MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, best known for constantly attacking the Republican Party and conservatives in general, made the laughable claim on Wednesday that he's a "really conservative guy."
Scarborough appeared on Hardball to receive the adulation due any member of the GOP who attacks his own party. The comedy began when Matthews, who famously got a "thrill" up his leg [1]from Barack Obama, mildly asserted, "I'm sort of somewhere over to the left."
After Matthews wondered where Scarborough was on the ideological spectrum, the Morning Joe anchor seriously asserted, "I'm a really conservative guy, especially fiscally." He then began attacking his own party, bemoaning "the extremism that has taken over my party on certain issues." Scarborough lectured, "I think I'm a very conservative guy, but I think my party has gone in a direction that's deeply disturbing to me on a lot of issues, especially [guns]."
Later in the segment, Scarborough touted how supporting gun control would be the smart play for a Republican congressman:
SCARBOROUGH: I have no doubt in the world this would be the right move for me to run as a fiscally conservative Republican, a pro-life Republican who has said enough to survivalists, enough to extremists. The Second Amendment is about protecting our homes. It's about hunting with our friends and family members. It's not about military-style assault weapons that ended up killing, you know, six and seven-year-old kids in Newtown Connecticut.
Just last week, Scarborough dripped with contempt as he accused the NRA of "making millions off of Newtown." [2]
A partial transcript of the January 16 segment is below:
5:18
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Joining me now is my good friend and colleague Joe Scarborough who often, in fact very often, speaks common sense from the center right. Is it fair to say you're in the center right, Joe, politically? Where would you like to have a third party describe you? Because I think you are center right. I'm sort of somewhere over to the left, but I think you're somewhere on the other side of the main point, the middle point. Where are you?
SCARBOROUGH: You know, for the most part I'm where I was when I was in Congress. I had a 95 percent conservative rating. And we could start a debate right now over debt, over deficits.
MATTHEWS: Where is that now?
SCARBOROUGH: Well, let me just– because this is a very important point to make. Entitlements, why the Democrats haven't passed a budget in over 1500 days and you would say this guy is really conservative. We could debate further about government shutdowns and I would tell you that I might not flinch in 2013 any more than I did in 1995. I'm a really conservative guy, especially fiscally. That said, the extremism that has taken over my party on certain issues that has us running down rabbit trails that neither Ronald Reagan or William F. Buckley would ever chase down, ever run down, is what's causing this party problems. I think I'm a very conservative guy, but I think my party has gone in a direction that's deeply disturbing to me on a lot of issues, especially this one right now.
...
SCARBOROUGH: I know a thing or two about politics. Republicans got very angry with me over the past year when I told them Mitt Romney was in trouble. I can tell you something. In 2014 in my district in northwest Florida, a district Jerry Falwell called the most conservative in America, I have no doubt in the world this would be the right move for me to run as a fiscally conservative Republican, a pro-life Republican who has said enough to survivalists, enough to extremists. The Second Amendment is about protecting our homes. It's about hunting with our friends and family members. It's not about military-style assault weapons that ended up killing, you know, six and seven-year-old kids in Newtown Connecticut.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [3] to follow him on Twitter.