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What politicians say to get elected can come back to haunt them and vilifying the lobbyist profession to score campaign points is going to do that to President Barack Obama, according to MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-anchor Joe Scarborough. Scarborough appeared on BBC Radio 4's Dec. 20 broadcast of "Americana" with host Matt Frei and explained how Obama's 2007 pledge to not hire lobbyists isn't necessarily a good policy. "Listen, the Obama administration is in trouble right now," Scarborough said. "We got a lot of friends in the Obama administration right now and they're in trouble because Barack Obama made promises...

Pour some more butter on the popcorn . . . Yesterday, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs took shots at Howard Dean and his opposition to ObamaCare, suggesting the good doctor didn't know what he was talking about. It was payback time this morning, as Dean announced that he would support Pres. Obama's re-election bid "not vigorously." View video here.

Fake but accurate rides again! The same lame defense Dan Rather used in Memogate has been trotted out on ClimateGate by Columbia Univ. Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. Appearing on Morning Joe today, the author of Common Wealth [note play on words: your money is our money] alleged that the real victims in this scandal are . . . the number-fudging scientists. People are attempting to "Swiftboat" those poor CRU guys, sighed Sachs. For good measure, the good professor asserted that "what happened is not a very big deal." View video here.

Tina Brown is the very avatar of elite MSM opinion. So when the Daily Beast creator, late of the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, derides Sarah Palin as ignorant, it's safe to assume she's expressing a view harbored in many a liberal media breast. On today's Morning Joe, while admitting a grudging regard for her appeal, Brown claimed Palin's confidence is based on "total ignorance." Hosts Joe Scarborough [who last week took his own shot at Sarah's smarts] and Mika Brzezinski, if not precisely leaping to Palin's defense, did respond with some skepticism. View video here.

Joe Scarborough was surely right about one thing . . . when he warned that his pronouncement would "enrage conservatives." The Morning Joe host today proclaimed that comparing Sarah Palin to Howard Dean was an insult . . . to Dean's intelligence. Joe's jab came in response to an analogy Time's Mark Halperin drew between the excitement Palin creates and that drummed up by Dean's presidential campaign in 2004. MARK HALPERIN: Think about it compared to Howard Dean in 2004. He was exciting too, and he had these huge crowds, and people said, this guy's going win the Democratic nomination...

When you're an MSMer, you're an MSMer all the way--even when faced with facts that might make you like, well, ridiculous . . . Mike Allen, appearing on Morning Joe, has declared the NY-23rd race a "real toss-up" despite a new poll from a respected organization showing Doug Hoffman with a 17-point lead. The claim by Allen, Politico's chief political correspondent's, was so absurd that, on the spot, host Joe Scarborough offered 3:1 odds to Allen and anyone else wanting to place a few kopeks on Dem Bill Owens. View video here.

FReeper governsleastgovernsbest, AKA Mark Finkelstein, is scheduled to appear on Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's radio show today at 10:35 AM. Listen live at the link!

Mike Allen might not be a Republican political strategist, but he tried playing one on TV today, telling the GOP it was "crazy" and "suicidal" to be supporting Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava in a special congressional election in northern New York. Politico's chief political correspondent offered his unsolicited advice on today's Morning Joe. View video here.

Give Mika Brzezinski credit for candor. She has stated that during her 10 years at CBS, every reporter, producer and anchor she knew, with one exception, was a liberal. The Morning Joe co-host made the revelation today in the course of discussing with Joe Scarborough the White House's attack on Fox News. View video here.

On The MSNBC Friday, Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin mocked the news that President Obama has been given the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Scarborough said it is a “joke,” and Halperin said it reinforces the idea that Obama is all about “just words.” Haperin joked you might as well give the award to “Michael Moore.” (video below) Toward the end of the video, Scarborough was told that “a senior White House Official” had sent a message saying Scarborough was acting like an “a**hole.” Video: Joe Scarborough Mocks Obama’s Peace Prize

A "senior White House official" sent an email calling MSNBC's Joe Scarborough an "a**hole" for mocking President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

What a morning at Morning Joe! First, a "senior White House official" sent an email calling Joe Scarborough an "a-----e" for mocking Pres. Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. A bit later, responding to Rush Limbaugh's depiction of Scarborough as a "neutered, chickified moderate," Scarborough repeatedly claimed that Pres. George W. Bush had Rush's "testicles in a blind trust." Scarborough and Time's Mark Halperin—whom no one would accuse of being a right-wing hack—had some good-natured fun with the Nobel news. A laughing-out-loud Scarborough suggested among other things that Marisa Tomei was more deserving of her Academy Award. But the Messiah will not...

Here is video of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and the team on Morning Joe mocking Glenn Beck today, and saying Beck is "bad for conservatism." Scarborough said he was creating a "Conservatives Honor Roll," which will consist of conservatives who will renounce Glenn Beck and "call him out." I'm not sure where Joe Scarborough decides he is the keeper of the conservative door. He often seems more concerned with being liked by the Beltway crowd than standing up for conservatives. . . . (VIDEO)

In the first half-hour of today's show, MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough accused Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Glenn Beck of spreading hatred and whippping up raced-based assassination hysteria against Barack Obama, demanding Republicans renounce Beck.Scarborough, a former conservative Republican congressman from Florida, attacked the libertarian Beck for spending the summer telling viewers there were FEMA detention camps being built and for saying that Obama hates "all white people."Scarborough said the "hatred" Beck is spreading would make him responsible should Obama be assassinated. Though he didn't speak explicitly of Obama's assassination, it was clear what Scarborough...

Here is video of Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough responding to Glenn Beck telling Mika to "shut the hell up." Joe Scarborough went on a jealous tirade about Glenn Beck making fun of MSNBC's ratings and said "if I'm not mistaken his last gig at CNN Headline News, I think this network beat him every night but now he's standing on Roger Ailes' shoulders and he's a big man." Joe also said "the Glenn Beck that nobody watched six months ago is now the Glenn Beck that thinks he's an International Superstar." (Video)

Here is video of Pat Buchanan telling Joe Scarborough today that the Democrats control the media, along with both houses of Congress, leaving the GOP as a party in opposition. Well, of course the GOP is the opposition party to Obama - he stands for just about everything conservative Americans do not: Bigger Government, Higher Taxes, Abortion on Demand - even to the point of infanticide, Government Health Care, Weaker National Defense, etc. . . It makes it much tougher when all but one national media outlet is totally in the tank for the Democrats. But despite everything being in...

NewsBuster--and FReeper--Mark Finkelstein was a guest yesterday on the Joe Scarborough Show, the nationally-syndicated radio show that the Morning Joe anchor co-hosts with Mika Brzezinski. Listen to audio here. For days, Scarborough had been lambasting Republicans for going after Pres. Obama on his speech to schoolchildren. Finkelstein argued that it was not so much the potential for indoctrination as the cult of personality which was objectionable. He pointed out that the Obama-centric study guide for the speech was of a piece with messianic image that the president has allowed to grow up around him, going back to the presidential campaign...

Jon Meacham strikes me as a knowledgeable man. Surely the author of a well-regarded biography of Andrew Jackson knows his history. Ignorance thus cannot explain how the Newsweek editor could with a straight face describe Barack Obama as "the real Burkean in American politics right now." Yet that's just what Meacham did on today's Morning Joe . . . View video here.

If Joe Scarborough is right, this could be a game-changing blow to Barack Obama . . . On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough left no doubt that he believes the Obama administration acquiesed to the release by the British government of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, the convicted Lockberbie murderer and terrorist. View video here.

Here is video of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough attacking Sarah Palin as "not capable" of taking apart the Democrats' Health Care Bill because "she does not read enough." He also said that Republicans all over the country "behind closed doors" say that Sarah Palin "doesn't know what she's talking about." He was specifically complaining about Palin's past attacks on ObamaCare as containing "death panels," even though other Republicans like Sen. Charles Grassley have made similar arguments. Scarborough seems to think he has to do things like this to keep favor with the radicals at NBC and MSNBC, who absolutely despise Sarah...

On today's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough was shocked to hear from Mark Halperin of Time and co-host Mika Brzezinski that most people in the MSM don't admit that the press is biased, and to the contrary most in the MSM see themselves as "right down the middle." JOE SCARBOROUGH: So you're saying that most people in the mainstream media don't admit that the press is biased? MARK HALPERIN: I don't think so. You take a survey around the news room -- MIKA BRZEZINSKI: No, they don't admit it: I agree that. View video here.

It looks like Joe Scarborough is trying to sell more books. I guess the endorsement his book received from Christpher Buckler, RINO who voted for Obama, didn't do the trick. Now he is back to taking cheap shots at Governor Palin. It seems he wants her to hide in Alaska and stay out of sight. Watch the video from his Morning Joe liberal talkfest. http://www.considerthisnews.com/index.php/site/thefeed/morning_joe_palin_a_circus_act_joke/

Should be interesting next time Joe Scarborough runs into the likes of Ed Schultz . . . The Morning Joe host today slammed the hypocrisy of cable news hosts, specifically including some at MSNBC, for taking "unbridled glee" in Mark Sanford's disgrace. Scarborough didn't name names, but he almost surely had Schultz, among others, in mind. As I reported here, on his show last evening Schultz absolutely reveled in Sanford's distress, boasting "I have no mercy here" and using the most mocking of tones to describe the circumstances. Was Joe also alluding to Keith Olbermann, who had considerable fun at...

Your humble correspondent feels obligated to warn you about the article you are about to see. It is a harsh but brutally honest review written by Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer about Joe Scarborough's new book, The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise. Certain members of the reading audience may experience a strange tingling sensation while reading the review. Should you require require medical assistance while looking at the review, a registered nurse is standing by in the lobby: Over the past several weeks, this site has been tracking the attempt by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to make...

According to MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough, the traditionally left-of-center co-host and daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Mika Brzezinski has had an awakening about the political leanings of the mainstream media. Mika Brzezinski appeared with Scarborough at the Borders bookstore in Falls Church, Va. on June 16 to help him promote his book, "The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise." Scarborough revealed his sidekick's eye-opening experiences about the media. "I'm begging Mika to write a book," Scarborough said. "Seriously - about what she's seen because she's seen it through my eyes for the past two years now. I'm...

There was a tell-tale moment during Ed Schultz's repulsive rant on today's Morning Joe. In the course of alleging that Dick Cheney wants Americans to die in a terrorist attack, Schultz boasted: "I got a lot of support when I said that on the Ed program, I got a lot of support overnight when I said it again." [H/t reader Melody and Mitchell Blatt.] Translation: the ratings-starved Schultz will say pretty much anything if it garners him a few more eyeballs on the paranoid-lefty fringe. Here's Schultz spewing his bile . . . View video here.

The sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives has accused the CIA of lying to Congress. She is ensnared in a web of conflicting accounts. Her very hold on power could be under a cloud. Meh. Guess we can find some room on A20. But pot pies need to be heated to 165 degrees to be safe? Hold the presses: put it on the front page! Such is the news judgment of the New York Times. The Morning Joe crowd had a field day with Gray Lady and Pelosi’s travails during the show’s opening half-hour today, Joe Scarborough having great...

During the Republican National Convention, Mika Brzezinski mentioned on Morning Joe how appalled she was by the behavior of some of her colleagues in regard to Gov. Palin. She talked about it again today during a conversation about media bias on The Joe Scarborough Show:

Oh to be a fly on the NBC cafeteria wall next time Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews run into each other. On today’s Morning Joe, Scarborough singled out Hardball as an example of the cable shows he doesn’t watch because their guests “vomit bad information” for which they’re cheered. Scarborough slammed Bob Baer, a former CIA agent, who on yesterday’s Hardball claimed “you cannot rely on torture,” and that the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and Abu Zubaydah produced only “fantasies” that “got us nowhere.” Reacting to the report that KSM had been waterboarded 183 times, Baer declared: “I can...

Beginning Monday, we welcome a name and voice familiar to many of you, deliver MORE from your favorite morning team, and say goodbye to a good friend and top-notch talk show host. On Monday, the Grandy and Andy Morning Show will expand to 5 hours! The Grandy and Andy magic starts at 5am and won’t stop until 10am (or slightly earlier if Fred starts to choke on his daily ration of mixed nuts.) Between 5 and 9am, it’s all of the great stuff you’re accustomed to: 20 minutes of news and views commercial free at the top of every hour,...

Here is Joe Scarborough this morning on Morning Joe saying that Republicans are now learning from Michael Steele's missteps in comments about Rush Limbaugh that "sometimes being black is not enough." Scarborough made the remark after a clip from last night's Sean Hannity Show was shown in which Steele said he was not attacking Rush Limbaugh when he called him an "entertainer" and said his remarks were "incendiary" and "ugly." . . . . . . (Watch Video)

Joe Scarborough has joined a chorus of Republicans wondering whether Michael Steele might not be cutting it as RNC Chairman . . . Scarborough was spurred to his comments by a clip from Sean Hannity’s show in which Steele claimed that when on CNN he called Rush Limbaugh “incendiary” and “ugly,” he didn’t mean to criticize him but was merely describing how those trying to demonize Rush were taking his words. Joe clearly wasn’t buying. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Oh, is he sad. Is he sad. You know what the Republicans are learning right now? At that point Joe paused, drumming his...

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was done ever-so-slightly tongue in cheek. But there was Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe today, sporting a Team Sarah button and identifying herself as a proud Palinite. Joe Scarborough spoke at CPAC yesterday, and Mika accompanied him, stopping by the Team Sarah booth along the way. As she told it . . . MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I went to the Team Sarah booth. I got a couple of things. I’m thinking my dad isn’t watching yet, so I’ll share: I got my daughter Team Sarah hats. I got my husband...

Irony watch: the day before Morning Joe is about to enjoy the rare privilege of broadcasting its entire MSNBC show live from the White House, Joe Scarborough muzzled a pro-Palin film-maker who was about to out . . . MSNBC as the most pro-Obama network. John Ziegler appeared on Morning Joe today to tout his about-to-be-released documentary “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.” At one point, Pat Buchanan invited Ziegler to name the networks “that went into the tank for Barack Obama.” A smiling Ziegler responded “I think Pat knows the answer to that question,” but...

[Ht/ Pharmboy] Joe Scarborough sent us a little love this morning . . . Morning Joe opened today with the instant-classic clip of CNBC’s Rick Santelli on the floor of the CBOE yesterday, calling out President Obama over the mortgage bailout. Scarborough seconded Santelli’s sentiment, but wondered whether Santelli was similarly outraged when the government was bailing out Wall Street. Mike Barnicle assured him that Santelli had not been: “No, he didn’t make the same argument when we bailed out Wall Street and he didn’t make the same argument when we bailed out General Motors.” Except Santelli did. I emailed...

With Mika Brzezinski off in the south of France, it looks like Morning Joe has recruited Nancy Snyderman as the show’s reliably liberal voice. Yesterday, as noted here, NBC’s Chief Medical Editor came out squarely for universal health care [and rationing]. Today, Snyderman blamed California’s financial woes on Prop 13–the measure that capped property taxes in the state. NANCY SNYDERMAN: I lived in California for 17 years, and I think the 60s boom was hurt in large part by Prop 13. It froze property taxes. The lauded California [inaudible] went under – That stirred Joe Scarborough into action . ....

The screencap sums things up nicely. It portrays Joe Scarborough’s reaction to the news that Pres. Obama reminds the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg of . . . Gandhi. It was the president’s bi-partisanship in the face of Republican partisan hostility that made Hertzberg think of the non-violent Indian leader in a column in the New Yorker’s current issue. For good measure, the New Yorker editor claimed to see a parallel—in the way Pres. Obama has reacted to Rush Limbaugh—to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s interaction with . . . Bull Connor [though Hertzberg was careful to state he was not claiming...

John Harwood claimed he was being courageous: going after Pres. Obama on the stimulus package rather than the low-hanging fruit of Nancy Pelosi. But that didn’t stop Joe Scarborough from mocking the CNBC/NY Times correspondent mercilessly for his defense of Pelosi on today’s Morning Joe. Harwood even stuck up for the Speaker’s sticking of $30 million in the stimulus bill to protect some mice in her district. The Morning Joe host claimed it was all about Harwood buttering up Pelosi in order to get access. Harwood went so far as to claim that all spending is stimulative, while acknowledging that...

It is hard to believe, but a majority of Americans (including Christians and conservatives) seem oblivious to the fact that there is a very real, very legitimate New World Order (NWO) unfolding. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most Americans not only seem totally unaware of this reality, they seem unwilling to even remotely entertain the notion. On one hand, it is understandable that so many Americans would be ignorant of the emerging New World Order. After all, the mainstream media refuses to report, or even acknowledge, the NWO. Even "conservative" commentators and talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh,...

I guess this lets those evil Wall Street speculators off the hook . . . Spike Lee has declared that God himself ordained the financial crisis to happen when it did in order to propel Barack Obama to victory. The film director offered his odd analysis on today’s Morning Joe . . . but not before declaring that tomorrow’s inaguration will be “the most important day in the history of the United States of America.” JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let’s talk about tomorrow. What are you looking for? SPIKE LEE: I think it’s going to be one of — I think it’s...

Far be it from me to sow discord in MSNBC ranks, to stir up old animosities between colleagues there. But if Joe Scarborough is going to do a mocking imitation of Keith Olbermann in full Special Comment rant, well then, blogging ethics compel me to report it. The jumping-off point on Morning Joe today was Eugene Robinson's current WaPo column. After claiming that he didn't want to kick the president on his way out the door, Robinson proceeded to do just that. The columnist described a variety of measures adopted by the president in prosecution of the war against terror...

Could this be the most unvarnished insult to someone's intelligence in the recent annals of major network television? Here was Zbigniew Brzezinski, speaking to Joe Scarborough on today's "Morning Joe." [H/t reader Melody.] "You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you." It was Scarborough's exposition of the widely accepted view—shared by Bill Clinton himself—that Yasser Arafat was to blame for the failure of the 2000 Camp David summit, that prompted Brzezinski's remarkable display of disdain. View video here.

Howard Kurtz features Mika Brzezinski in his WaPo Media Notes column this morning. Between a book deal and the syndication of her new radio show with Morning Joe partner Joe Scarborough, Brzezinski has become a hot media property of late. The column reveals some interesting bits about Brzezinski, including the fact that she was unceremoniously let go at CBS upon the advent of Katie Couric. But it's the discussion of her liberalism or alleged lack thereof that might be of most interest to NewsBusters readers. On the one hand, Kurtz quotes Mika as saying: "I've been in a box as...

Mika, minus six bucks.Inauguration Day is coming! And this morning Joe Scarborough was broadcasting 'Morning Joe' from Washington, D.C., where Mayor Adrian Fenty was to be on hand to talk about the city's security and traffic plans for Jan. 20. But the public safety angle got a different twist when Mr. Scarborough revealed that an hour before his co-host, Mika Brzezinski, had been mugged outside her Washington hotel while waiting for her car service. "A guy walks across the street straight for her," Mr. Scarborough said, adding the hotel should "at least police five feet outside their own doors." Mrs....

If the definition of a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, look for Mika Brzezinski to start sounding like Pat Buchanan. The big news on Morning Joe today is that Mika got mugged. Not mugged by reality. Mugged mugged. The MJ co-host was outside her Washington, DC early this morning, waiting for the car to take her to the studio, when a man approached and told her to give him $20 "and you won't get hurt." Mika gave her everything she had-$6-and the man went away. Mika didn't want the news to be mentioned, but Joe Scarborough insisted. Brzezinski...

In one of the more incisive indictments of the MSM I've witnessed, certainly by one of its own, Joe Scarborough tore into the media this morning for its failure to have investigated Barack Obama's political roots. In particular, the Morning Joe host ripped the MSM for not testing the truth of Ryan Lizza's reporting, above, of Rahm Emanuel's claim that he and Obama were central figures in Blago's 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Scarborough pointed out that already this summer, when the Lizza article appeared, it was known that Blago was under a deep ethical cloud. Yet the MSM charged off to...

Joe & Mika Debut Panned, Syndication Planned What kind of media company would attempt to force listeners of a top-rated conservative talk station to endure inexperienced "hosts" from a low rated, leftist cable network? One that will be lucky to avoid bankruptcy. In fact, the decision to insert MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski into WABC's midmorning slot is exactly how Citadel - ABC Radio got into this mess in the first place. Since the ill-fated merger of the two companies, Citadel's upper management has struggled to grasp news-talk and what drives listenership. Instead of learning more about this highly-successful...

Joe Scarborough looks like radio’s next syndicated talker. Can he make it, this time? The former Republican Congressman and current MSNBC "Morning Joe" host wants another shot at talk radio, and Citadel’s ABC Radio Networks is probably going to give him that chance. It would be for a late-morning program that might air 10-11:45am on WABC (770) and be syndicated nationally. Scarborough briefly hosted a show for Westwood in 2005. But it had trouble getting clearances in its 10am-1pm live timeslot and he left after about four months - the blink of an eye, in syndication terms. So what’s different...

Joe Scarborough didn't cotton to being called a "socialist," but that's just what Krystia Freeland did on today's Morning Joe. The Financial Times editor used the s-word to describe what she mockingly described as Joe's "touching faith" in the wisdom of government bureaucrats when it comes to reorganizing Detroit automakers. The Morning Joe host didn't take the insult lying down. View video here.

If Morning Joe seems every-so-slightly less up-to-date, there's a reason for it. The show is now seven seconds behind the times. A tape delay has been instituted in the wake of Joe Scarborough's unintentional dropping of an f-bomb two days ago. B&C reported the move yesterday, and the Morning Joe crew had fun with it on today's show. Coming back from its first break, the show aired tape [via Jimmy Kimmel Live] of CNN's Rick Sanchez coming back from a break of his own. With a screen over his shoulder reading "Transition to Power," Sanchez said: "We welcome you black....