Joe Scarborough has dropped the f-word on live TV. But does he dare drop the I-word: Islam?
On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough to his credit rejected the maudlin pseudo-introspection of those [including panelist Richard Haass] who would somehow blame America's failure to integrate the Tsarnaev brothers into society for their decision to bomb the Boston Marathon. Scarborough didn't hesitate to call the Tsarnaevs "beasts." Instead of blaming society, Scarborough blamed the brothers' "evil" and "radicalism." But Scarborough stopped short of naming the radicalism for what it is: radical Islam. View the video after the jump.
So in declining to mention radical Islam, was Scarborough acting out of an abundance of caution, a PC instinct, fear, or something else?
Note that Scarborough praised a column by Kevin Cullen in the Boston Globe on the subject. Cullen's point was to the same effect: don't blame American society for the Tsarnaevs' evil acts. Unlike Scarborough, Cullen did mention the Tsarnaevs' Muslim religion—if only to claim that they had twisted it, and to advise against any backlash against other Muslims.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Some newspapers, right after they figure out who these guys are, these evil beasts are, they start this, oh, why did we do this? We haven't integrated them enough! It was like in the '60s: it was always society. No, there are evil people out there. It's not society's fault there are evil people out there. It's not society's fault there are evil people out there. I thought Kevin Cullen, though, wrote a great column which basically said before you engage in the whole why-do-they-hate-us claptrap, let's just talk about the fact these guys were evil, they were beasts. And guess what? It wasn't our fault that they put a bomb at the feet of an eight-year-old boy.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Uchh.
SCARBOROUGH: Don't blame society for that. Blame radicalism, blame evil.
MIKE BARNICLE: Blame them.
SCARBOROUGH: Blame them.
