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So I got into it with Joe Scarborough today on Morning Joe. Joe came out of the gate hard, assigning what I think were false equivalencies between the Democratic establishment and the far-right controlled GOP, and we were soon locked in a heated confrontation. I regret that our discussion became so contentious since Joe was gracious to invite me back on and we seemed to have had a good rapport in the past. Afterwards I gave Joe a little box of Sarah Palin Embarassmints and handed Tom Brokaw a copy of my book. Joe was visibly upset. Brokaw flipped through the book and remarked to me (as I was being rushed off a very tense set), “I’ll read any book that has at least two references to Bristol Palin!”
Update: I’ll be on the Ed Show tonight (9.7) at 6:48ET on MSNBC.
Update #2: Danny Shea has posted a write-up of the confrontation at HuffPost.
Call me crazy, but max is selling books here, yet it was interesting viewing this morning. I think many people don’t feel like they are getting their money’s worth with the government. Where’s the value? I don’t want to sound like the Peoples Judean Front from Monty Pyhtons Holy Grail asking what have the Romans ever given us, because the Government does do some things well. Again, it’s a question of value and what am I getting for my hard earned tax dollars. I don’t see our leaders as good stewards of my/your money. The recent military funding is a good example. The military says it does not need anymore C17s, yet the congress keeps those in the bill?. It never stops
Hey Max,
As of today, you are one of my heroes. I had the distinct pleasure of watching you challenge Joe Scarborough on his party’s right wing views and behavior. For too long, I’ve watched Joe, his cheerleading cronies and guests, support & defend the right winger’s effort to bastardize president Obama without dispute. When someone with opposing views stand their ground, Joe stops the ballgame, grabs his ball and runs home with the red face. He is rude to those guests who don’t “Amen” his words, as he was to you this morning. If he “can’t handle the truth”, he should take his morning show to the appropriate network…Fox.
I concur with the post above!!! I very rarely watch the obnoxious Joe Scarborough or Mika “Box of Rocks” Brzezinski, but this morning, you made it worth the effort. Yes, you are one of my heroes! Almost no one ever stands up the redneck blowhard or his unbelievably stupid and vapid sidekick, but you did. Kudos to you!
You reduced to that pathologically dishonest master manipulator (aka Morning Joe Scarborough) to a desperate babbling fool in zero seconds flat (much like Mika’s father has been known to do… I’ve no clue how the apple fell so far from that tree… Did they drop her on her head at birth or something?).
You were wonderful, and I enjoyed every minute of it!
Sir-
You were outstanding this morning! I rarely watch Morning Joe due to the conservative nature of the show and Joe is never challenged (not until today). I appreciated the fact that you are well read and remained unscathed by Joe’s parochial and petty responses. Man you made my day! I will purchase your book today. Thanks again for that smack down!
Peace! Shirley Asale -The Attorney in Cleveland, Ohio
Funny how Joe criticized the far right during the Clinton administration. In those years, when he was my congressman, he was one of them.
This morning I saw a long awaited smack down, kudos to you Max. I concur whole heartedly with all the positive comments above.
Thanks everyone, for all the encouraging words and support. I wonder what Brokaw was thinking…
Hooray!!! About time someone talked over that blowbag Joe Scarborough. He is always making a speech, stepping on his guests, Joe gets the first word, the last word and everything in between but not this morning!
I literally could see Joe’s face turning red, figured he was going to walk off the set he was so irate. It looked like Mika got the word in her earpiece to cut the interview short, it ended so abruptly. Poor Tom Brokaw seemed like he was trying to hide.
Thank you Max, you made my morning, I’ll be watching for you on Ed tonight.
Joe just doesn’t want to hear about how his precious republican party has been taken over by a bunch of religious conservatives and somehow by bringing up that point you are attacking all conservatives. Ohhh you are being intolerant! What was going on at 9-12 meetings? Tolerance for anti-government propaganda?
WTH did Brokaw mean?
Well done Max. I wish everyone had your cojones.
Great job Max. I have not been able to put your book down. Between your book and The Authoritarians by Altmeyer, it is becoming clear to me that we are dealing with a very dangerous group of people. Joe became a walking talking example of the type of person you reflected in your book.
Kudos, Kudos, Kudos!!!! For not backing down!!! Joe gets away with over-speaking his guest all the time, so the only view and opinion you get to hear is his while Mika just giggles on the side, what a waste. Why have guest, apparently Joe prefers hearing his voice. I will be checking you out on Ed tonight. I will be buying your book too. Is it me or does Joe Scarborough look a lot like Fred Flintstone?
I concur with just about all the previous responses – enjoyed the morning smackdown. I loved how Joe went straight to the tit-for-tat game they like to play. Hmmm – let’s see: Nancy Pelosi condemning townhall behavior is comparable to Evangelical militia types bringing guns to townhall meeting, how? I don’t see the comparison. Anyway, about the book: Absolutely LOVE it – read it in about a week (which is pretty fast for me) and have about 30 Post-it notes in key places so I can jam up my conservative friends when we’re debating these issues. Anyway, keep doing what you do.
Hey Max..you are really rude and crude. I got news for you, the guy killed in Kentucky had nothing to do with anything that anyone has said on the house or senate floor, nothing whatsoever. But, that’s what you and your liberal friends like to think and that does not make it so. Joe held his own with you, and I’d have got up and knocked the crap out of you if it had been my show. I’d never read garbage like you put out, and you better take lessons from the NY Times and Washington Post, where circulation has dropped to an all time low, just like the Lexington Herald Leader in our state. Is your next piece of garbage going to be called Democrap Soddom.????
Were you actually watching the same video Ccrider? Joe held his own? Hilarious. Ever heard of Chuck Grassley? Or Jim Demint? Or Dick Army? Maybe you should do a bit of reading about what they’ve been saying lately (they’re all current and former members of the legislature). You think they have to speak “on the House or Senate floor” for a statement to matter (or be picked up by the media)? Just a thought, but PERHAPS the reason the NY Times, Washington Post, and virtually ALL newspapers’ circulation numbers are down has something to do with this “internet” thing we have now. Your logic is so off base it’s actually comical.
The funniest moment occurred off camera when Joe said, “We don’t do Crossfire here.” He apparently likes to breathe the fire but can’t handle the blowback.
You are a joke – Joe should have kicked you off the set while on-air. I would have applauded that – even Mika couldn’t stand your smug remarks and rude behavior.
First, the shouting bouts are rarely productive.
But more important, I feel, is the following issue. I haven’t seen this matter pop up in the mainstream press yet. I wish someone would address it. It is an issue that my “liberal” academic friends and I have been discussing for about a year. We’ve noticed that the Christianists have begun co-opting the ideological vocabulary/terminology of the Left. Scarborough provides a great example of this phenomenon in the clip posted above when he mentions that progressives get intolerant with Evangelical Christians’ involvement in the political discourse.
To the point: the Christianists have begun claiming a place under the diversity tent. This challenges the Left’s narrative of diversity. Christianists, along with wack-job talk show hosts, are claiming that the Left, which espouses tolerance/acceptance/inclusiveness as a core value, is ironically intolerant of Evangelicals, and that this group is effectively being discriminated against because of its religious convictions.
This relatively new phenomenon extends beyond the War on Christmas and reverse racism, mind you. Christianists are now specifically invoking the leftist mantras of diversity, tolerance, and inclusion. They are arguing against inclusive legislation, such as the permission of gay marriage and broader immigrant rights, because it supposedly violates their civil rights by offending their morals.
The first time I paid attention to this was during the Prop 8 campaign in California. Mormons cried that the big, bad Left was prejudiced against their religious beliefs. There was an argument that gay marriage constituted a real threat against their right to freedom of religion.
I concede that the Christianists have discovered and begun exploiting a hole of logic in the Left’s ideology. They claim that if you profess tolerance of all viewpoints, then you should be tolerant of their intolerant religious beliefs.
How do we combat this? How do we reclaim our terminology?
Smug remarks and rude behavior? Hmmm. I must have been watching a different show, because on the one I saw this morning Joe got owned and basically tried to shut the discussion down. Unlike AM Talk Radio where Rush Phlegmbaugh or Glen what’s his name can simply press the dump button and claim the the caller hung up (and then finish their point with no opposition), Joe recognized that Max was articulating a valid argument, and he realized that he was on the ropes. So what did he do? “Max, this is becoming a cartoon, what we’re doing right here…” He recognized the truth and realized that even he could not justify the extreme, unprecented, racially/ethnically-charged hatred and vitriol coming from the evangelical right. That means the conversation must come to an end.
Max,
What can I say but thank you. You owned Joe Scarborough this morning. The chief narcissist and his mirror Mika were visibly stressed by your articulation of the facts. His bullying over talk didn’t shut you down. I could almost see the bruise forming on his ego. He’s so accustomed to his cronies and guest pretending that his pompous crap is based in reality that a real adult who didn’t nod in agreement to every syllable he spoke (read: Mika), seemed to cause him to want to become violent. Not only will I buy your book for myself, I will buy a few extra copies to pass around to friends. Thank you!
Hey Rambler, your name fits you well. You just ramble and ramble, just about like Max. Yeah, the internet is to blame for a lot of things, but I dont think you can blame it all on that. People are tired of the LIES! Max is a pompous AZZ and he will get his if he lives long enough. Like I said, he would have been toast if it had been my show.
Wing nuts certainly cannot take what the dish out. They are by definition cowards afraid of their own shadow. Like all bullies you have to hit them in the mouth otherwise you only encourage them. Todays so-called conservatism is not conservative at all but a personality disorder. This is why they have to be armed to the teeth or act in the context of a mob. I remember a couple of years ago how Joe stormed off the set when Rachel Maddow challenged him on one of the afternoon shows. He literally got up and walked off the set because he could not emotionally deal with someone calling him on his BS.
Many thanks for taking on Joe most effectively, the jackels were poised around the table smirking and waiting to dine, as they have for a long time, it’s time to challenge these fools and move this country forward. I sense an uprising, Max, Dylan, and Grayson, not a bad start.
way to go, Max! and congratulations on the success of your book. a most enlightening, informative and amazing read!
Max,
Your sycophants here do you a disservice…Dude… you got pwned
MAX, Your gonna be one of the great ones! You owned Joe Wannabe so bad today with nothing but facts and honest reporting. Not opininion or should look like or could look like..just facts and honesty. When Joe used to be a congressman and when he used to do this and that. Why did he quit politics anyway? Somebody hit their head or something? Mika sits there like she’s got Joe’s hand up her ass like a Tweetie Bird Puppet nodding like the flatus that comes from his ilk is fresh air. Keep the Fire burning! Send the 9/12er Inquisitor Tea bagger Dark ager Newt Gingrich smelling Scarboroughs back to their medevial ooze. Read Reagans Rendevouz with Dementia. Keep the lights on!
Don’t feel bad or apologize, Max. You’re dealing with a culture that, if one word of criticism is mentioned in relation to anything Christian, will completely demonize and dismiss you. Keep up the good work.
The LIES Ccrider? The lies are the propaganda you ingest every day from corporate owned media.
The visual was that of a little boy talking to a grown-up man. I don’t think your getting the car keys this weekend Max
This was a very nice showing.
Nevertheless, I really wish that there were a concise way to tackle this canard that the vitriol on both sides is equivalent. Andrea Pelosi, Harry Reid and Jerrold Nadler were making pointed critiques of behavior using similies versus people on the right making bald accusations of treachery as well as using hate speech and racist tropes.
It’s not just Joe Scarborough either. I’ve come to expect that slant from him (as well as from Pat Buchanan… also on MSNBC, the “liberal” network). What’s troubling is that I have heard nearly the exact same claim from Gwen Ifill, Diane Rehm, Neil Conan, Brian Lehrer and others on NPR. Seems the Bush administration has not quite ended for NPR, they as they try so hard to balance their critique of both sides, they err on the side of distortion.
It’s kind of like finding balance by reporting the following claims side by side:
Expert A: Evolution is a demonstrable theory based on hard scientific fact.
Expert B: You’re wrong.
Max Blumenthal is a natural for these shows. He’s quick on his feet, never strays off message, and mentions the title and content of his book. These video clips are classic. I would like to see a lot more of him.
Max, I wish you brought up the creationism angle. The right wing evangelical attempt to legitimize creationism aka “intelligent design” as a form of science would have been a nice point to make…otherwise great job…just got your book, and so far I can’t put it down…
Just finished the book – will be purchasing about 1/2 dozen as Christmas gifts for various friends and relatives who have been hearing me rave about it for the last few days. Now, just need a real brief reality check (or, as one of my heroes Rachel Maddow likes to say, need someone to talk me down): Is it JUST ME, or is the vitriol coming from the evangelical/extreme right far worse than anything dems did or said about President George W. Bush? (notice that I did, and still do, respect that he was a sitting president…) I know that some on the far left have acted complete fools at WTO conferences and other similar events, but come on – depicting President Obama as hitler, stalin, a witch doctor, a monkey, the Joker, and all the guns at these so-called Town Halls back in August? Hmmmm.. maybe it’s just me…
Keep fighting the good fight. I think what I like best about your style is that you never let emotions get the better of you and you always stay even keel in your delivery. It is such a stark contrast to those antagonists who seek to attack your positions with ridiculous appeals to emotion. Fine show.
Max, be sure you leave in all the Pwnlings’ and Disslings’ Comments, they are entertaining as well as making some points for you.
Pwnlings and Disslings: Get Max’s book so you can understand what you are rightfully questioning, about Republican Gomorrah; and get a life, Max’s work is there for you, also, I promise. Buy two books, and send one to a friend, if you have a friend.
Joe Scarbough has absolutely no interest in having any kind of discussion, he just wants to talk AT people. This platform that he has has gone to his head and he sits in front of the TV and pontificates like he is so wise (oh yeah). He didn’t care what his guest had to say, he was going to just fill up the time with his ill-informed views. if he really was a “small government” conservative, he would have been standing up to Bush during his eight years in office.
Also, Scarbough led Blumenthal down a path to where they were not even discussing the Christian Right’s takeover of the GOP, but batting for each side (Dems, Repubs). Yes, Bill Clinton gave us a surplus, but he did it on the backs of the very poorest in this country, while giving billions of dollars to the Pentagon that they did not even ask for and sweetheart tax breaks for corporations like Amway (cringe), another part of the US dominionist Christian Right.