2007 will be remembered as a year of dramatic contradictions. President Bush gets advice torrent of advice to leave Iraq, and decides instead to digs us in deeper. Bush sees his popularity plummet, while Al Gore wins an Oscar and a Noble Peace prize.

2007, also a year of scandal, from locked up Paris Hilton, to lock out Alberto Gonzales, as in never let him near the Justice Department ever again.

The year where Larry Craig’s toe-tap made headlines around the world. A scandal with such international import that German TV, the Germans were calling us to play our Larry Craig Dragnet spoof on their newscasts.

That’s what says it all about this bizarre year. The fine line between news and noise that Countdown tries to blow through happily every night. It is our solemn duty to make sense of the major stories of the day, we also our cherish covenant with each viewer to bring you the silliest crap we can find.

-Keith Olbermann on Countdown last night, explaining the importance of his job.