On Saturday's AM Joy on MSNBC, fellow left-wing MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell joined Joy Reid so the two could fret over the Democratic reaction to the deal that reopened the federal government.
After beginning their discussion by lamenting that some Democrats are criticizing their leadership over the deal -- oddly claiming that Republicans "never" criticize each other -- O'Donnell condescendingly accused Republicans of "living in a tiny intellectual space" because they allegedly depend on one-sentence slogans in contrast with Democrats who speak in "complexities."
O'Donnell ended up trashing Republican leaders as people who are "incapable of caring about" the children who receive benefits from the SCHIP program, as the two characterized the children as "nine million hostages."
After beginning the segment by playing clips of two Democratic members of Congress complaining about their leadership making a deal to reopen the government, the two hosts fretted over their willingness to criticize fellow Democrats:
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: What we just saw were critics, so are you a party member or a party critic? When was the last time you saw a Republican doing any of what you just saw those Democrats do?
JOY REID: Never. They don't do it.
O'DONNELL: They don't do it.
The two MSNBC hosts have such partisan tunnel vision that they forgot a couple of obvious examples of Republican infighting within Congress from the last several years -- Texas Senator Ted Cruz accusing Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of lying to him, and former House Speaker John Boehner being driven out of office -- undermining the suggestion that Republicans behave like partisan zombies who never question their leaders.
After he griped about the tendency of politicians to engage in "messaging" with simple slogans instead of speaking of "complexities," O'Donnell complained that some Democrats are currently "messaging" against their own party in declaring that Democrats "caved."
He soon took aim at the GOP:
And Republicans never know more than one sentence. Their lives are simple because their talking points are literally one sentence, and they never have to learn anything beyond that. And they actually revel in kind of living in that tiny intellectual space.
A bit later, as he discussed the haggling over funding the SCHIP program that provides health insurance for children, he further demonized Republicans as being "incapable of caring about" the children on the program. O'Donnell: "They do not want it. It does not interest them. They do not care about those children. They are incapable of caring about them."
