Scarborough: Tea Party 'May Just Have Proved to be the Most Cunning and Rational of All Players in Washington'

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Tuesday that as a result of how the debt ceiling negotiations are going, the Tea Party freshmen in Congress "may just have proved to be the most cunning and rational of all players in Washington, D.C."

The host of "Morning Joe" told former Democrat Congressman Harold Ford this comes despite media depicting them as radical, reckless extremists (video follows with transcript and commentary):

FORMER DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN HAROLD FORD: I think both President Obama and Speaker Boehner looked weak last night for the singular reason that neither of them could stand up to the House Republican freshmen. If you’re John Boehner this morning, you have to understand one big thing: he got rolled also, because I think he wanted a big deal, and if his Speakership is going to be determined and decided in the course of it by what freshmen, whatever you want to call them, reckless, radical, I think some of them, a lot of them are, the Tea parts because they’re just unreasonable, then they are running this place.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: Wait, but they say they’re unreasonable…

FORD: No, no, no.

SCARBOROUGH: …I’m here to say that at this point…

FORD: Whatever you want to call them, they are in charge.

SCARBOROUGH: No, no, no, I’m just saying…

FORD: On this issue, they are in charge.

SCARBOROUGH: I’m saying the take in the national media has been that these people are radical and they’re reckless and they’re extremists. But at the end of the day, hold on, at the end of the day, they get everything that they want. They may just have proved to be the most cunning and rational of all players in Washington, D.C. if they win everything.

Wow!

The look on Mika Brzezinski's face suggested that she quite agrees.

I'm sure that's not going to sit well with Scarborough's Obama-loving/Tea Party-hating colleagues at MSNBC.