20 January 2011 edition

The 20 January 2011 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann was the penultimate edition of the program to air on MSNBC.

No. 5

Guest commentator David Schapira discussed Governor Jan Brewer's plan to create a fund to cover transplant patients by cutting coverage to 285,000 Medicaid recipients, including 5,000 seriously mentally ill patients, and guest commentator Howard Fineman discussed the lack of a Republican-authored alternative to the health care bill, and Republican eagerness to repeal the entire health care reform bill despite the fact that less than 18% of Americans support full repeal.

No. 4

Guest commentator Eugene Robinson discussed David Frum's reprinting of a column insisting that Gabrielle Giffords should resign her seat in the House so that a replacement could be chosen to represent her constituents, and the absurd claims by right-wing bloggers that Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign has led to more pedestrian deaths because it encourages people to walk more.

No. 3

Guest commentator Chris Hayes discussed attempts by Senate Democrats to reform the rules of filibuster so that politicians attempting to us it would actually "have to go to the floor of the Senate and tell the American people why [they're] slowing everything down" instead of simply threatening it in order to stall proceedings by forcing a cloture vote.

No. 2

Governor John Kasich named the first all-Caucasian cabinet in Ohio since 1962, and signed a resolution to honor Martin Luther King on March 17th instead of January 17th, citing King as someone who helped to "break down the barriers of racial and economic justice."

No. 1

Guest commentary Maysoon Zayid discussed Governor Robert J. Bentley's bigoted comment that anyone "who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior...[is]...not [his] brother and [is] not my sister," and the backlash that a Muslim like Keith Ellison would have encountered for a similar comment.