If you thought David Gregory's water-carrying for Chris Christie over the weekend was bad, get a load of Joe Scarborough and former Bush communications director, Nicolle Wallace on Morning Joe this Monday.

As I've said already, the bar for the pundits in the media defending Christie has officially been lowered to saying that if he did not order the lane closures himself, Christie can somehow survive this politically. Scarborough and Wallace's defense of Christie basically came down to claiming it didn't matter that he lied about not knowing the lanes were closed, it's okay that he did nothing about it once he knew, and it's alright that he has a bunch of vindictive incompetent a-holes as staffers.

Scarborough To NYT Reporter: There Was Nothing New In Your Bridge Scandal Story (VIDEO):

Kate Zernike didn't get much of a chance to speak Monday on "Morning Joe." When she did, the New York Times scribe tried feebly to correct the host's misunderstanding of her recent report on the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Zernike reported Friday on a letter from Wildstein's attorney claiming "evidence exists" that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) knew about lane closures on the bridge while they were happening. Such an assertion contradicts what Christie has claimed previously, including during his marathon press conference last month.

But Joe Scarborough echoed Christie's own defensive response, suggesting that Zernike's report wasn't much of a bombshell. When Scarborough argued that Christie's team has acknowledged all along that the governor was aware of the lane closures at the time, Zernike did her best to correct the host.

"At one point, he said I didn’t know until...the executive director of the Port Authority’s memo was leaked, which was October 1st. OK, so the lane closings end Sept. 12,” Zernike said.

"Then he said, in the two-hour press conference, he said I didn’t know about these lane closings until they were over on Sept. 13. What Wildstein is saying is he knew about them while they were happening," she added.

Scarborough stopped her there.

“Hold on a second,” Scarborough said. “I understand what you’re saying there. But I also know that Chris Christie's also said that he was told during the time that there was a traffic study going on.”

Zernike may as well have been talking to a wall as this lot. Thomas Roberts attempted to inject a few facts about the case into the conversation and had them howling with dismissive laughter at him as well.

They've got so much time invested in propping Christie up, they're having a little trouble with allowing reality to set in.