The Cable Gamer gets the feeling that the sophisticated liberal-left is starting to see Keith Olbermann as a liability, or at least as an embarrassment.

What other conclusion can one draw from Tom Carson's stinging profile of KO in the latest GQ? Carson dwells on, for example, Olbermann's narcissism; the quote in the headline is pulled from Carson's piece.

And as for other aspects of the piece, I mean, let's start right with the headline: "Fairly Unbalanced." That's a clever enough play on Fox News' slogan--and Carson goes out of his way to assure his urbane-liberal audience that he is no fan of FNC, and that he agrees with Olbermann's politics--but nonetheless, the unmistakable essence of Carson's piece is distancing.

And as part of that distancing act, Carson mines into the vein of nuttiness running through Olbermann, and his niche-lib audience of bloggers who don't have their own blogs.

Indeed, Carson nails the hothouse nature of "Countdown," the sense in which Olbermann and his never-changing cast of Charlie McCarthys are nothing but a carnival of left-liberalism, a portside funhouse so weird that even Hillary Clinton was made to look like some sort of dangerous conservative.

But of course, the star--by design, the only star--of the show is Olbermann himself. Here's Carson, trying to put some distance between conventional liberalism and cult-like Olbermannism:

Righteous wrath and smugness are not an ideal combo, and Olbermann's delight in being Keith Olbermann has long since transformed anything genuine in his indignation into performance art.

Performance art. As in, crackpot bohemian artsts. As in, pro wrestling, or the Harlem Globetrotters.

Performance art, as opposed to, actual news or debate. No wonder liberals are embarrassed.

Cross-posted from The Cable Game