Rich Lowry‘s latest National Review Online column examines the latest controversy surrounding professional blowhard Keith Olbermann.

First as tragedy, then as farce doesn’t quite capture the history of Olbermann’s serial dismissals and poisonous exits. It’s farce over and over again. If Olbermann were to join Wayne and Garth as a co-host of Wayne’s World on the local public-access channel in Aurora, Ill., it wouldn’t be long before Olbermann denounced Wayne’s taste in heavy metal, complained about Garth’s inordinate airtime, and quit to start his own show with the public-access channel up the road in DeKalb.

Olbermann is the termagant of the Left, whose on-air biliousness is apparently not an act. He gives limousine liberals a bad name, since the stereotypical representative of the breed is at least satisfied with his car and his driver. According to published reports, Olbermann kept complaining about the car services contracted to ferry him to work to issue populist jeremiads in favor of Occupy Wall Street.

Olbermann had a contract for $50 million over five years, a confirmation of the axiom that no matter how much someone derides corporate greed, he wants to make as much money as possible, ideally for as little effort as possible. Current had trouble getting Olbermann to show up to do coverage on election nights despite his status as the network’s “chief news officer.”

To be fair, that is a little like being designated a rear admiral in the Swiss navy. Calling Current TV a network is an insult to networks that people know how to find on their TVs.