Why this useless flack has a job on MSNBC is beyond me. On this Thursday's Jose Diaz-Balart Reports with Yasmin Vossoughian filling in as guest host, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is now a regular contributor on the network, was asked about the latest Republican fishing expedition, otherwise known as an "impeachment inquiry," and Kasich did what Kasich does every time he makes an appearance on MSNBC, which is to try to "both sides" the issue and pretend Democrats are somehow equally as terrible as Republicans.

And as an added bonus during this segment, he also did some revisionist history about Iran-Contra felon Caspar Weinberger, and pretended he didn't do anything wrong, ignoring the fact that he accepted a pardon before his trial could commence. Had that trial gone forward, there was overwhelming evidence of what he did. He would have been convicted and sentenced to prison.

Vossoughian read a portion of Chuck Todd's latest equally useless bothsiderist column he wrote for NBC this week (more on that later), discussing the obvious when it comes to the game Republicans are playing now:

Whatever you think of the three other impeachments, the conduct the presidents were accused of was plain for everyone to see. There was no doubt Clinton had an affair with an intern, there was no doubt Trump tried to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into opening a probe against Biden, and Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, alone is evidence of what he hoped his supporters would accomplish by marching on the Capitol.

The point is the conduct alleged in those impeachments wasn’t really in question. The question was whether the conduct was bad enough to merit the political death penalty.

Here's the back and forth that followed:

VOSSOUGHIAN: If you are a Republican, governor, in a vulnerable district, and you have voted to launch this impeachment inquiry, which all Republicans did in the House, how worried should you be about your future inside of an election year?

KASICH: Well, you're probably thinking about the base, but, look Yasmin, what I'm concerned about is it's like we're a third world country now. It's like we're looking at some place in South America where, you know, you keep putting your political opponents in jail or you charge them with this or that, and it has been going on for a long time.

I mean, I think back to the investigation, for example, before you were born Yasmin, of Caspar Weinberger. There was just nothing there, but it bankrupted him. I mean, we have been increasingly weaponizing politics. So I want to ask you a question Yasmin, think about this. Would you want to quit your job and go run for public office today? I mean, who in their right mind wants to go through all this stuff?

And so I think the quality of people that are now being elected to these positions is not as good as it once was. And now every time somebody, you know, gets in trouble, somebody else, they're going to go find somebody else to punish, and it just goes on and on.

And it just damages our credibility in the world. It damages our ability to get things done. And so there have been many investigations, Democrats investigating Republicans, Republicans investigating Democrats, and now this one, I mean, it is like we're going fishing. So, we haven't caught any fish yet, but if we can go out in the ocean long enough and keep throwing our line, maybe we'll find something. I mean, I mean... I just... I just, it's just very disappointing, but it is kind of where we are on the... in the political side of America today.

So it's not the fact that some of these people are actually criminals and belong in jail, it's the "weaponizing politics" that's the problem. Never mind that there's only one side doing that when there aren't actually crimes involved and impeaching presidents over blowjobs.

That claptrap was followed by a long sermon about how we all need to just "get along" and be nicer to each other, and all I can say is, maybe he should have a word with someone like... ohhh ... Newt Gingrich... or Rush Limbaugh if he were still around... or the endless list of politicians and talking heads on the right that have made a living for decades now attacking and dehumanizing Democrats and liberals as "the other," and Communists/Marxists/Socialists who hate America and want to destroy the country and let all the brown people come in and overrun all the God-fearing good Christian white Republicans who of course are the only "real" Americans.

And the useless Vossoughian didn't challenge a word that came out of his mouth, but ran with it instead.

VOSSOUGHIAN: First of all, governor, I'm not going to answer question your question, but I will tell you politics is not in my future, my friend. It is not in my future, I'll tell you that much, but how do you stop the cycle then? Hearing your frustration here, which I think a lot of Americans are frustrated about now, but how do you stop the cycle?

KASICH: It's leaders, Yasmin. You know, look, the quality of leaders in our country today, and not just in politics, but across the board, has... is not where it once was or where we want it to be. And look, let me tell you another thing that I think we forget. One of the primary problems, don't think I'm preaching a sermon, maybe I am, when we cease to look at another person and realize that we forget that they're all made in the image of God and they deserve respect, when we lose that, that's when things begin to fall apart.

We start to treat people with hatred, we start to treat them like widgets, and that's where we are today. We look at our polarized country, and when you hear somebody tell you I love Trump, and I love Biden or whatever, think about the reaction from those on the other side.

It's like we are not treating people with the respect that they need and want and that's why I think we're in this spiral and cycle, and what I think it is going to take is I think it is going to take some sort of awakening, where people like you and hopefully myself and many others that we know stand up and say knock off this nonsense.

When I was running the budget committee in Washington, I told Republicans that we were going to treat Democrats with respect. We still got what we wanted, but I was liked by both sides. The same thing as governor. Show respect. You don't have to agree, but stop trying to, you know, destroy somebody's life and their career. That's my view.

VOSSOUGHIAN: Good luck, governor. Good luck, governor.

The correct response would have been bullshit, governor, but I digress.

I'm not going to add anything else here myself about Chuck Todd's column, but all of you might appreciate Keith Olbermann's take from his podcast. Starts at around the 15:30 minute mark, and here's a brief quote from his show's description:

The show trial impeachment of Joe Biden is SO fraudulent that it has even by noticed by Chuck Todd, who has written 1,947 of the dumbest words imaginable on the topic, including the idea - as if he had dreamt it up - that the concept of impeachment has now been diluted.

What Chuck did not mention but I will, is the role NBC News played on the day impeachment - and our original form of government - died. September 21, 1998, the day NBC and all the other networks prostituted themselves to the GOP and ran, unseen and unedited and without any context, Bill Clinton's Grand Jury testimony that had been illegally given to the Republican-run House Judiciary Committee and then illegally broadcast on all the networks while not one of tv's "journalists" made one complaint. It was before Chuck's time at NBC. It was NOT before mine.