Joe Scarborough is out with a new book again lecturing conservatives on the best road forward. Here's the first sign it should be ignored (just like the previous ones): it will be reviewed in The New York Times, while Mark Levin's truly important, best-selling books are not.
It's the same formula for the Scarborough TV tour: an appearance next to Barbara Walters on ABC's "The View," spots on "CBS This Morning" and "Charlie Rose" on PBS. The liberal media really want Scarborough to tell Republicans what to do. And why not? Might that be because their recommendations are similar?
Scarborough insists the Republicans have to moderate, moderate, moderate. "We" need a Republican Party that enables more of Barack Obama's political dreams, because that's what the people want....or at least media people
It's
annoying that faux conservatives cite real conservatives to give
credibility to views antithetical to conservatives. Scarborough cites
William F. Buckley as he declares in the book that "we have to stop
electing amateurs who serve as little more than ideological indulgences,
who exploit resentments that play well enough among the base, but whose
positions make them nonviable in general elections." Why is this?
"There is no substitute for victory, and I for one am damn tired of my
party losing presidential elections."
There is not a comma in this passage that isn't dishonest. Where would this man today be if Republicans weren't "electing amateurs" like him in the Gingrich wave of 1994? Were Scarborough's positions, so in line with the conservative base when he was elected, "ideological indulgences"? This is a man who has found a real home at MSNBC.
In fact, Scarborough isn't at all "damn tired" of Democrats winning the White House. On "The View," he declared a willingness to vote for a Democrat if the Republicans keep on their current MSNBC-upsetting path. Would anyone who watched "Morning Joe" in 2008 or 2012 believe that Scarborough took to the air with every breath to ensure Barack Obama was defeated?
I'm sorry if that question was a choking hazard. Let's take just a few samples of evidence from 2012, when Republicans nominated Mitt Romney.
-- On March 31, 2012, Scarborough mocked Romney for mutilating himself (rhetorically) -- "He is a cutter, a political cutter" -- and then ridiculed a poll result showing the GOP losing by 25 to Obama among women. "I guess that idea of chaining women to a radiator in the kitchen, that the Republicans wanted to put on platform, not going over."
-- On April 4, Joe "Damn Tired of Losing" Scarborough announced on his show: "I've yet to meet a single person in the Republican establishment that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election this year. They won't say it on TV because they've got to go on TV and they don't want people writing them nasty emails. I obviously don't care."
-- On September 8, Scarborough appeared on Today to trash Romney's chances. "This is one of the worst weeks for any presidential candidate in a general election that any of us can remember....Unemployment is still 8 percent-plus, the economy is still in tatters, and Mitt Romney is blowing this race." At segment's end, he said "I'm going to go put a bag over my head now, so I will talk to you soon."
-- On September 14, Scarborough lashed into Romney for a "horrific, irresponsible press conference" after the attacks in Benghazi (Romney spoke before word came of four Americans dying.) "If Mitt Romney had kept his mouth shut, if he had not acted like a rank amateur, if he had not embarrassed himself and by the way internally the campaign understands they screwed up, he's moved on, they know that. So no conservative can say `oh, the mainstream media, blah, blah'..Romney got in the way of the media looking at the president."
-- On September 28, Obama-loving CBS late-night host David Letterman publicized "Morning Joe" with the title "Joe Scarborough: Sweet Jesus." CBS then played an MSNBC clip that began with an incredibly standard campaign event where Romney encouraged the crowd to chant "Romney-Ryan." It ended when the camera then switched back to the set showing Scarborough with his hands covering his face in shame as he said, "Sweet Jesus!" The Letterman audience roared.
-- On October 29, Scarborough appeared on "Today" to insist Hurricane Sandy would help elect Obama. "Mitt Romney had momentum..This was Mitt Romney's best weekend, and it stops. The momentum stops."
If Joe Scarborough were really "damn tired" of losing, he might wonder why he's crushed daily in the ratings by "Fox & Friends." It's not just ideologically indulgent Republicans that he's tried to defeat. It's all Republicans. Please, Joe, no more lectures about your conservative credentials.