• August 1, 2005 | 2:02 p.m. ETRepublicans stand by their man (Joe Scarborough)

A California Democrat who read my recent note on the White House’s cynical shell game with social conservatives wrote to ask why Republicans who feel betrayed by Bush’s big government policies remain loyal.

Regardless of whether you consider Bush to be a true believer or a socialist squish, the truth is Republicans will stand by their man whether he drives the deficit up to $900 billion or appoints a practicing abortionist to the Supreme Court.

Why? Because Bush Republicans, like Clinton Democrats in the '90s, love absolute power more than sound policy.

My most liberal Democratic friends in Congress loathed Bill Clinton’s existence, regularly labeling him a sleazy liar and worthless scumbag.  But as Democratic politicians, victory was more important than virtue. My Republican friends have likewise fallen on their swords.

One more reason to despise political parties.

E-mail:

• July 26, 2005 | 7:29 p.m. ET

Moral relativity in the age of terror (Joe Scarborough)
 
The American and European Left spent the better part of a century preaching moral relativity between U.S. democracy and Soviet totalitarianism. But thanks to the Internet, the most embarrassing quotes uttered by Communist sympathizers in media, government, and Hollywood from 1917 to 1989 can be found.

Funny how opinions changed after the USSR fell in 1991 and we learned the great workers' paradise killed 30 million of its own people — give or take 10 million souls.

Moral relativity in that ideological conflict ended as quickly as the Wall fell.
 
Today, many of the same organizations who attacked America during its war against communism are once again preaching moral relativity. But this time, our twilight battle is against terrorists.

In its recently released report "In Cold Blood," the human rights organization Amnesty International refused to call terrorists blowing up women and children in Iraq by their real name. Instead they are identified simply as "armed groups."

And while criticizing these armed groups, Amnesty goes out of its way to blast U.S. and allied forces in Iraq by saying that Americans "have themselves committed grave violations, including killings of civilians and torture of prisoners."

These charges are obscene on their face.
 
American troops do not grab civilians off the street, shove a video camera in their face, and carve off their head with a knife.

American troops do not detonate bombs in the middle of a group of children collecting candy.
 
American troops do not set out to blow up grandmothers in open-air markets.
 
And American troops do not have as their singular goal the creation of a civil war in Iraq. Yet these terrorists have stated time and again that civil war is their goal in Iraq.

What is so disgusting about all of this is the fact that Amnesty International is well aware of these facts. And yet, they continue preaching moral ambiguity between troops handing candy out to children and terrorists blowing up those same children.

One builds up, the other tears down; One preaches democracy, one calls for terror; One teaches, one kills.
 
And yet Amnesty is so blinded of their hatred of America and its president that they can no longer tell right from wrong.

• July 22, 2005 | 8:12 p.m. ET

So Bush's SCOTUS pick supports abortion? (Joe Scarborough)

The New York Times tells us today that the Bush Administration is depending on their Supreme Court nominee's past writings to win support with conservative voters. Specifically, the Times reports that Bush operatives have been focusing on Judge Roberts' 1990 legal brief oppposing Roe v. Wade.

I must admit that I am confused. That's because the White House is now taking pains to tell the rest of us that the 1990 abortion brief just doesn't matter. In fact, when we highlighted Roberts' opinion in a banner Wednesday night, the White House called our control furiously declaring that the headline was misleading.

They demanded a retraction. Last night I gave it to them:  "Conservatives were told that Judge John Roberts argued to overturn Roe v. Wade in 1990.  The other night, we reported that on the show. Our banner said the following 'Roberts: Overturn Roe v. Wade.'  Well, the White House called us up during the show. They didn't like the banner. They demanded a correction. Here goes: Conservatives, Republicans, members of Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson, Pat Robertson, pro-life advocates across America, I offer you this correction. According to the White House, Judge Roberts now does not oppose Roe vs. Wade.  Whew. Glad I got that off my chest."

Seems to me that George W. Bush and the Bush Administration are playing conservative Republicans as fools. Only time will tell if Roberts is to 43 as Souter was to 41.

What do you think?  You can e-mail me at

• July 20, 2005 | 10:35 a.m. ET

Americans lost an American hero this week — and they don’t even know it.

General William Westmoreland led American troops in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968.

It was an ugly time to be an American soldier. Westmoreland knew that sad truth better than most. He was spit upon, had his image burned in effigy, and had his character maligned by an overwhelmingly hostile media machine.

But the general held his head high and refused to apologize fighting communism in Southeast Asia.

Tragically, Westmoreland’s warnings were ignored in US newsrooms and on college campuses. Democratic and Republican politicians alike proved themselves to be feckless in the face of campus revolts and biased news editors. LBJ and Nixon cut and ran when they should have stood and fought.

Unlike Westmoreland, these Presidents were more interested in silencing leftist critics than in finishing a winnable war. As a result, American troops were betrayed, Cambodia was ripped apart by Pol Pot, and the Vietnamese people were held hostage by a communist police state and a miserable existence where the per capita income is still only $500 a year.

Thank God William Westmoreland was more interested in being right than being fashionable. For that, all Americans owe this soldier a heart felt salute.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• July 13, 2005 | 3:00 p.m. ET

DC  double standards (Joe Scarborough)

No wonder Americans don't trust politicians.

Come to think of it, no wonder Americans don't trust the news media either.

The Karl Rove controversy highlights the hypocrisy infecting Washington's most powerful politicians and reporters.

Republicans are quickly lining up to support Mr. Rove, while Democrats are calling for his head. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has called for Rove's resignation — a silly suggestion from a silly man.

But there is nothing funny about the Republican's treatment of the Rove affair.

Assuming Rove leaked a CIA agent's identity to Time Magazine, GOP leaders should be lining up to condemn the White House Wizard's actions.

Why? Because they would have shredded a Democratic administration for outing an undercover CIA agent during a time of war.

Imagine Bill Clinton's top political advisor leaking a CIA agent's identity because of the actions of the agent's spouse. Republicans, including yours truly, would have been demanding that official's resignation at once.

But with one of their own in the White House, Republicans are instead focusing their attacks on former ambassador Joe Wilson.

Though Wilson is an easy target for writing a book filled with lies with the ironic title "The Politics of Truth," do Republicans suggest that a CIA agent can be called out during a time of war because of their spouse's misdeeds?

If so, it is a frightening new world for undercover agents who are paid to protect our country.

While on the subject of hypocrites, the media's treatment of Joe Wilson is one for the ages.

Apply the same test to the media that I applied to the Rove dust-up. How would the media respond to a Republican ambassador who wrote a campaign check to George W. Bush, lied through his teeth about a CIA investigation, got caught in his lies, and then wrote a book called "The Politics of Truth"?

I suspect the media would have left little more than a grease spot where that lying GOP ambassador once stood. But not so in Joe Wilson's case. As an anti-war Democrat who supported John Kerry in 2004, he was protected by a media machine who shared his sentiments.

So why don't Americans trust politicians or press members anymore? Because in cases like Karl Rove, all sides are circling the wagons for their ideological soul mates instead of telling American people the truth.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• July 7, 2005 |7:50 p.m. ET

We are not a serious people (Joe Scarborough)

How long must we sing this song?

America and its allies are attacked. We promise dramatic measures to repulse the enemy. And in the case of the Nazis or the Taliban, we do just that.

Then contentment sets in.

We stop listening to the warnings of the Churchills and instead focus on the speeches by rock stars and Hollywood actors.

When our world leaders get together, they focus on global warming and the cause of the moment, instead of fighting the war of our lifetime.

But while the rock stars preach, our enemies scheme.

While movie stars practice politics, suicide bombers plan how to kill the most innocent people with a single blast.

Our leaders may ignore anti-terrorism at G8 conferences these days, but that suddenly changes when the first reports of explosions come in. Then suddenly, that idiot Bush starts looking a bit better next to the likes of the Chiracs and Schroeders of the world. And Blair suddenly seems to have a more realistic grasp on global realities than, say, Bob Geldof.

I am sure many Americans would like to believe that this attack will awaken world leaders.

But I doubt it.

We live in a silly age.

The age of Hilton.

The age of Teddy.

The age of Chirac.

We are not a serious people.

Some concern themselves more with terrorists' rights than civilization's future. Reporters work overtime demeaning the very troops who protect our land. And rock stars replace grim Cassandras like Bush and Churchill as the prophets of pop culture.

The results are almost always disastrous.

Today in London they were deadly.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• July 6, 2005 | 9:55p.m. ET

Jailing journalist undermines good government (Joe Scarborough)

Americans lost their best check on corrupt politicians today, and they don't even know it.

Federal Judge Thomas Hogan sent New York Times reporter Judy Miller to jail today for refusing to divulge the name of a source who "outed" an undercover CIA agent.

While the media is focusing on how Miller's jailing will impact American journalism, I am far more concerned with how the court decision will undermine good government in Washington.

As one who has worked in the back rooms of Congress, I know government corruption and political misdeeds are most often revealed by unnamed sources anonymously passing must-know information to a reporter.

Why wouldn't an informant have the courage to reveal himself as the source of an important story?

There are countless reasons, but I will give you one.

Soon after the attempted coup of Newt Gingrich, several congressional leaders behaved very badly. Those who knew the true story of that ugly chapter in Congressional history thought it important to let Americans know how their leaders behaved when no one was looking.

I gave the inside story to the Hill's Sandy Hume and the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly. The story got out and these leaders' careers never recovered.

So why couldn't I have revealed myself as the source at the time?

Because Washington is an unforgiving place and I would have been crushed by the Republican leadership. That would have made me a good-government martyr but it also would have had a devastating impact on my constituents in Florida's First Congressional District.

To reveal my name in those stories would have been reckless. But to remain silent would have been immoral.

My story is repeated in Washington a hundred times every day. And because of it, we have one of the cleanest governments in the world. That will now change with Miller's jailing and Time Magazine's shameless decision to turn on a confidential source.

Government whistle blowers face a brave new world. It is a world where champions of good government are silenced and reporters who speak truth to power are jailed.

Good job, Judge Hogan.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• June 29, 2005 | 9:21 p.m. ET

Thinly sourced rumors fill new Hillary book (Joe Scarborough)

Much has been said in media circles this week regarding Ed Klein's unauthorized biography on Hillary Clinton. Several media outlets have refused to interview Klein because of the salacious stories and whispered rumors that the author jams into his piece of work.

The charges are explosive-accusing President Clinton of rape and the N.Y. Senator of engaging in sexual practices that, if believed, could derail her presidential aspirations.  The rumors are thinly sourced and the material lifted in great part from other works of fiction.

When I learned that Mr. Klein was booked on Scarborough Country, I started asking questions. What were the stories? Who were his sources? And most importantly, what was the relevance?

After learning that the stories were inflammatory, the sources were weak, and the book's relevance was less than zero, I canceled the booking.

Why? Because it was the right thing to do.

But being the contrarian that I am, I just have to ask the question of all those esteemed networks now banning Ed Klein: if Mr. Klein is beneath your network's high standards, then why did you let Kitty Kelly on the air last year in the final stages of the presidential campaign?

Nothing to do, I'm sure, with the fact that her nuclear tipped biography bashed the Republican Bushes instead of the Democratic Clintons.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• June 27, 2005 | 4.50 p.m. ET

Supreme Court rulings point to future fight (Joe Scarborough)

Today’s Supreme Court decisions on the Ten Commandments show a court at war with itself.

In two closely divided opinions, the country’s highest court split the proverbial baby when it came to displaying the same Biblical document the Supremes have on their own walls.

In a Kentucky case the Supreme Court ruled that displaying the Ten Commandments in Kentucky Courthouses did violence to the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court seemed to take a 180 degree ideological shift in a similar Texas case where they determined that a Ten Commandment monument prominently displayed on Capitol property was constitutionally valid.

Conservative critics immediately blasted the court for turning their backs on men and women of faith and abandoning the direction of our founding fathers.

Best selling author Mark Levin told me today that these decisions prove “this is the most liberal court in recent history.”

Perhaps, but don’t try telling that to the mainstream media. It continues to characterize this US Supreme Court as overwhelmingly conservative.

Most court observers consider this court moderate at best.  Maybe that’s why George W. Bush’s upcoming appointments to the court will cause political bloodshed to be spilled in the coming months.

Make no mistake about it. The President’s next appointment to the Supreme Court will not a battle over the views of one judicial appointee. 

It will be a fight over the heart and soul of America’s future.

E-mail me at

Watch my show every Monday - Friday at 10 p.m. ET

• June 6, 2005 | 5:06 p.m. ET

Vlog: John Bolton v. Michael Bolton (Joe Scarborough)

FREE VIDEO Vlog: Battle of the Boltons Jun. 6: With a DV-cam in tow, Joe Scarborough pounded the pavement in a small, Florida town  to get people's opinion on UN nominee John Bolton. MSNBC

Friends, the first Scarborough Country video blog came into being just as Washington frothed at its collective mouth over John Bolton, President Bush's nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Democrats warned darkly what a Bolton appointment could mean. Republicans demanded the president's man be given a chance.  Both sides spoke as though the very future of the republic were at stake. Meanwhile, back in the Redneck Riviera, down in Pensacola, Florida......

What do you think of our first Vlog? 

E-mail me at

See you at 10 p.m. ET.

• May 20, 2005 | 9:15 am. ET The Empire strikes back II  (Joe Scarborough)

I take back the nice things I said about The New York Times last week.

Forget the day the editorial page wrote a few nice words about our soldiers' work in Iraq. Today they have proven once again that the mainstream media can't print enough bad news about our troops.

Today shocking evidence that U.S. troops abused prisoners in Afghanistan is splashed in a massive front page article in the Times. The details come from an Army report and the timing of the Times article is suspect at best.

Like I said earlier this week, media elites always protect themselves. When Newsweek got slammed it was only a matter of time before other media outlets dug up the most offending articles they could find on our men and women in uniform.

I see it all the time in politics. If a candidate gets caught in a lie, he quickly tries to change the subject by throwing more mud at his opponent. The mud keeps flying until some of the slanderous material sticks.

Since Newsweek and the mainstream media were set back on their heels by the Koran story, it was critical that the Times put out another piece to show just how terrible American troops were.

This morning they succeeded.

Here's the punch line: the reports of detailed abuse come from 2002. That's right. The New York Times finds allegations of abuse that go back three years! Coincidentally released a few days after Newsweek skins its nose writing an article that defames our troops.

But as I said earlier this week, these guys still don't get it. Americans will give them no credit for circling the wagons around Newsweek if it comes at the price of bashing our troops.

And despite the Times' self-righteous claims of trying to protect human rights, this is all about a media war that continues to rage between the old and new media.

Unfortunately for our soldiers, these brave Americans are caught in the crossfire.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• May 19, 2005 | 1:05 p.m. ET

Afternoon Read:  (Joe Scarborough)

Welcome to Scarborough Country.  Here are just a few of the stories we are following today... please tune in tonight for the rest of the stories that you won't see elsewhere.

• American optimism is really, really high. Shocker. Another great story you won't see in the mainstream media.
  "American optimism stuns pollsters"
• When religion and politics meet in America, it's usually interesting, always heated. Should he run, we'll see more of this.
  "Cardinal a no-show over Rudy"
• The intelligence of some school administrators these days is just unbelievable.
  "Pregnant Alabama student, banned from graduation, walks anyway"
• This kind of statement may fly in other countries, but not here. If enough Americans hear about this it could come to one or the other: retraction, or boycott.
  "Pepsi Exec Likens America to Middle Finger"
• Does he realize he is diminishing the message of the mainstream media?
  "Clinton says changes in Iraq will be good for Mideast"
• This next story makes you wonder if anybody, ANYBODY, vets teachers anymore before they stand before a classroom full of kids?
  "Third-grade teacher who slit wrists in front of students arrested on child molestation charges"
• The Newsweek Story was Bush's fault! Please. Strap on your seatbelt before reading this piece from one of the 'Jersey Girls.
  '"Flush Bush"
• A terrible story; someone must be held accountable, and charges filed.
  "Pit Bull Kills Toddler in West Virginia"
• Hillary's Bread and Butter. My guess is that she has a new bookkeeper for this one.
  "Hollywood Hil: Celebs to raise funds"
• More of the ridiculous: "Pretty Woman" star weighs in on the conflict in the Middle East, tells leaders to 'think out of the box.
  "Richard Gere: Drop the stuff"

E-mail:

• May 18, 2005 | 8:40 p.m. ET

Child predators:  Raise your voice (Joe Scarborough)

It is easy for Americans to become cynical. But tonight's Scarborough Country show is a great example of how your voice can make a difference.

Tonight we will have John Walsh on our show.

The star of "America's Most Wanted," Mr. Walsh, got involved in the fight against child predators after he lost his child. He has been a tireless advocate for years on some of the very issues we are fighting for in our Scarborough Country campaign.

John joined Florida Congressman Mark Foley on Capitol Hill today to be there when the Congressman joined Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in introducing a piece of legislation meant to get the federal government involved in our battle against child predators.

The bill is great news on several fronts.

It gets tough on child predators and dares to spend the money needed to put many of these animals behind bars.

But the positive back story on the Foley-Hatch bill is the fact that it was driven by you: the viewers of Scarborough Country.

You stepped up and made your voice heard when I asked you to send your emails to me to get this legislation introduced. Both Congressman Foley and John Walsh said Scarborough Country viewers played a big role in getting this historic bill drafted and put on the floor of Congress.

But John Walsh reminded me that the real battle begins now.

You must raise your voice again and demand that this tough new bill passes Congress.

The way to do that is simple. Email me at and tell me why you think Congress and the President should work together to pass a law that contains the critical elements in the Scarborough Country campaign. All the details are on the website.

Read up, follow up with an email, and let me take your concerns to Capitol Hill.

Now is not the time to be cynical.

Now is the time to fight back.

Together, we can and will make a difference in the lives of America's children.

E-mail:

If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• May 18, 2005 | 4:19 p.m. ET

The empire strikes back (Joe Scarborough)

It only seems fitting that on the eve of the final Star Wars installment, a once powerful empire is striking back at a rebel leader who is challenging the established political order.

The Empire, America's massive media machine, is in tatters.

The New York Times' scandal followed by Rathergate followed by Newsweek's deadly mistake only adds numbers to the resistance who believe the deathstar conservatives call the Mainstream Media (MSM) can be breached and destroyed.

I guess I am more like that Lando character played by Billy Dee Williams in "Return of the Jedi." I'm not fighting a war to bring down any empire but even my patience has its limits.

And those limits were tested yesterday when I awoke to read a column by an apologist for the MSM who somehow turned Newsweek's terrible error into yet another reason to bash the Bush administration.

Apparently, the conspiracy theorists have determined that it was the White House who wanted Newsweek to run the story that would get 17 people killed that would damage U.S. foreign policy across all corners of the earth that would undermine George W. Bush's top objective of exporting democracy to Muslim states.

Why would Bush take the proverbial gun and stick it down his own throat?

The conspiracy nut-bars suggest all to embarrass the press.

Let's see here. Win the global war on terror or tweak Michael Isikoff?

Damn. That's a tough one.

But it is a conspiracy theory born of hostility for this President, his foreign policy, and the exceedingly grim fact that his plan to spread freedom across the most oppressed region in the world just may be working.

But the root of the Empire's rage may rest a bit deeper, in caves where Yoda and Luke never dared to explore.

Perhaps, it is because the MSM realizes that with each new journalistic scandal they are sealing their own fate. The sad fact is that only 39 percent of Americans trust news outlets to give them the news straight. And their arrogant way of responding to each new scandal only makes matters worse.

The Empire's anger was on full display last night as the White House spokesman took a flurry of questions that asked, in effect, how he could dare to tell Newsweek to take some positive steps to stop the protests and killings launched by their article.

The nadir of the press corps' performance was when one reporter asked this question: "Are you asking them to write a story about how great the American military is; is that what you're saying here?"

How pathetic.

How stupid do they think Americans are?

No one is suggesting that Newsweek or the New York Times tells the truth about our troops. No one really believes they will ever write a story about how great the American military soldiers are. It goes against the Empire's grain. 

Besides, who is ever going to win a Pulitzer telling a positive truth about the men and women who serve proudly in America's armed forces?

The Empire only rewards those who write articles attacking our troops, trashing our foreign policy, and reporting on America's bloody imperialistic designs.

The Empire may be striking back today. But the events of the last week should provide no member of the MSM comfort. Their arrogance played itself out on stage yesterday and left me with one depressing conclusion.

These people still don't get it.

E-Mail:

• May 18, 2005 | 12:15 p.m. ET

Afternoon read (Joe Scarborough)

• Nothing beats a good paper trail: The Washington Times provides some dirt on the top story of the day.
  "Memos reveal strategy behind judge filibusters"
• The New York Times on the morality of Newsweek: take it from those who know.
  "A sudden taste for openness"
• A good, stinging analysis comparing the Newsweek story with Rathergate
  "Newsweek: A Dan Rather rerun"
• The Tribe has Spoken, Ward Churchill. Word from the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians: You're not one of us!
  "Tribe snubs prof: Cherokee band says Churchill's claim of membership a fraud"
• A different tribe has spoken... this one still reeling after Rathergate.
  "CBS cancels Wednesday '60 Minutes'"
• Our hospitals are treating huge numbers of illegal aliens and you are paying for it. Why?
  "Mexicans go to Ariz. for medical help"
• Only in America: man is hopping mad, says he was fired for a tryst with another beer.
  "Colorado man says Budweiser distributor fired him for drinking Coors"
• I love the double standard here. Raise an objection to this and look out!
  "The Activists' guide to the prom"
• Harvard Prof says it's merely an attempt to buy-off the critics.
  "Harvard is wasting $50 million"
• Chances are you've been there, and if you haven't, you will soon. Whole Foods is turning heads. But is it trying to indoctrinate you?
  "Brainwashing, aisle 3"
• Expel them, that will surely solve the problem. This is laughable.
  "Study: 600 pre-school kids expelled In N.Y."
• Love in the workplace, a 'preference for spanking' and now a lawsuit!
  "Hill aide sues over sex blog"
• And now for the completely ridiculous. Bill Clinton, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel, The Dalai Lama, some 30 Nobel Laureates, and "Pretty Woman" star Richard Gere meet to solve the world's problems.
  "Richard Gere joins Jordan Summit"

E-mail:

• May 17, 2005 | 6:19 p.m. ET

Afternoon read (Joe Scarborough)

Here are just a few of the stories we are following today. Tune in tonight for the rest of the stories that you won't see elsewhere. 

• The fallout from the Newsweek story continues...last night we talked about the decline of media credibility. Today's opinion journal picks up where we left off.
  "Journalists and the Military: Newsweek's explosive allegation was no 'honest mistake'".
• And now for something completely different: the New York Sun editorial is a more forgiving take on this whole Newsweek mess
  "The other side of Newsweek"
• You never know what Chrsitopher Hitchens is going to say — but he's always worth reading.
  "History and Mystery: Why does the New York Times insist on calling jihadists 'insurgents'?"
• We've been so busy with the Newsweek flap that we had temporarily forgotten about the "other" story — a.k.a Rathergate. Yesterday, good fortune brought Dan and Mary back together again in New York — for the Peabody Awards.
  "Rather, Mapes reunited at Peabodys"
• Is the ACLU pushing a secular agenda in America?  Read this next story; just what is the ACLU afraid of?
  "ACLU suit sees religious content in abstinence plan"
• Is conservatism over? Pat Buchanan says it has "passed into history." 
  "Buchanan sees 'war' within conservatism"
• Ladies and gentlemen, he's baaaaaack. University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill is in the news. For his latest dose of tangled logic, here's the story with quotes from his legal response to the faculty committee investigating him.
  "Churchill states case"
• Is there yet another Ward Churchill on the loose? You won't believe it until you read about her.
  "Professor defends website"
• Two weeks ago, The Reverend Jesse Jackson was in Florida calling the handcuffing of a fiver-year- old girl "terrorism." Now, he says the right is trying to "ensconce zealots on the bench."
  "Our entire way of life is at stake"
• And now for the completely ridiculous. A school in Oregon bans hugging. What's next on their agenda, a ban on holding hands? It's absurd what the P.C. Police are trying to do to America.
  "Hugging ban sparks dispute at Ore. school"
• Shakedown alert! The headline in this next story says it all. What's amazing is just how much one sentence can cost you these days.
  "Harvard pledges diversity: Summers tries to make up with $50M kiss"
  

E-mail:

• May 16, 2005 | 2:31 p.m. ET

Afternoon read (Joe Scarborough)

Welcome to Scarborough Country. 

Here are just a few of the stories we are following today.  Tune in tonight for the rest of the stories that you won't see elsewhere.

• The big story today is Newsweek and the fallout from their erroneous story. The question is who was the "senior U.S. government official"?
  "Newsweek editor apologizes; Koran report inaccurate"
• If you're wondering why it's such an important story, here's just part of the fallout.  Muslims pointing the finger at America for a Newsweek error, and calling for Jihad.
  "Muslims skeptical over Newsweek back-track on Koran"
• So who are the terrorists in Iraq? Saudia Arabians, according to an interesting piece in the Washington Post.
  "'Martyrs' In Iraq Mostly Saudis"
• The fillibuster of Bush's Judicial Nominees could come to a head this week. Senate Majority Leader Bill First boils it down to a  "question of fairness." 
  "It's time for up-or-down vote"
• While it's quite clear who will be a front runner in the democratic party for 2008, it's less clear who will be on the GOP ticket. Bob Woodward throws the Vice President's name into the ring.
  "Woodward Calls Cheney a 'Serious' Dark Horse for 2008 Run for White House"
• The papers are hemorrhaging readers, but perhaps if they listened to Americans there wouldn't be such a divide. A brand new University of Connecticut survey has some interesting findings: for starters, 61 percent feel the media reports its news with bias.
  "Survey: Press, public not on the same page"
• And for yet another example of the disconnect between the media and Americans, check out the new civil war within PBS. 
  "A Battle Over Programming at National Public Radio"
• And there's more... Bill Moyers is up arms, lashing out at Ken Tomlinson for shining the light on PBS. Sometimes the truth hurts.
  "Moyers defends PBS, takes aim at radical right"
• Front page of the Los Angeles Times, catching on to what Americans really care about. Is it possible that Americans carry their faith into their place of work? Interesting premise.
  "Faithful Are Carving Niche in the Workplace"
• Last week we heard from Reverand Sharpton on this issue. Now it's Jesse's Turn. Question: Wouldn't it have more impact if they joined forces? Why can't they just be friends?
  "Jesse Jackson: Calif. Shooting a Hate Crime"
• The New York Post, hot on the trail. Andrea Peyser recently wrote that "Jennifer Wilbanks hails from a slice of the South where 32-year-old never-married women are either insane, in prison or gay." This next story shed's a little more light on the situation.
  "Jilting Jenny Drawn to an Old Flame"
• And now for the completely ridiculous — teaching proper English through Rap and Hip-Hop? Next up, Braille instruction through Conga drumming. 
  "Singapore turns to rap and hip-hop"

Any good stories catching your eye?  E-mail Joe at

• May 13, 2005 | 6:34 p.m. ET

God Bless the New York Times (Joe Scarborough)

God Bless the New York Times.

That's right. Heard it right here.

God Bless the New York Times.

After housing an editorial page that spent the first 18 months of the Iraq War trashing our efforts overseas, the Times started to slowly turn the corner after the January 30 Iraqi elections.

Sure. It may have been a no-brainer, but other MSM outlets are still refusing to face the realities of the post-election world. (See yesterday's blog on ABC News).

Today, the Times did a version of Scarborough Country's "Good News Iraq." It was a calendar of April showing one positive thing that happened every day of the month in Iraq.

Soldiers and Marines tell me there are so many great things happening day in and day out in Iraq that their biggest challenge is looking past the negative American press.

Sure there are bombings. But outlets like the New York Times have failed to provide perspective by ignoring all the great things our soldiers and marines are doing under the most difficult of circumstances.

That all changed, at least for a day. And for that I say, God Bless the New York Times.

Watch Scarborough Country at 10 p.m. ET only on MSNBC

• May 13, 2005 | 7:25 a.m. ET

Lesson #1 : Fighting back (Joe Scarborough)

Okay. Here is today's lesson in politics.

If you are going to push another politician around, you better make sure you can knock him to the ground. Swinging at him like a sissy is only going to get you punched in the mouth.

I am reminded of this lesson that I taught more than a few people during my time in Congress. Seems like someone forgot this basic political rule at Republican headquarters last week.

All hell broke lose a few weeks back when Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) refused to vote for John Bolton in committee. The furry-faced diplomat was tapped by President Bush to be America's next Ambassador to the United Nations.

But Senator Voinovich didn't take kindly to Bolton's rough personality. Maybe it was a Midwest thing.

So the Republican Party started nailing the Senator to the wall in his own state by taking out radio ads that suggested the former Ohio Governor was a traitor to his president and his party. The ads were ugly and left Voinovich with only two options.

1. He could back down and look like a craven coward who let fat white pink boys at the RNC kick him around in his own state, or,

2. He could kick back by embarrassing the party operatives, Mr. Bolton, and the President.

Any politician worth his weight in spit would choose number two.

The Senator knew that, and the White House should have too.

But Republican operatives trapped Senator Voinovich in a corner. Instead of cowering, he decided to fight his way out.

Now it's John Bolton's turn.

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• May 12, 2005 | 6:22 p.m. ET

Hey ABC News, we get it! (Joe Scarborough)

Don't look now but ABC News' political unit is very angry.

It seems the boys and girls on the Upper West Side think the media needs to pay more attention to the death and destruction ripping through Iraq.  That, at least, is the conclusion drawn in today's ABC News email "The Note."

Here is a relevant portion of this morning's newsletter: "Brides gotta run, planes gotta stray, and cable news networks gotta find a way to fill a lot of programming hours as cheaply as possible...We say with all the genuine apolitical and non-partisan human concern that we can muster that the death and carnage in Iraq is truly staggering.  But we are sort of resigned to the notion that it simply isn't going to break through to American news organizations, or, for the most part, Americans."

Are these guys serious?

Should I immediately delete all Notes when they come in to my Blackberry every morning?
Do they really think that American news organizations haven't shown enough blood and guts out of Iraq?

Seems to me if they would get out of the Starbucks on Columbus Circle long enough to talk to people who actually consume their news, they would learn that we idiots in Middle America are quite aware of the fact that people are dying in Iraq every day.

How could we miss it?

All the networks crammed those gory images down our collective throats every chance they got leading up to last year's Presidential election.

After said grim images were beamed into our living room every night, a talking head oozing gravitas would tilt his head and solemnly declare that yes, this was the bloody week of fighting that could very well turn Americans against this war (dramatic pause here)...and against this President.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one!

I am amazed that so many in the mainstream media still don't get it. As I told a group of network executives 18 months ago, Americans long ago made up their minds about Iraq.
It is a bloody war. It is a messy war. It is a necessary war.

Abu Ghraib, Richard Clarke, WMDs, Howard Dean, Joseph Wilson, the 16 words, al Sadr, Fallujah, yellowcake, Zarqawi, the kidnappings, the beheadings, Fallujah II, and Osama Bin Laden did nothing to change that fact.

ABC News' political unit can be transfixed on the carnage all they want.

They can continue to ignore the positive stories coming out of Iraq.

They can continue to overlook the fact that the Marines and soldiers who are putting their lives on the line when they go to work every morning — instead of Starbucks in Manhattan — still believe in the mission.

They can ignore the election.

They can ignore Syria.

They can ignore Libya.

They can ignore Lebanon.

They can ignore Egypt.

They can ignore Palestine.

Yes. Palestine.

In fact, "The Note" can ignore all the progress they want.

But please. Don't suggest that the Great Unwashed in Flyover Space are just too stupid to focus on this remarkable story.

We have focused on it and we've made up our minds. Just because you don't agree with our conclusion is your problem, not ours.

Hate to tell you this, but you sound like the Republicans who chased Bill Clinton for years and just couldn't come to terms with the fact that they were out of touch with how most American's felt.

Maybe it's time for you to just get over it.  Meanwhile, tell us more about that crazy-eyed bride!!!

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• May 12, 2005 | 1:58 p.m. ET

Bicycler-in-Chief left in the dark (Joe Scarborough)

I like riding bikes.

Actually, that's a lie.

I think it is a horrendous waste of time. I like eating Hot Fudge Sundaes and knocking back iced mochas with massive amounts of whip cream. I like reading books and newspapers, sitting by the pool all day like Chairman Mao with Blackberry and cheeseburger in tow.

But were I the President of the United States instead of a walking coronary eruption waiting to happen, I would probably exercise much like our current buff Commander-in-Chief.

Somebody once told me that exercising sharpens one's mind more than sitting on a couch eating ribs and drinking sickly sweet iced tea. I have my doubts about that still unproven theory but am willing to give health care officials the benefit of the doubt.

So POTUS riding a bike in rural Maryland may be a good thing.

But POTUS being left in the dark while screaming and gnashing of teeth is the order of the day in official Washington is probably not such a bright idea.

White House spokesman Scott McClellen told reporters that the President was pleased with how the situation developed yesterday and that all systems worked as planned.

Really?

The Vice President and his motorcade screeched out of the White House compound and the President was still pedaling away.

The United States Congress was in the middle of a vote when Capital Police rushed in and started screaming at the top of their lungs: "Get out now! This is not a drill! Leave!"

The President? Still pumpin' those pedals.

The First Lady (for those keeping score at home, this is the Bicycler-in-Chief's wife) was rushed to a secure location.

But no one told President and hubby George W. Bush.

I hate to break it to White House officials, but their fearless leader knew less about the security crisis gripping the nation's capital than millions of Americans.

If the President isn't troubled by these developments, then I am.

As Mr. Bush likes to remind us, we are in a war on terror where seconds count.

The first frenzied moments of September 11th were filled with fear, confusion, and very bad intelligence. If the situation yesterday was so dire that the White House was put on its first red alert since 9/11, the Commander in Chief should have been let in on that little secret.

It would be like keeping Churchill in the dark during Nazi attacks over London. Imagine one of the Prime Minister's men saying to security detail, "Winston is painting at Chartwell right now. Probably best if the P.M. is not disturbed."

It would not happen then. It should not happen now.

If the President of the United States cannot have his bike ride interrupted to learn of a possible terror attack on Washington, then he is not fit to lead this country in its war on terror.

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• May 12, 2005 | 9:05 a.m. ET

Thoughts for Thursday (Joe Scarborough)

Here are some of the stories the teeming masses are talking about in Scarborough Country today.

A lot of us in Flyover Space are scratching our heads trying to figure out why the President of the United States was one of the last human beings on the planet to learn that Washington, D.C. was under evacuation notice yesterday afternoon.

That's right. While a big chunk of Americans were watching, listening, or talking about the news out of the nation's capital, President Bush was...riding a bike.

All the President's Men didn't tell him of the possible terror attack until an hour after the crisis was resolved.

I can already predict the title of Michael Moore's next movie: "My Pet Bike."

SC's good friend, Pat Buchanan, has spent a good deal of his life being associated with military hawks intent on grinding Communism into a fine, thin dust.

But a funny thing happened after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The former presidential candidate and Communications Director for Ronald Reagan turned into an anti-war dove. By now most of us know that Pat raised strong objections to Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

For him, the Iraq wars just weren't worth America's blood and treasure.

But today, Mr. Buchanan takes it a step further and suggests that far from being the Good War, WWII was a waste of time. Read it and tell me what you think at .

Also, news today that one of the stooges must of gotten taken out by a pie stunt gone terribly wrong because I can only count two stooges in this story about Congressmen suggesting that PBS hiring conservatives may be illegal.

Seems like they're now concerned about political bias at the network of 60's survivors.

If we discover that such bias is in fact illegal, does that mean that Bill Moyers is consigned to an ideological concentration camp for daring to voice his looney, left wing opinions?

Just curious.

While we are talking about news reporting, a right to die group wants to give CNN's Aaron Brown an award for the way he reported the slow death of Terry Schiavo. In the words of former Brat Packer Ally Sheedy, "We just loved how CNN covered the Schiavo case."

Sheedy's step mom, who wrote "The Good Death”, is also being honored.
Wonder what Mr. Brown said that got those knees buckling over at the pro-death camp?
BTW, hope the final Star Wars episode gives us something good to remember. Episodes I and II were both disappointing.

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• May 11, 2005 | 9:12 p.m. ET

Jacko trial no thriller (Joe Scarborough)

Will Michael Jackson walk?

To tell you the truth, I really haven't paid much attention to this week's celebrity trial of the century. But I do know this. If history serves as a guide, Michael will be back in Neverland soon enough entertaining young boys from across the world.

That doesn't mean I don't think Jackson is guilty. I do.

But one lesson we all have learned in the Age of O.J. is that all celebrities walk.

Simpson was obviously guilty. But instead facing life in jail, he is spending his days looking for Nicole's killer on some of the finest golf courses in America.

More recently, it was Robert Blake who seemed to get away with murder.

That whole Baretta bit about not doing the time unless you can do the time? Just more Hollywood B. S.

Not only did Blake walk, he predicted his acquittal in secretly recorded conversations. Blake was sure that turning the trial into a celebrity showcase would sway an ignorant jury.

Maybe he was right.

And perhaps we will see the same result in the Michael Jackson case.

If the music star were a poor black man from South Central L. A., Mike Jackson would already be in jail serving a long sentence. But since he is who he is, the pop star will beat the rap, write a book, and laugh all the way to the bank.

And justice for all? Yeah, right.

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• May 11, 2005 | 5:43 p.m. ET

Lessons learned from 9/11 (Joe Scarborough)

While the media deconstructs what happened over the skies of Washington earlier today, it is already obvious that our Homeland Security efforts are paying off in the nation's capitol.

All reports I have gotten from people who work in the Capitol and White House are positive.

Evacuation plan was followed efficiently, congressmen and senators were calmly escorted to secure locations, and the White House was locked down in a matter of minutes.

Compare that to what happened in the hours following the September 11th attacks.

Chaos swept the White House, Congress, and the capital city.

I was in Florida on September 11th.

After seeing the World Trade Centers and Pentagon go up in smoke, I immediately called my congressional staff in Washington and told them to get out of the building.

The calm response on the other side of the line told me that the congressional leaders had told them to stay put. No need to worry.

Still unaware that a plane was circling around in Pennsylvania with plans to reduce the U.S. Capitol to rubble, I yelled into the phone, "Get the hell out of that building now! That's an order."

My staff quickly got their things together and ran to a secure location.

Soon after we learned that the Capitol plot was nixed when Todd Beamer prayed a quiet prayer and then turned to fellow passengers on his doomed flight and said, "Let's roll."

Beamer's heroic act saved the lives of many in Washington that day. It was also America's first counterattack in the new war on terror. Beamer was prepared to take the fight to the enemy on that day. And millions of Americans answered the call in the coming days.

Which brings us to today's scare.

This afternoon ended up being a practice drill for a real attack that could come sooner rather than later. If D.C. officials' response to today's scare is any indication, it looks like some people in Washington may of learned something from 9/11 after all.

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• May 11, 2005 | 1:48 p.m. ET

Democratic Minority Leader shirks responsibility (Joe Scarborough)

Harry Reid is a loser.

There. I've said it. And I'm not sorry.

U.S. relations with world powers will not be shaken by my observation.

The financial markets will not quake or quiver.

Terrorists will not take comfort in my incendiary remarks.

Maybe that is because I get paid to give you my opinions — to say and write what is on my mind.

If I were still in Congress, I would watch everything I said and wrote. Were I the Democratic leader of the US Senate, I would measure every last word. My internal editing standard would be extraordinarily high.

With great powers comes great responsibility.

Unfortunately, Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid is shirking his responsibility.

Last Friday, while the President was overseas meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the highest ranking Democrat in Washington took it upon himself to call the President of the United States a "loser."

Imagine what the media's reaction would have been if then Senate Leader Trent Lott had called Bill Clinton a "loser" while he was overseas on a diplomatic mission of critical importance.

The reaction would have been ugly.

The fact the Democratic leader's insult was virtually ignored by the mainstream media emboldened Senator Reid. After backing away from his remarks on Friday, he has embraced them today, fashioning himself as a straight shooter.  

The fact that Harry Reid can't discipline himself and act like a grown man not only speaks ill of the Democratic Party. It says terrible things about the man himself.

What a loser.

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• May 11, 2005 | 9:05 a.m. ET

Morning Read (Joe Scarborough)

Here's a quick look at what the teeming masses are reading in Scarborough Country this morning.

Terrorists in Iraq still don't get it. The season is over. Nothing more can be done. They are the New York Yankees of the Middle East. They lost.

And yet, these terror groups do the only thing they can do. They blow themselves up in hopes of killing more women and children.

Hmm. Will that get US troops out of Iraq? No.

Will that make the Iraqi people love them more? Not even close.

Will that help them build their ranks? Of course not.

All they are doing now with this latest spasm of violence is furthering guaranteeing America's presence for years to come. Now the Shia, the Sunnis, and the Kurds want us to stay around as long as possible. Now, US troops mean stability, not imperialism.

Thanks, guys.

In D.C., it's the Democrats who have lost their fight over grabbing Tom DeLay's scalp.

in the 1990s, Republicans I served with in Congress always wondered why then Speaker Newt Gingrich would attack Democrats but never be prepared for their response. Plan A was always great. It just never occurred to him that the Democrats would have a Plan B.

The same can be said of Nancy Pelosi's Democrats in today's Tom DeLay case.

They attack DeLay for his traveling. The press swoops down like vultures trying to pick his bones dry. But then we in Scarborough Country point out that DeLay's frequent flier numbers are much lower than Democrats in Congress.

NBC picks up the story and suddenly the true numbers come out. And it's embarrassing. The top ten travelers in Congress turn out to all be Democrats. Check out the list from Political Money Line.  

Questions for the day:

1. Why is Senator Obama spending his political capital standing along side ex-KKK Senator Robert Byrd at a fundraiser?

2. Why are the 60-plus Rolling Stones going back out on tour? Do they still think they have a chance of making it with the 15-year-old girls that fueled their creativity in the '60s? By the way, I wonder how bassist Bill Wyman's relationship with that 14-year-old turned out? Probably dumped her when she turned legal.

3. Can any Democrat stop Hillary Clinton from running in 2008? Insiders I talk to say she will get trounced by McCain or Rudy.

Tune into Scarborough Country weeknights at 10 p.m. ET.

• May 10, 2005 | 7:46 p.m. ET

Tonight, Secret Service agents are on their way back to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia to learn more about a possible assassination attempt against President Bush. We will give you all the details tonight in Scarborough Country.

My guess is that we won't know the details of that grenade attack for some time. But we already know the President's trip was a great success.

More than 300,000 Georgian citizens came out to hear the American president speak on his favorite topic: freedom. It is a subject the President knows well and a topic that citizens of the former Soviet state want to learn more about.

While the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of Hitler's demise, many countries in Eastern Europe reminded the world this weekend that in 1945, they traded in a Hitler for a Stalin.

Considering the Soviet butcher killed even more of his own people than Hitler, the transfer of power was not a great bargain.

Eastern Europe's liberation did not come at the hands of FDR and Churchill. Instead, it was Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II who set them free in 1989.

While that conservative triumvirate drove many leftists into a rage, it also drove the Soviet Union out of existence.

Maybe that's why our new allies in Georgia, Latvia, and Poland appreciate the gift of freedom more than those who received in from American soldiers 60 years ago this week.

The French and Germans don't have to be as gracious as our new Georgian friends.

I just want them to show us a little loyalty the next time America needs a few friends at the United Nations.

How quickly they forget.

For more details on the possible assassination attempt on President Bush, watch Scarborough Country at 10 p.m. ET for details — only on MSNBC.

• May 10, 2005 | 5:04 p.m. ET

I know this is not going to shock you, but politicians in Washington are hypocrites. If you are one of the 14 people in America that still don't believe that, take a look at the filibuster debate.

Filibuster debate. Ugh!

The two words bring on sleep faster than mixing Valium and vodka. (Not that I would know!)

And while I spend a great deal of time telling you why Washington does not matter as much as Washington thinks it matters, this is one of those rare times when a debate about an archaic rule change could change your life.

This debate is not about lower court judges. It is about the two justices George W. Bush will appoint this summer. Those two will decide whether Roe v. Wade and scores of other landmark cases are upheld or overturned.

Huge political stakes!

But the hypocrisy part of this story comes by looking at the positions of senators operating under a Republican president and comparing those positions to where they stood when Democrat Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office.

In the late ‘90s, Democratic senators like Pat Leahy were preaching on the evils of the filibuster. The Senate Judiciary Chairman even declared that the filibuster should never be used to block judicial nominees from getting an up or down vote.

Leahy's position was predictably shared by the same Democrats who are now the strongest supporter of the filibuster to block up or down votes.

The same Pat Leahy who preached outright prohibition against judicial filibusters now claims the Republicans who are adopting his position are guilty of destroying the Constitution and doing great violence to America's systems of checks and balances.

The media has proven itself to be equally inconsistent.

The same New York Times that recently claimed Senate Majority Leader Bill First's attempts to do away with the judicial filibuster will establish a U.S. theocracy said this of the filibuster in 1995, again, when Bill Clinton was trying to appoint liberal judges.

"The filibuster is an archaic rule that frustrates democracy and serves no useful purpose."

Interesting change of opinion, wouldn't you say?

Don't get me wrong. I think the nuclear option is no option at all. The U.S. Senate is supposed to be the deliberative body.

The Senate I loved in 1993 and 1994 for killing Bill Clinton's most offensive legislation was the same Senate I detested when they did the same thing to the Republican Revolution's offerings in 1995 and 1996.

When I cooled down a few years later, I understood the genius of our Founding Fathers.

The Senate is a check on majoritarian instincts.

Hopefully others in the U.S. Senate will under stand that before the Upper Chamber becomes consumed in an ugly, drawn out political war.

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• May 10, 2005 | 1:47 p.m. ET

If it bleeds it leads (Joe Scarborough)

"If it bleeds it leads" is the familiar refrain at local news stations across America.

Car accidents, bloody assaults, and brutal murders all lead the top of the 11 p.m. news hour because station managers believe blood equals ratings.

The New York Times' John Tierney writes a piece this morning explaining how the same blood lust has seemed to infect newspaper editors covering Iraq.

Tierney suggests the daily suicide bombings are not newsworthy and covering them only encourages more terror attacks.

I agree.

As I wrote in this space a few weeks back, the terror attacks in Iraq serve no political purpose.

America is not leaving.

Iraqis are not going to back down.

The so-called insurgents are hated by their own people.

So running front page items on these senseless civilian murders serves no purpose — other than maybe heartening anti-war reporters who have argued for years that the Iraq war would be a debacle.

They were wrong. But they still haven't gotten the message.

But they do have bloody pictures.

In their world, that still counts for something.

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• May 9, 2005 | 7:17 p.m. ET

Innocence lost in Illinois (Joe Scarborough)

When I was a young boy, my biggest concern was whether our Little League team was going to win its games on Saturday.

My friends and I would spend hours riding our bikes through the woods, playing wiffle ball behind my parents' home, and racing down to the Dairy Freeze at dusk.

But today's tragic news from a small Illinois town shows once again that the world I knew is dead.

Two young girls out for an afternoon bike ride in a public park were attacked in broad daylight and stabbed to death in a nearby wooded area.

The tragedy for the families of these beautiful young girls is unspeakable.

What it means for the rest of America's children is just depressing.

Parents should no longer feel free to let their children ride bikes with friends, unless they are accompanied by a police escort. And those carefree summer days of jumping on a bike early in the morning and riding around town until dinner are long gone.

These days, children are targets.

They are used for sexual gratification by diseased old men. They are the objects of violent fantasies that are only satisfied by blood. They are victims of a system that keeps letting them down.

No one knows all the facts of this Illinois case. But we do know it will happen somewhere else soon.

These days our children grow up in an exceedingly grim world where all strangers are evil and all grown ups are helpless to save them from the evil beasts lurking outside their door.

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If you want to read more on ways to protect your children, click here.  Watch Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• May 9, 2005 | 4:08 p.m. ET

Sudan Crisis: Response is Pathetic (Joe Scarborough)

It is hard to turn away. It is even harder to keep staring.

The daily images that stream out of Sudan are heartbreaking. The scale of suffering seems unprecedented.

But it is not.

This has happened in Africa before. A million Rwandan citizens were hacked to death in the mid-1990's.

But the United Nations did nothing.

A few years later, genocide struck the African continent again in Sudan.

That's right. The same Sudan that is once again in the grip of a brutally efficient killing machine.

The situation got so bad by 1997 that I worked together with human rights groups and former New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal to get the word out across America that millions were being persecuted.

Once again, the United Nations did nothing.

Reports out of Sudan eight years ago told of children as young as eight years old being crucified for their parents' beliefs. Other young boys and girls were sold into slavery for as little as $15.

Things became so bleak that the United Nations and the Clinton Administration did, well, nothing.

In fact, when I tried to pass a resolution through Congress calling for sanctions against the murderous regime, Clinton's State Department fought it with all their might.

The Congressional Black Caucus fell in line with the White House by refusing to endorse my Congressional act that condemned slavery in Sudan.

Can you image that?

We still hear many members of this caucus tying challenges in the African American communities to a system of slavery that ended 160 years ago but when faced with supporting the abolition of a slave system existing in their lifetime, they showed the moral courage of Thomas Jefferson.

Amnesty International was so concerned about the two million Sudanese victims that they did, well, nothing.

An Amnesty representative told me they could not support my bill because it concerned Christian persecution. They said they didn't take sides in such disputes.

Huh?

Fast forward eight years and you find that little has changed.

President Bush has called the crisis in Sudan genocide, but he has done little to stop it.

The United Nations has muttered about how the Sudan situation is unfortunate, but once again Kofi Annan has refused to do anything that will end the suffering on his home continent.

The European Union claims to be interested but too many member states have economic interests in the country.

So nothing gets done.

Meanwhile, children are slaughtered, young girls are raped, and entire communities are wiped out in minutes.

While the world does nothing.

How pathetic.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• May 6, 2005 | 9:07 a.m. ET

Remembering Col. David Hackworth: Defiant against the Pentagon  (Joe Scarborough)

The top brass in the Pentagon hated David Hackworth.

He was blunt and always spoke his mind.

I disagreed with Colonel Hackworth on many issues, but I always was grateful that his main objective was protecting American troops overseas.

The retired colonel had been a hero during Vietnam. Men fighting under his command remembered him as a deity on the battlefield.

But in 1971, Hackworth came home from Vietnam and spoke out against the war's execution.

The man who lied about his age to get in the army at age 15 was pushed out of the military and left the service brokenhearted. It was tough for a career military hero who was about to be promoted to general.

Hackworth gave back his 80 medals, moved to Australia, and made millions.

A decade later, the military returned the medals, and David Hackworth came home to the country he had served for almost 30 years.

Walking around the Pentagon as a member of Congress, it didn't take me long to figure out that Hackworth was hated by most of the military leaders. He was blunt and he didn't care how many stripes you wore on your shoulders.

He also seemed to relish stepping on toes. Sometimes, admirals and generals got hurt. But that never stopped Hackworth from telling leaders what he really thought about their operation.

General Eisenhower learned that first hand when he was traveling across Italy to check up on the U.S. troops. While chatting with the grunts, Hack decided to speak up.

"The chow stinks!"

It was an early example of his blunt style.

But in an era where our military men and women are being asked to do more every year, troops need a supporter with the authority to take on the Pentagon brass.

David Hackworth was such a man.

He will be missed by all of us in Scarborough Country.

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• May 2, 2005 | 2:42 p.m. ET

Social Security: Going for Kill in '06  (Joe Scarborough)

I'm slow but not stupid.

Watching continuing coverage of the Social Security debate, I kept coming back to the same question: What is Karl Rove doing?

Rove is the smartest political operator to run a White House in years. Unlike prior administrations, the Bush White House possesses ruthless efficiency and is driven by cold political realities.

And if I know Congress will never pass means testing for Social Security, why is Rove allowing the President to push this political poison pill?

Simple.

He is setting Democrats up for the kill in 2006.

Rove and Bush know their vision of reform was dead on arrival.

Now it's time to clean up the carcass.

Instead of letting Democrats paint the program as a plan to punish workers while rewarding Wall Street next year, the White House has targeted the rich for sacrifice.

Bush proposes saving Social Security on the backs of the wealthy. He knows neither Republicans nor Democrats will touch it.

It costs him nothing.

And next fall, when Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi try to attack the President and his allies for their failed Social Security plan, class warfare will be off the table.

That's because George Bush played that card at his press conference last week.

It took me a few days to decode the White House strategy.

The funny thing is it will take Harry Reid two years.

Game, set, match once again to Karl Rove.

• April 30, 2005 | 5:10 p.m. ET

Wrong lessons learned from Vietnam  (Joe Scarborough)

The sight of peasants celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Vietnam War reminds me of a line from the Beatles' movie "A Hard Day's Night."

Early in the movie, the Fab Four bolt into a train cabin where an uptight British businessman is trying to get through his morning paper. But the Beatles remain a constant, noisy distraction. Finally, the old man has enough.

"I fought the war for the likes of you!" he shouts.

A young John Lennon responds with a smirk.

"I bet you're sorry you won."

I couldn't help but think of Lennon's line as I watched Vietnamese peasants celebrate their victory over American imperialism 30 years later.

America's loss in terms of life, finances, and reputation were great. But as is usually the case, the country quickly remade itself and moved on.

The lessons learned from the foreign policy debacle had little to do with the views of college professors, Hollywood screen writers, or editorial page editors.

Instead, Americans were angry at their political leaders' impotence. 

A top Democratic pollster told the New York Times in 2002 that his party had learned all the wrong lessons from Vietnam. He explained that while the majority of Americans objected to the way Washington had run the war, half of those believed our leaders should have shown more resolve to win.

Maybe that's why Ronald Reagan was swept into office five years after Vietnam fell under the complete control of Communists.

Maybe that's also why the Democratic Party has only elected one man to the White House in the last quarter century.

But enough about Vietnam's impact on George McGovern's party. Let's look at the impact of Vietnam's victory on Vietnam.

Despite laughable attempts by Reuters and other Western news outlets to suggest that Ho Chi Mihn's country is undergoing a "remarkable recovery" and an "economic rejuvenation," a less starry-eyed reporter would note that the country's per capita income hovers around $500.

Ah, sweet liberation. $500 bucks a year.

Thank God those imperialist American pigs didn't succeed there like they did in South Korea a decade earlier. Forget the fact that South Korea's per capita income in 2004 was around $14,500. 

It's GDP was almost $800 billion.

The liberated citizens of Vietnam only managed to produce a GDP of $33 billion (about 20 times less than those American lackeys in South Korea.)

The comparison between South Korea is even more stark with their communists relatives in the North.

That's what makes the news coverage surrounding this 30th anniversary celebration so entertaining.

Many writing and reporting on the event considered the 60's anti-war protests to be the highlight of their lives. Don't be surprised to find them blind to the outcome of their efforts: that their attempts to end America's involvement in Vietnam effectively enslaved tens of millions to poverty for at least three decades.

Good job, fellas.

As for lessons learned-- and liberal media types love talking about lessons learned or forgotten when the subject turns to Vietnam-- well, they are clear for both sides.

For Americans, don't start a war unless you have a president with the guts to end it.

And for Vietnamese, just remember that the next time Americans tell you they have come to liberate your people, take them at their word. Trade your weapons for a piece of the action.

As Japan, Germany, and South Korea's experiences show, there will always be plenty of American dollars to go around.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 29, 2005 | 9:10 a.m. ET

Bush's press conference a mixed bag  (Joe Scarborough)

The President's first primetime press conference in a year was a political mixed bag for an administration that is not used to losing.

The President shocked his skeptics by rolling up political victories in 2000, 2002, and 2004.

In his first term, George W. Bush saw more of his agenda passed by Congress than any other president since Lyndon Johnson.

But that was then. This is now.

Gas prices are at all time high, John Bolton's UN nomination is in jeopardy, Social Security reform is dead on arrival, and the President's approval ratings have never been lower.

With that grim backdrop, President Bush used his press conference to push a new means test for Social Security.

That's like trying to sell pictures of Hillary Clinton at a Young Republicans Convention.

Means testing means a cut in benefits for millions of Americans. The last time Republicans tried to cut Social Security benefits in 1983, it led massive political losses for the GOP--effectively ending the Reagan Revolution.

The next time Republicans tried to reform a middle class entitlement program was when my class tried to reform Medicare.

Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, shamelessly demagogued the issue and effectively killed the Gingrich Revolution.

If Republicans were to pass the President's proposed means testing plan, the President would see the Senate go Democratic in 2006.

Forget the merits of the plan. Democrats are not in the mood to be statesmen. They will seek every political advantage they can against a White House that has effectively undercut their effectiveness as a party over the past five years.

Expect the GOP leaders on Capitol Hill to say "Thanks, but no thanks" to the President's reform plan in the coming weeks.

They were willing to do what it took to get him re-elected last year. But they are not willing to pass a plan that will lead to the end of their political careers

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 28, 2005 | 3:27 p.m. ET

Bush running out of political gas? (Joe Scarborough)

Karl Rove is a bright man.

He knows that Republicans on Capitol Hill are not going to support the President's Social Security package any time soon.

Rove and his boss also know that there is nothing that can be said tonight in Bush's prime time press conference that will change one vote in Congress.

But the President's play tonight is not about retirement plans. It's about high gas prices.

Mr. Bush knows that presidents' approval ratings usually head the opposite direction of gas prices.

Jimmy Carter's numbers collapsed in the late ‘70s at the same time that prices at the pump were doubling.

Carter, like Bush, suggested that there was little he could do to affect the prices.

Big mistake.

Carter didn't have Karl Rove. George Bush does. Thus, tonight's press conference.

Expect to hear the President lay the blame for our energy "crisis" at the feet of radical environmentalists and Capitol Hill politicians.

He may not be able to win the Social Security battle, but he can shift the blame for prices ballooning at the pump.

His aggressive tact is good political news for the GOP.

More than a few House and Senate members are concerned that their President has become too passive in the face of attacks from Democrats on issues from oil prices to judicial filibusters to Tom DeLay.

Nobody has hit the panic button yet. But that time is drawing near.

Forget the fact that the Syrians retreated from Lebanon yesterday or that the Iraqis just elected their first democratic cabinet in history.

When it comes to politics, voters have a short attention span — and domestic issues almost always trump foreign policy concerns.

Just ask George Bush the Elder.

On Christmas Day, 1991, then President Bush presided over the demise of the Evil Empire — as the Soviet Union collapsed.

One Christmas later, Mr. Bush was packing for his return to Houston being whipped by Bill Clinton.

Likewise, Winston Churchill learned in 1945 that it was not enough to stare down Adolph Hitler and preserve freedom in Europe. Right after Hitler's fall, Churchill was beaten at the polls by Clement Atlee, who promised to pay more attention to Britain's economy at home than its wars across the world.

A history lesson obviously learned by George W. Bush and Karl Rove.

Tune in tonight to see how they respond to their Jimmy Carter moment.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 28, 2005 | 12:15 p.m. ET

Jesus loves Democrats (Joe Scarborough)

Media outlets and Internet sites are crackling with warnings of a religious theocracy on the rise in America.

The New York Times has been warning its readers since the reelection of George Bush last November that an extreme religious dictatorship is just around the corner.

The intensity of those warnings have greatly increased over the past few days.

Damn those crazy conservative Christians! How dare they come together in a peaceful, political assembly.

Forget about the First Amendment.

The Times keeps telling us that these Christian assemblies are un-American. Would it be cynical to suggest that it may be because those church meetings are led by conservatives like James Dobson or Pat Robertson?

If a preacher pushed a liberal agenda in God's house, would we hear a discouraging word?

Well, let me ask you this. How often have you read the word "theocracy" in stories reporting on church speeches by Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, or Bill Clinton?

Probably never.

But while the Times reporters and Internet gadflies like Andrew Sullivan are working themselves into a lather about the coming Bush theocracy, isn't it interesting that no elected GOP leader has ever claimed an exclusive hold on godly favor?

Guess what.

The leader of the Democratic Party has.

On April 11, DNC Chairman Howard Dean told a newspaper reporter the following:

"We need to talk about Christian values and how they're Democratic values...The Democratic Party is the party of those values, not the Republican Party."

Imagine for a moment if the head of the Republican Party claimed that Christian values were the exclusive domain of your Party.

Go ahead. Try to do it.

I know some of you in the media think claims of liberal bias in the press is lunacy, but look yourself in the mirror and say three times that there is not a double standard on this outrageous theocracy story line.

Feel free to leave your computer, go to your bathroom mirror, and say it three times with a straight face.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Well, actually, no need waiting.

Many in the MSM are so brainwashed by what they have heard in their elite schools, read in newspapers, heard in the newsroom, listened to at cocktail parties, and said on the air that there is little hope they will see themselves as the rest of us do.

But that doesn't change the fact that the current leader says the Democratic Party embraces Jesus and the Republicans don't.

No GOP leader of any weight has ever said that.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 26, 2005 | 6:03 p.m. ET

I may have followed other lemmings off a cliff  (Joe Scarborough)

I spend a good bit of time railing against the mainstream media for blindly following the currents of conventional wisdom in places like Manhattan and Georgetown. Unfortunately, a new poll shows that on at least one recent story, I may have followed the other lemmings off a cliff.

After the death of Pope John Paul II, news outlets provided exhaustive coverage of John Paul's life and legacy. The coverage had an amber glow to it, and even the most hard-bitten outlets used the week to heap praise on the deceased pontiff.

But minutes after he was buried, we all started analyzing the coming election of John Paul's successor.

The conventional wisdom was as follows: Pope John Paul was too conservative for the 21st Catholic Church. His papacy had divided American Catholics into two camps. The next pope would therefore need to be more progressive.

The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger a week later was met with a chorus of gasps for the media elite. Their unanimous conclusion was that American Catholics would now be split into embittered factions and that the church would dissolve into a theological civil war.

At the time, I made sure each program had voices from the center-left of the Catholic Church so Americans could hear the loud chorus of protests coming from those who believed the new pope was too strident to unite American Catholics.

The noise from the left was overwhelming. And members of the media who believed Pope Benedict was a perfect fit for the Church were almost nonexistent.

Pat Buchanan was the noticeable exception.

Meet the Press's Tim Russert, whose job description does not include giving opinions or running a televised op-ed page, provided excellent broadcast coverage.

But in the opinion world, the commentary was remarkably tilted against Pope Benedict.

That's why I was understandably surprised by a new ABC poll released earlier today that showed how over 80% of American Catholics were pleased by the selection of their new pontiff.

I proved once again that the disconnect between the mainstream press and Middle America is wide.

I learned my lesson.

Did they?

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• April 21, 2005 | 11:00 a.m. ET

DeLay feeding frenzy (Joe Scarborough)

The blood is in the water. The sharks are circling. Now it is time for the main course.

Lower the tank and drop in the political corpse of Tom Delay.

Democrats are whipping themselves into a frenzy — as are their allies in the press — over the impending political death of Tom DeLay. The Majority Leader is helping fan the flames by holding up rifles at NRA rallies while asking for more bullets.

But if you are scoring this one at home sports fans, expect to see a flurry of revelations coming out about the Democratic leaders in the coming days.

Even now we are learning that the very Democrats who are attacking DeLay for taking a foreign trip on a lobbyist's tab are themselves guilty of...you guessed it...taking foreign trips on lobbyists' tabs.

The media will slowly get around to reporting this fact but not in time to help DeLay.

The smear campaign has started, just like it did with Newt Gingrich. The Democrats and the media will keep throwing out any charge they can find even if the behavior attacked is legal, ethical, and practiced by other members in Congress.

A great example is what happened to DeLay's family a few weeks back when Americans were given the shocking news that Tom DeLay paid his wife and daughter for working on his campaign.

After the New York Times and other outlets howled to the high moon about the financial arrangement, breathless editorials slammed the Majority Leader and predicted his imminent demise.

A few days later, the Associated Press reported that many politicians on both sides of the aisle share the same arrangement with their family members.

But most Americans didn't read that story. Instead, they heard the first wave of DeLay attacks and read the editorials branding him as a political sleaze.

Now the same is happening with these foreign travel stories.

But do not fear.

The mainstream media will not let the facts get in the way of their anti-DeLay machine. You will keep reading stories as you did with Abu Ghraib, because it fits into the MSM's political agenda. And right now, their top priority is getting Tom DeLay.

The Majority Leader is no saint. But he lives in a town where his attackers live in large glass houses.

They need to watch out. Because the rocks are about to start flying, and before long, expect to see a full blown political war on Capitol Hill not witnessed since the ugly Impeachment battles of 1998.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 20, 2005 | 12:25 p.m. ET

The cardinals have spoken and their message is clear: we don't care what you think.

"You" in this case would be the thousands of talking heads and scribes in the chattering classes who have said for weeks that Joseph Ratzinger was too old, too conservative, and too disliked to become the next pope.

That refrain was repeated ad naseum, and one commentator swore as late as Monday that the new pope had "kneecapped" too many church officials to ever get the votes needed to lead the church.

The cardinals' focus seemed to be less on what Andrew Sullivan or Christopher Hitchens thought of their work, and more on what God and the Holy Spirit wanted.

Now that the cardinals have proven the church's critics wrong regarding this election, let's wait and see if Pope Benedict XVI does the same thing with his papacy.

As Carl Berstein suggested last night on Scarborough Country, powerful appointments bring out interesting personality traits in people.

Just ask Dwight Eisenhower, who called the appointment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren "the biggest damn mistake of my presidency." The Republican governor of California was tapped to head the Supreme Court and became the most liberalizing force in the history of the court.

Or remember Nixon and China.

Only Nixon could have opened China, it was said. And perhaps only a Joseph Ratzinger can stare down all the challenges facing the Catholic Church.

God moves in mysterious ways. We will have to see which was the Holy Spirit moves this man of God and his remarkable church.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

• April 15, 2005 | 5:12 p.m. ET

Killing won't make headlines (Joe Scarborough)

What would happen if terrorists launched a killing spree and no one noticed?

That's the question the supporters of Zarqawi must have been asking themselves this week between Thursday massacres and Friday prayers.

Eighteen civilians were blown up yesterday and the world hardly noticed.

Suicide bombings. How 2004.

Like a stale rerun, terror outfits are shooting video of an American contractor begging for his life.  But for the terrible personal tragedy of the situation, this senseless crime will have no political impact but to further convince American citizens that the enemies we are fighting in Iraq are subhuman beasts who deserve killing.

Who is running the terrorist's public relations campaign these days?

Kidnappings, beheadings, car bombings are nothing more than sound and fury signifying nothing.

What do these terrorists take Bush for? An Italian PM?

He will not be blackmailed. He will not give in. In fact, he will only be helped by further terror attacks and civilian murders.

With every new terror strike, George W. Bush only grows stronger.

His enemies are vanquished. Michael Moore and the New York Times editorial page are historically irrelevant. The Democratic Party is in disarray. George Soros is busy planning ways to waste millions of his fortune on Hillary's 2008 loss.

The terrorists may still be killing a handful of Iraqi civilians. But all they are doing is strengthening their enemies in the United States and all of Iraq.

It is time for a new strategy. This killing thing just isn't making headlines anymore.

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If you want to read more from Joe Scarborough, check out 'Rome Wasn't Burnt In a Day'. See Joe each weeknight on MSNBC TV 10 p.m. ET.

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