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Man did Joe Scarborough drink himself a heavy dose of Cheney Kool-Aid before this Monday's show. After hearing Liz toss out the idea of her daddy running in 2012 on Fox News Sunday the day before, Scarborough argues that Cheney running would be a wonderful idea and that no one could take him on in a debate. Jonathan Alter points out that the Bush administration was not exactly popular with the American public but that doesn't seem to phase Scarborough one bit. He wants Cheney out there fear mongering for the GOP and says at much at the end of the clip.

Rough transcript:

Scarborough: By the way I'm glad she did that because I have been pressing, by the way the buttons for like a couple of months-Cheney 2012.

Brzezinski: (laughter)

Scarborough: What's so funny?

Brzezinski: Ah...just the thought...makes me a little tired. That's all I'm going to say.

Scarborough: Tired in a way like you're going to be so excited and you can almost sense the confetti falling in your hair? I know you're excited about it too.

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Oh isn't this lovely? More Villager group think from the cast of Morning Joe. After Scarborough doing his some water-carrying for Dick Cheney and ranting about Obama delaying his decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, Scarborough and Mark Halperin both agree on one thing. Obama just needs to kiss more Republican ass to be taken seriously—because we know in the world of the Scarborough’s and Halperin’s out there, only Republicans have any credibility on national security.

Halperin: Imagine two scenarios—he announces it standing there by himself, or with Democrats (gasp!) when he makes this decision, or imagine him standing there with John McCain, or other prominent Republicans on national security. It paints such a different picture if he’s with the Republicans.

Yeah, that’s just what he need Halperin. Obama and Mr. Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran standing hand in hand announcing his Afghanistan policy. News flash to Halperin—McCain lost the election. And Obama needs to be listening to his base, not McCain.

Scarborough fails Schultz's challenge and cannot name a single Democrat that wants Nancy Pelosi removed as the Speaker of the House. Ed Schultz tries his best to beat back the usual fear mongering from this crowd and in the end....everyone wants a Truth Commission. Yeah, we'll see about that.

Mark "Matt Drudge Rules the World" Halperin was on Morning Joe earlier today and blamed President Obama for the fact that no House Republicans voted for the stimulus bill. One of the Village elders has spoken. I've heard him say foolish things before, but is he using Limbaugh's maid? What was Obama supposed to do, win the election, the House and the Senate and turn the stimulus package over to John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh? Is this man insane? I've written many times that I thought President Obama went too far in trying to wooooo Republicans for bipartisanship. They were never going to sign up.

Halperin: "This is a really bad sign for Barack Obama to try to change Washington.... He needs bipartisan solutions. They went for it and they came up with zero.... The House Republicans are more partisan....[This] does not bode well for a future that is supposed to be post-partisan. [...]

"[Obama] could have gone for centrist compromises. You can say to your own party, 'Sorry, some of you liberals aren't going to like it, but I am going to change this legislation radically to get a big centrist majority rather than an all-Democratic vote.' He chose not to do that, that's the exact path that George Bush took for most of his presidency with disastrous consequences for bipartisanship and solving big problems."

President Obama and the entire Democratic Congress were elected by the American people to change the direction our country is headed since conservatives have ruined our economy and most everything else under George Bush and the Republican led Congress. Villagers always fall back to their favorite term to smear liberals with. "Centrism." Only Democrats are supposed to be centrist in the minds of many Villagers, but never Republicans. Conservatives are the grownups and the left are dirty f*&king hippies who just want to trash the White House.

Listening to Mark Halperin in this clip should explain why blogs like C&L have gotten so popular. The Villagers are going to destroy this country. They helped Bush get elected over Gore, they led cheers for the Iraq war, and now they are supporting the Republican party at a time when this country faces a tremendous crisis.

Steve Benen:

I'm trying to wrap my head around Halperin's logic here. By his reasoning, the only appropriate thing for Obama to do was let Republicans -- who failed at governing, and who've been rejected by voters -- shape the bill, addressing the crisis they helped create. If the far-right House GOP caucus was unsatisfied, it was Obama's responsibility to make them happy. Why? Because Mark Halperin says so. This is absurd.

Jane Hamsher says:

Media Matters has a rundown of the zombie lies now in circulation about the bill, but suffice to say that there was no shortage of people willing to sacrifice the American economy for political gamesmanship. The Republicans unleashed their inner Church Lady and demanded contraception be cut for the sinfully promiscuous poor, then complained they didn't "get" anything in the bill and turned the whole thing into a well-choreographed publicity stunt. They looked like a bunch of petulant, narcissistic brats and did a nice job of making Obama appear measured and statesmanlike by comparison.

Digby says:

Obama is facing a weaker Republican Party but a much bigger set of problems, with the stakes being exponentially higher. We just don't have time for this nonsense again. At some point, the Democrats are going to have to confront their central political problem, which is that the conservatives are not appeasable and that political and media elites have either been brainwashed by conservative propaganda or are conservatives by choice and they have to convince the citizenry that their ideology is better for their personal well being and the well being of the country. Until that happens, the conservatives will remain in power even as an opposition force and their failed ideology will continue to destroy this country. This isn't a game anymore. They have to pass good policies.

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From the Chris Matthews special "The Decider" Mark Halperin gets some more of his cringe-inducing Bush love on for all to see.

Transcript below the fold.

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 Seriously.

Nevermind the dramatic shift in the polls and the beating McCain endured all week on the single most crucial of the election. Mark Halperin says McCain won, so therefore McCain won.

Mark Halperin does it again:

Two Republicans close to the situation say McCain has apparently settled on Mitt Romney as his running mate. [..]

Developing...

Nice Drudgian touch at the end, Mark.  Of course, Halperin pulled down the page saying that the Veep was going to be Dick Lugar just a little bit before, which appeared to be based on nothing more Lugar endorsing McCain.  Brilliant.  Obviously, still wishing to not blow his "MSM Maker of Conventional Wisdom" title, Halperin updated with this weasel: 

And/but:

NY Times: "People close to the [McCain] campaign also floated a wild-card choice, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq."

Give me a break.  Either report the news as it happens or start calling yourself Miss Cleo.  This wild guessing is insulting to our intelligence.

Let the transcript speak for itself: 

SCARBOROUGH: Is the media turning against him? Is the media going to start seizing on things like this to prove that they're not in the tank for Barack Obama?

HALPERIN: There's been a little bit of the paradigm shift. I think that McCain web video might have had the same effect as the Saturday Night Live parody that...on the Clinton/Obama race. I think some reporters recognize going forward if we replicate the way the coverage has been, the imbalance, the unfair pro-Obama coverage going forward, it would do a disservice in the general election. This...whenever I go on TV and say, ‘this election is about a referendum on Obama, that's the whole thing,' those guys with the Cheetos on the end of their fingers...

BRZEZINSKI: [laughs] Exactly...

HALPERIN: ...attack me and say, ‘that's just some dodge, it's about McCain too'. McCain deserves scrutiny and he'll get some. But I think Barack Obama has to find the right balance between this seeming presidential, getting people comfortable with him, and this kind of stuff, the presidential seal, the faux seal, the kind of quote that The Washington Post has. I think that's stuff is dangerous. I think that's the one way he can lose the election.

SCARBOROUGH: People don't understand the dynamics of this race, the landscape, the battlefield, the political battlefield. And it is this: Republicans have had power for 8 years. We've gotten in trouble in Iraq. We've gotten in trouble in Afghanistan. We're going to have a $500 billion deficit. The President's approval rating below 30. He's in Jimmy Carter territory. Right Track/Wrong Track-81% of Americans think we're on the wrong track. There is...so when we say it's not about John McCain, we're saying you could put a Pet Rock, you know, in the position John McCain is, if it were a Republican Pet Rock, it would have all of these problems. It is about Obama, because like Jimmy Carter in '76, a Democrat should win.

First of all, Halperin, bite me with the dismissive Cheetos snark.  I'll match not only my diet but my bona fides against yours any day and we'll see just who has the Cheetos stains. You get attacked because you literally can not recognize your posterior from your elbow.   You really want us to believe this ridiculous "librul media" bias meme you've been pushing for years?  Um, hello...reality to Halperin.   Maybe if you weren't so busy eating the doughnuts and BBQ with which McCain is only too happy to keep you supplicated, you'd see that.

As much as I'd hate to agree with the Scar -- and believe me, it's killing me -- the Democrats winning this election should be a foregone conclusion considering just how badly the GOP has screwed up in their 25 years of either Legislative or Executive control.  The fact that Obama doesn't have a 25-30 point margin has more to do with hacks like Halperin who will never report honestly on McCain's dizzying number of flip flops, his bad temper, his constant factual errors but will focus endlessly on hard hitting items like unproven, unchallenged and fact-free slurs.

This election is not a referendum on Barack Obama, you hack.  It's to the detriment of the entire country that we can't have an referendum on the damage done to democracy by the likes of Mark Halperin.  Put that on a Cheetos and eat it.

UPDATE:  MoveOn has sent out a political action to its members asking them to contact Halperin and ask him to stop repeating right wing talking points.  You may email him at mark_halperin@timemagazine.com and then let MoveOn know your response.