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It's something we've been saying at NewsBusters for some time: living in his MSM/political bubble has turned Joe Scarborough—once a conservative congressman representing the Florida panhandle—soft. So it was refreshing to hear someone who travels in the same circles as Scarborough make the same observation. On today's Morning Joe, man-about-Manhattan-and-the-Hamptons Donny Deutsch told Scarborough that "your liberal friends are making you soft." The particular issue at hand was Deutsch's support and Scarborough's opposition to the New York City Police Department's program of spying on potential terrorist organizations, including mosques. But the point is of general application. View the video here.

Although he didn't dare mention him by name, there's little doubt that Joe Scarborough had Mark Levin—who has taken strong shots at Scarborough's criticize-conservatives-first approach—in mind as a radio talk show host who is "jealous" of him and for whom Scarborough feels "sorry." On today's Morning Joe, James Carville told Scarborough that the hard core of the Republican party does not consider him one of them. Scarborough defended himself, claiming that whereas some basement-dwelling, underwear-clad bloggers and a couple of "jealous" radio hosts might not like him, Republicans regularly come up and hug him, proclaiming "thank God!", when he's out...

<p>Virtually every other show [aside from "Morning Joe"] belongs to hosts who unstintingly support Obama and the Democrats, with only minor points of disagreement. ([Host Chris] Hayes criticizes Obama for his drone killings and surveillance programs, and often conducts friendly interviews with Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who collaborated with Edward Snowden. Melissa Harris-Perry, who appears on weekends at 10 a.m., nearly always defends Obama, and called Glenn Greenwald a “jerk.”) Conservatives are far less visible on MSNBC than liberals are on Fox News, and the right-leaning guests who do appear are typically critics of the conservative movement: Steve Schmidt, the Republican strategist, who says the party is too tolerant of “nuts” and “kooks”; Josh Barro, an advocate for Republican reform who describes himself as “neoliberal”; Abby Huntsman, the daughter of failed presidential candidate Jon, who has described the G.O.P. as a party of “non-inclusion.” The over-all impression is that your average Republican or conservative is simply too fanatical to be part of polite discourse.</p>

Joe Scarborough is frequently panned in these parts for his propensity to pummel his presumably fellow Republicans. So it's noteworthy when the Morning Joe host goes after the left for a change. It happened on today's show, when Scarborough defended voter ID laws, saying most Americans don't think it's racist to require a photo ID when you show up to vote. and scalding the left for trying fit to politicians in North Carolina and Texas with symbolic KKK hoods. Scarborough even forced a clearly reluctant Mike Allen of Politico to ultimately acknowledge his point. View the video here.

Talk about a hypocritical, mealy-mouthed non-apology apology . . . On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough condemned Republicans who "support[ed] George Zimmerman before they even knew the facts of the case." Scarborough then added: "you know, I got out early, said some things about George Zimmerman myself. I shouldn't have said, perhaps. I got overly emotional. I'm not in office. If I were in office I would have apologized." Scarborough didn't reveal to viewers the "some things" he had said about Zimmerman. In fact, early on in the case, long before the facts were on the table, Scarborough branded Zimmerman...

NBC News political director Chuck Todd on Thursday labeled the new NBC miniseries about Hillary Rodham Clinton a “total nightmare” for the network’s news division — adding another voice to the increasing backlash against the project. “This is why this miniseries is a total nightmare for NBC News,” Todd said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We know there’s this giant firewall. We know that we have nothing to do with it. We know that we’d love probably to be as critical or whatever it is going to be, if it comes out.” Todd added, though, that regardless of whether the Clintons...

Move over, Reverend Al. You're not the only MSNBC host who moonlights as a liberal activist. On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski announced that she will be not merely be covering a pay protest by fast-food workers in Detroit on August 29th--she'll be an active part of it. Joe Scarborough tried—in vain—to school Mika on Econ 101. But she did the equivalent of covering her ears and nattering "nah, nah, nah: can't hear you!" Scarborough said he'd be at the protest--on the sidelines, with a bullhorn. View the video here.

Joe Scarborough has yet again scaled his soap box to mock those of us in the conservative blogosphere. He described us today as a bunch of "very stupid people" living in their mama's basement who write "really stupid things" about him. The thin-skinned Scarborough has often derided his blogging critics as Cheetos-chewing cellar-dwellers. He was at it again this morning, depicting them as people who if not in mama's basement would otherwise be wandering the streets in their pajamas. View the video here.

Bashing Ted Cruz on Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough pre-emptively defended himself against charges that he is an "MSNBC liberal" by claming for himself a "95% ACU [American Conservative Union] rating." That might have been true 18 years ago when Scarborough was representing the conservative panhandle of Florida in Congress. But what would Scarborough's conservative rating be today, given his liberal shift on gun control, immigration amnesty and other issues? View the video here.

Via Mediaite, he’s making a point about inexperience. I’m … just not sure which point. It’s true, Obama had little experience as a federal legislator (and zippo as an executive) before running for president, and look how little he’s accomplished. But is that a function of “inexperience” or a function of other variables, like greater partisan polarization and Obama’s disdain for doing the sort of congressional outreach needed to pass bills? Rubio and Paul will each have served a few years more than Obama did in the Senate by election day 2016. They each also have some cred in working...

Commenting on the current dust-up between Rand Paul and Chris Christie over pork-barrel spending, Joe Scarborough has managed to insult both combatants. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough called Rand Paul a "daddy's boy." And in warning Paul not to pick a fight with Christie, Scarborough cited a saying by his grandmother to the effect that you should never fight with a "pig," because "you both get dirty and the pig likes it." Scarborough was careful to suggest that in comparing Christie to a "pig" he wasn't alluding to the Jersey governor's girth. OK. View the video here.

When on today's Morning Joe, Obama spokesman Jay Carney had the chutzpah to call the IRS mess a "phony scandal,"Joe Scarborough ripped into him, calling Carney out for using "talking points," instructing him to "answer the question" and informing Carney that "I'm not somebody you talk down to from your podium." Ouch! H/t NB reader cobokat. Scarborough reminded Carney that he hadn't told the truth when he initially claimed that the scandal was limited to low-level employees in the IRS Cincinnati office, that it now appears that it may go at least as high as the IRS Chief Counsel, appointed...

Political talkers Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough are trading blows over Trayvon Martin’s personal history. Last Friday on his radio show, Hannity asked if President Barack Obama compared himself to Trayvon Martin in his impromptu remarks on the George Zimmerman murder trial verdict because “he smoked pot” and “did a little blow.” On Monday morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough took to his “Morning Joe” show to condemn Hannity for those remarks. “Really?” Scarborough said. “Is that the new standard? Would we like to go across college campuses in America and tell all white boys that if they have marijuana in their...

"Really, really, in 2013, Sean. Come on," Scarborough said. "Whatever excuse there is, to say this young black man had it coming to him — that is the defense because there is no defense for shooting down a young black man in a middle-class neighborhood with Skittles." . . Scarborough called "the entire spectacle" depressing, saying it was no wonder that the "parents and loved ones of African-American children" are reacting by going out and peacefully marching and protesting over the Zimmerman verdict.

Joe Scarborough might want to reflect on people in glass houses, casting the first stone, beam in your eye—all the adages counseling people against hypocrisy, against condemning others for sins without considering their own wrongs. In a Politico piece brimming with self-righteousness, Scarborough bemoans the "vulgar state" of American politics and condemns "hyperbolic political pronouncements" about the case. Hyperbolic? We got your hyperbole right here. Does Joe not remember that in 2012, long before all the facts of the case were available, he eagerly condemned George Zimmerman as a "murderer"? More here.

On today's Morning Joe, after proclaiming "I love Hillary," Joe Scarborough fretted that the media might not give her a fair shake in 2016. Scarborough claimed that although the media has been biased against Republicans, "I've never seen the media more biased against any single candidate than they were Hillary Clinton in 2007 and 2008." Howard Dean chimed in to predict that the media will indeed give Hillary a "rough ride" in 2016. Right. View the video here.

On Morning Joe today, Jonathan Capehart hailed the loud protest in the Texas Capitol gallery by pro-abortion rights advocates—which prevented the state senate from voting on a pro-life bill—as an example of "democracy in action." Joe Scarborough countered that if pro-life protesters had done the same, people on MSNBC and elsewhere would be calling them an "angry, unruly mob." Interestingly, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters agreed with Scarborough, saying he was "absolutely right." Capehart had no rebuttal. View the video here.

Another day, another bizarre blooper by Joe Scarborough regarding the trial of George Zimmerman. We reported yesterday that Scarborough—ignoring the rule against double jeopardy—claimed that the absence of African-Americans on the jury would subject a verdict to immediate appeal. Today, the Morning Joe host curiously claimed that the prosecution had a big hill to climb because "you don't know who fired the shot." What? Zimmerman has admitted from the beginning that he shot Trayvon Martin, albeit in self-defense. When Al Sharpton [who has actually been more circumspect in his remarks about the trial than Scarborough] pointed this out, Scarborough quickly...

Do the words "double jeopardy" ring a bell, Joe? In 2012, shortly after Trayvon Martin was killed, and when few facts were available, Joe Scarborough didn't hesitate to brand George Zimmerman a "murderer." Scarborough's pro-prosecution bias was on display again on Morning Joe today, when he declared that the absence of African-Americans on the George Zimmerman jury would "immediately" make a verdict subject to appeal. Really? So if this jury were to acquit Zimmerman, the prosecution would have a valid basis to overturn the verdict on appeal? Sure sounds like double jeopardy—but Scarborough never raised that concern. View the video...

Joe Scarborough is outraged, OUTRAGED, that any senator could have opposed the gun bill which went down to defeat. Oops! That was a month ago and it now appears that Scarborough is having second thoughts on this since he wondered aloud today if the government could be trusted with performing background checks in the light of the revelations of the IRS scandal in which that agency targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups. First let us look at Scarborough in the video below the fold in full outrage mode in April when his over the top anger at the gun...