MSNBC brews up a fresh pot of liberal talking points every morning with Morning Joe and its liberal co-host Mika Brzezinski. Brzezinski lets it known every day that she is not only extremely liberal, but looks for every opportunity she can to criticize conservatives on a regular basis.
But as a result of her fervent partisanship, Mika has trouble admitting when conservatives are right on an issue, and shows, rather comically, actual physical discomfort at the sign of conservative success. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
Take, for example, her complaint today about how Republicans pushing forward to attack the Obama administration over the IRS scandal is "like fingernails on a chalkboard." What's more, she carped, it's given opportunity for conservatives like Marco Rubio to pound the pulpit:
...[he] was just, you know, extremely, how do I put it, was almost like a minister up there talking about what has happened. And you know what? Unfortunately the information and the guts of the story are there and it's an opportunity. It's red meat.
While Brzezinski does not excuse the Obama IRS for its malfeasance, Mika is clearly distraught at the GOP being able to capitalize on the issue, and is unwilling to hide her brash partisanship, even when the Obama administration is knee deep in scandal.
As a veteran political reporter and daughter of a Washington insider, surely Mika knows this is how things work. If you want your political opposition to not have a cudgel to bludgeon you with, the answer is simple: avoid abuse of power and other scandals which give your opponents ammunition. Simply put, it should only be partisan Democrats who are crying "unfair" that the GOP may be milking the IRS scandal for all it's worth politically. It's unbecoming of a journalist like Mika to take partisan and ideological offense like she is.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
May 16, 2013
7:28 a.m. EST
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: But, Chuck, you know, or anyone at the table here to what Howard said, I'm sorry. When we have hearings, and we hear more about why certain groups were targeted and why certain groups weren't, I'm sorry. I don't think that's going to go well and be forgotten especially by those who were targeted.
CHUCK TODD: And look, there's always a risk of going too -- doing -- where Congress looks like they're so focused on a hearing that they're not doing any other part of the agenda and things like that and that could hurt them. That's what happened to republicans in '98 during those mid terms during Clinton. But I think that this idea that we don't know why these agents targeted them and I think we’re going to hear more on that and that's where this could become problematic.
BRZEZINSKI: This could get ugly.
TODD: This is where Democrats have to be as outraged as the Republicans to depoliticize this. Because right now the Republican Party, they could not ask for something to unite their base. The party was about to splinter into two because of immigration. Splinter into two because of working with the president on taxes and on the budget. And now the IRS scandal, this is the -- this is completely uniting the party.
BRZEZINSKI: It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard but listening to some of the Republicans who have spoken out about this they have something to work with here as opposed to other times. And so, I mean, I'm mentioning Marco Rubio, who got up and was just, you know, extremely, how do I put it, was almost like a minister up there talking about what has happened. And you know what? Unfortunately the information and the guts of the story are there and it's an opportunity. It's red meat.
TODD: Well, don't forget he is also testing the base with immigration so he needs this other story.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, no. I mean, he's loving it. He’s loving it. Chuck Todd, thank you. We'll see you coming up on "The Daily Rundown."
