Joe Scarborough should keep a lookout for a thank-you card from Mitch McConnell. Because the last time someone tried to hang an unflattering moniker on the Senate Majority Leader, it flopped so badly that Mitch actually fundraised off it!
Readers will remember Don Blankenship, failed candidate for a Senate seat from West Virginia, bizarrely attempting to brand McConnell "Cocaine Mitch." McConnell had fun with it, selling lots of Cocaine Mitch T-shirts. And when Blankenship got blown out in his primary, McConnell tweeted "thanks for playing" in response, accompanied by a photo of himself that our eagle-eyed Curtis Houck noted was photoshopped from the Netflix series Narcos.
So "Cocaine Mitch" was a huge bust, you should excuse the expression. But that didn't stop Joe Scarborough, on today's Morning Joe, from attempting to brand McConnell "Moscow Mitch."
Scarborough was angered that McConnell had blocked two partisan Democrat bills ostensibly seeking to promote "election security" in light of past and possible future Russian attempts to interfere with US elections. Scarborough came close to accusing McConnell of treason, saying he was "aiding and abetting" Vladimir Putin.
And that, in turn, was Scarborough's hook for calling McConnell "Moscow Mitch." Over the course of a few minutes, Scarborough repeated the term no fewer than 14 times. And sidekick Donny Deutsch was so smitten with the phrase that he used it three times himself.
View our mashup to see Joe and Donny making fools of themselves with their Moscow Mitch shtick.
Note: Scarborough has a habit of riding his verbal hobbyhorses into the ground. For example, last year, we caught him in another rant, calling Republicans in general, and President Trump in particular, "unhinged" no fewer than 21 times.
