As they say, it’s not the disgusting Mitt-murder ad that gets you. It’s the disgusting Mitt-murder ad cover-up. Mika does not approve. Allow Allahpundit to walk you through what the Obama campaign knew when. Short version: I’m Stephanie Cutter and I know nothing about this guy and his story, and it’d really make things easier if people would stop noticing we shot an ad with him and that he was the star of a conference call I hosted. Kthxbai.

Here’s the “Morning Joe” crew getting a little raw on Team Obama:

It’s probably unfair to give you a second shot of Bill Burton before noon, but it’s worth it to hear him stumble and bumble through this genuinely ridiculous justification for yet another CNN anchor not doing his deferential duty to the Obama campaign.

He told Anderson Cooper Wednesday that it would “defy logic” to link Mitt Romney with someone’s death from cancer. Glad we’re on the same page, Bill.

COOPER: You claim — you really claim — you really want people to believe you’re not trying to link in any way even just subtly or not subtly that there’s some linkage between Mitt Romney, Bain campaign, business decisions he made and her death.

BURTON: It would defy logic to do so. Today that community is completely worn down. The whole area, the factory is abandoned. people still don’t have jobs in some cases. many folks still don’t have health insurance. people who do have jobs are being paid much less. And the point is that Mitt Romney’s business experience had a profound effect on the lives of thousands of people. That effect is still being felt, and that’s what this ad tells the story of. That’s what all our ads tell the story of.

COOPER: I don’t want to go back and forth on this, but this ad tells a specific story. More than half the ad is him talking very detailed about his wife.

BURTON: It’s a sad story.

COOPER: It is a sad story. but it truncates time in a way that makes it seem like he got fired, she didn’t have health insurance, which she did from her other job, her primary insurance, in fact —

BURTON: Not at the time when she died, though. She had health insurance for a short time.

COOPER: Because she lost her other job.

BURTON: But ultimately when Joe Soptic needed health insurance for his family, health insurance that had been promised to him by a contract that Mitt Romney helped to negotiate, he didn’t have that health insurance.

COOPER: Right. Because under bankruptcy protection, they were able to do away with the prom—

BURTON: Contract they made with workers. but they made plenty of money. All those workers got screwed.

COOPER: You can make an ad all about that. You’re implying — I think any rational or certainly nonpartisan soeb observer looks at this and says you are linking this. otherwise we would not put this in an ad.

BURTON: I think just the opposite. I think the rational thing to take away here is that — how on earth could you possibly imply that? What we’re saying that at a moment of true anxiety.

COOPER: How can you say how can you imply that? It’s totally disingenuous, Bill.

BURTON: I don’t think that’s true. I think that Mitt Romney had an effect on these people’s lives. And to talk about it is an important part of the story. Because he wants the American people to make a decision on whether or not he should be president based on his business experience. When people take a look at it and hear the stories of these folks they say I don’t want that guy to be president of the United States.

It’s Bill Burton’s birthday today, and his buddy Paul Begala thought it’d be great to commemorate the day by tweeting an embarrassing video clip of Burton’s most inept TV appearance to date. Gee, I know what I’m asking for this year.