If you thought Dick Morris had any credibility left after his wildly inaccurate predictions that Mitt Romney would win the election by a landslide, you’ll be hard-pressed to find even a shred after watching Rachel Maddow destroy him on her show Friday night (January 4).

Maddow has been reporting on the money trail that suggests that many conservative pundits are serving their own interests at least as much as anyone else’s as they go on the air or on the web or in print as some kind of independent opinionators. As Karoli nicely described it at Crooks and Liars,

Here's the framework:

1. Get connected with a high-profile media outlet. Maybe even two or three.
2. Make outrageous statements, raise your visibility.
3. Point viewers and readers to your fundraising page.

Maddow included Dick Morris in her roundup, citing the Media Matters investigation that found that nearly half the money raised by the SuperPAC Morris is associated with went to Newsmax which manages Morris’ for-rent email list. A few weeks later, Maddow received a letter from Morris’ lawyers.

I’ll let her explain the rest of it.