Scarborough: Off Record, 'All' Republican Leaders, Talk Radio Hosts, Agree With My Palin Criticism

Mark Finkelstein
November 30th, 2010 7:38 AM
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Joe Scarborough leveling harsh criticism at Sarah Palin: not news.

Joe Scarborough claiming that—off the record—"all" conservative leaders and talk radio hosts with whom he's spoken agree with his criticism: news.

Scarborough made his astonishing claim on today's Morning Joe in the context of commenting on his latest anti-Palin piece in today's Politico. This is far from the first time that Joe has taken shots at Palin.  As I've reported, he has blamed the former Alaska governor for the GOP's failure to win the Senate, and claimed that Palin knows she can't win the presidency but is in it for the money.

Today's Politico piece takes Scarborough’s swipes a quantum leap further [see examples after jump].  But what makes this morning’s diatribe truly remarkable is Joe's repeated claim that "all" Republican leaders and conservative talk radio hosts with whom he's spoken have—off the record—agreed with his criticism of Palin.

 

Watch Joe's unequivocal assertion—vouched for by Mika Brzezinski—that every Republican leader or talk radio host with whom he's spoken shares his criticism of Palin: but is afraid to say so on the air.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: We're going to start with Joe's [item] out of Politico.  And this is a fairly blistering piece about Sarah Palin.  I'm going to read a little bit from it and then --

JOE SCARBOROUGH: A humdinger.

BRZEZINSKI: Well, the bottom line is, you know, we talk off-set with a lot of major Republican figures, and they say all this.  They refuse to say it on the record.

SCARBOROUGH: They will not say it on camera, but they all say it, all say it, all say it off set.

BRZEZINSKI: All of them.

SCARBOROUGH: All of them say it off-set. All of your talk radio hosts that will defend Sarah Palin for three hours every day, all off-set quietly say this.  All of your leading conservative figures, all, when off the record, will say all of this about Sarah Palin. But, they want ratings, they want book sales, so they don't want to upset the 18% of Americans who like Sarah Palin.

From Scarborough's Politico piece:

  • Palin's resume "makes the political biography of Barack Obama look more like Winston Churchill’s."
  • Palin's presidential ambitions are a "dopey dream."
  • Palin "does know how to make millions of dollars, even if she embarrasses herself while doing it."
  • Palin's activities amount to a "gaudy circus sideshow."
  • Scarborough calls on Republican leaders to "man up," saying "it’s time that Republican leaders started standing up and speaking the truth to Palin."