Since the unexpected passing of Tim Russert last Friday, NBC has been faced with the difficult decision of finding a new host for “Meet The Press”. For this Sunday, Brian Williams will serve as temporary moderator - then other NBC, MSNBC & CNBC personalities will sub in for future shows.

One member of this morbid musical chairs is Keith Olbermann. (Sure, he may be into the politico thing over at MSNBC, but will always fondly remember him for his days with Dan Patrick on “SportsCenter“.) In fact - at least according to the NEW YORK POST’S PAGE SIX - Olbermann wants Russert’s job so bad that he’s ready to quit if he doesn’t get it.

And Olbermann’s cable cohort Chris Matthews is also vying for the spot. The Post additionally reports that at memorial service for Russert on Wednesday, Matthews was overheard plotting strategy to take Tim’s place.

And that’s when the real fun begins.

MEDIA BISTRO follows up on MSNBC’s reaction to the Post’s post, with the network denying any of the rumors, saying “All of this is utterly untrue.”

But one “network insider” was a bit more frank in their response:

“Page Six never lets the facts get in the way of the lies they want to tell. This story is complete bullsh*t. They took comments Chris was making, asking for advice on a speech he was to give next week and took that to somehow be about Tim. It’s such bullsh*t.”

That’s all well and good, but let’s hear from the slandered man himself, who found out about the Post article ahead of time & declared Page Six editor Paula Froelich his daily “Worst Person In The World” for Thursday:

“Not only have I never threatened to quit if I don’t get Tim Russert’s job, not only have I not vibed for it, not only has the subject not come up between me and anybody who would be involved in this sad task, not only did the Post make this up, not only is the very subject of Tim Russert’s job not appropriate now as anybody with a shadow of a heart would understand, but I don’t even consider myself qualified for it. Would that Miss Froelich and her boss Richard Johnson and his boss Mr. (Rupert) Murdoch just understand how unqualified they are for the jobs that the mistakes of fate have given them.”

And wouldn’t you know it? Miss Froelich has a response of her own for Keith:

“I am honored and chuffed that someone with such a severe case of malignant self-obsession as Keith Olbermann would say I am the Worst Person in the World for June 19, 2008.

Apparently I, by writing a true story about his ambitions, trumped the atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe, Than Swe, Boris Boyarskov (he wasn’t in the news yesterday but I generally think he’s a pretty bad guy and assume he did something bad), Ratko Mladic, Hugo Chavez, and his own beloved Dick Cheney. (Notice I didn’t say what these people do; Olbermann will have to expand his scope beyond his own being to figure it out. Heres a hint, darling: one is the vice-president of the United States of America).

Perhaps Keith, who is as infantile as he is narcissistic, should preach to his viewers about things that actually matter to them, rather than himself. But then again, there are only 300,000 of them. The FLDS has more members.”

Maybe “Meet The Press” should have these two on as regular guests. There’s a chance then we may actually get up on Sunday to tune in.

(But that’s still a pretty big “may” for a Sunday.)