’Donnell was subbing for Countdown host Keith Olbermann last night, and dedicated part of the program to Alabama freshman congressman Parker Griffith, who announced on Tuesday that he was leaving the Democrats to join House Republicans. Not only did O’Donnell take shots at the GOP’s inclusion of a “that dwindling category of Republican, the moderate Republican,” he posited the real reason behind Griffith’s party switch: to get booked on Fox News. Video after the jump.

Maybe Friday was an exceptionally slow news day. In fact, in a week of all Twilight, Oprah, and Going Rogue, real news did seem to cease. But does that really give Countdown — with Lawrence O’Donnell sitting in for Olbermann — license to forgo their headline story altogether in favor of a highlight reel replaying all of the Sarah Palin jokes from across television this week? Is no one on the Countdown writing staff funny?