Ron Paul won't reappear on his show anytime soon, but Lawrence O'Donnell won't care. The MSNBC host has managed to consistently corral high-profile political figures to his recently launched show The Last Word. He's also quickly made a name for himself for near-ambush style interviews--leaving some guests angry and bewildered. Luckily, this appears to have translated into strong ratings for MSNBC, the  rebranded "Lean Forward" network. For his latest attention-nabbing interview, O'Donnell hosts the walking news meme/longshot Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene, predictably yielding an awkward and compelling result.

O'Donnoll leads off by deadpanning to Greene "Are you a witch?" before shifting gears to more important issues, like why the candidate's nickname in high school was "Turtle." Greene, recently schooled in message-discipline, refuses to say little more than "Jim DeMint started the recession" even when that answer doesn't make much sense in the context of the questions. The MSNBC host then tries to nudge the candidate into more entertaining territory by coaxing him to drop the pose: "people tell you no matter what the question is just do your talking points but, seriously." When that fails to elicit a response from the stony Greene, O'Donnell ends the interview with this line, barely containing a smile: "I do think Alvin Greene, still better than Jim DeMint."

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Erik Hayden