Scarborough: Like Beck, I'd Consider Third-Party Ron Paul Over Gingrich

Today's Morning Joe has been one long festival of Gingrich gouging.  

Joe Scarborough set the tone early. During the opening segment Scarborough announced that, like Glenn Beck, if the choice comes down to Obama vs. Gingrich, and Ron Paul is running as a third-party candidate, "I'm going to give him a long look." Video after the jump.

Last week, Scarborough criticized Gingrich's political persona, calling him a "terrible person" when he puts on his political helmet.  Today, Scarborough focused on his policy differences with Newt, saying that Gingrich is "the opposite of being a small-government conservative." Watch Scarborough contemplate a vote that he went on to acknowledge would hand the election to Barack Obama.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I want to bring up Glenn Beck really quickly. I bash Glenn Beck when he says really inflammatory statements. But Glenn Beck last week had Newt on. And he asked Newt the type of questions that conservatives need answers to. 

Then yesterday, Glenn Beck said something that I guarantee you a lot of small-government conservatives, like me, have thought.  And that is, if I have to choose between Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich, a guy that George Will said would have been a marvelous Marxist and who is the opposite of being a small-government conservative, if Ron Paul's running as a third-party candidate, I'm going to give him a long look. Because I can't vote for the two guys who worship at the altar of big government in their own separate ways. And that's the problem with a Newt Gingrich candidacy, Andy: he's not a small-government conservative.