Before we get into the weeds on this latest crisis, let me point out something no one in cable news talks about: When it comes to Bill Barr, they absolutely did not do their jobs. When he was nominated as Trump's attorney general, he was widely and fervently praised as an institutionalist with respect for the law. No, he was a fixer who happened to be a lawyer. That's not the same thing.

He was a key part of the Iran-contra coverup and the coverup of the arms sales to Saddam Hussein. He's not dedicated to the law -- he's an apparatchik dedicated to using the law to protect the Republican party and its leaders. Seems like somewhere with a big megaphone should have mentioned that.

If only the media would do their jobs when it mattered.

Anyway, Mika introduces a discussion about Bill Barr's contempt of Congress with this clip:

"So, Mike, I love that Nancy Pelosi just told the truth right there, didn't say, well, 'we've had some people, well, you know' -- she said he lied. He did lie. He lied to congress," Scarborough said.

"We've got at least one solid example of it that any of us would be thrown in jail for perjury. We'd all be in jail. He may have lied to Chris Van Hollen. Just depends how a grand jury would look at that but we would still at least be sent to a grand jury for saying what he said to Chris Van Hollen.

"On a matter of the utmost public importance, the undermining of the Justice Department's purpose for selecting a special counsel in the words of Robert Mueller himself. So he has committed perjury. And I personally believe they should start looking into impeachment -- an impeachment inquiry if the rule of law means anything at all. But I'm watching these pathetic hacks on the right, some of whom used to have respectable careers, they've turned themselves into Trump enablers talking about how what Barr did was correct.

"You look at him lying before Congress and match up what these pathetic hacks are saying about Barr's lying and what they said about Bill Clinton's lying in 1998 and 1999 and suddenly they're sounding an awful lot like the man who said it depends on what your meaning of is, is. They are engaging in legalistic semantic games, the likes of which William F. Buckley attacked Bill Clinton supporters for doing in 1998," Scarborough said.

(Once again, Scarborough tries to equate impeachment over lying about a blowjob with the walking constitutional crisis that is Donald Trump and his enablers. What these "principled" Republicans cared about was the same thing they care about now: Amassing and maintaining power for the Republican party, period.)

"Well, you know, there's a couple of things going on here, Joe, that are of interest," Mike Barnicle said.

"One is we've been talking about for over two years, how is it that so many people with past qualifications, past examples of character and leadership checked all of that at the door and go into just total succumbing to Donald Trump. It's a mystery as to how many people who know they will be tainted by Trump by their association with him, just dive into the tank for him. The other aspect of it is unwittingly or wittingly --but probably unwittingly --what Bill Barr has done and what the White House has done, what Emmitt Flood did yesterday with the release of a letter which was a political document more so than it was a legal document, is that they keep this story going. They keep it going. There's going to be more hearings, there's going to be months of hearings.

"Instead of sitting back and saying the thing is over and responding with candid truth, the attorney general chose to, as you indicated and as many have indicated, as Nancy Pelosi just indicated, he lied -- repeatedly. He's going to keep this story going. This story is not going to go away for a long time now," he said.

"Well, I actually think she's laid down a marker," Mika said. "When the speaker of the house says he lied, and that's a crime, that seems to lay down a marker."