MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Friday took some well-deserved shots at New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
After "Morning Joe's" Mika Brzezinski read bits of Krugman's most recent rant against "Republican extremism," her co-host responded, "If you’re a blogger, and you’re still living in your mom’s basement, and you got Cheetos all over the keyboard, you type in your underwear...you look at Paul Krugman and you think, 'He is my hero'” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Alright, “The Centrist Cop-out,” Paul Krugman, New York Times:
Many pundits view taking a position in the middle of the political spectrum as a virtue in itself. I don't. Wisdom doesn't necessarily reside in the middle of the road, and I want leaders who do the right thing, not the centrist thing…[M] aking nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out -- a cop-out that only encourages more bad behavior. The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism, and if you're not willing to say that, you're helping make that problem worse.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What a shock. I am shocked…
BRZEZINSKI: It’s exactly right. Seriously.
SCARBOROUGH: …Paul Krugman would write that editorial.
BRZEZINSKI: Alright, instead of going there.
STEVEN RATTNER: In this case, there is a scintilla of truth to that.
SCARBOROUGH: Well…
BRZEZINSKI: Come on now.
SCARBOROUGH: …you write the same column for a decade…
RATTNER: A stopped clock is right, I’ve heard that.
BRZEZINSKI: Joe, this is not about Paul.
SCARBOROUGH: If you write the same column for a decade and blame everything including earthquakes halfway across the world on Republican extremism, at some point, somebody could look at an op-ed and go, “Eh. Perhaps there’s a seed of truth to that.”
SCARBOROUGH: Eh. It’s Paul Krugman.
[Laughter]
SCARBOROUGH: No, he really, he has, he’s a very – we talked about this before – he’s a very smart man, Mike Barnicle…
BRZEZINSKI: Of course.
SCARBOROUGH: …but…
MIKE BARNICLE: Faculty lounge.
SCARBOROUGH: …but he’s…
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, you boys are…
BARNICLE: It’s faculty lounge.
SCARBOROUGH: He’s written the same column for a decade.
BARNICLE: He’s extremely smart. He’s extremely influential, and he knows far more about economics than I will ever know. Faculty lounge!
SCARBOROUGH: Let me just say, he is influential because if you’re a blogger, and you’re still living in your mom’s basement, and you got Cheetos all over the keyboard, you type in your underwear, unlike Alex Trebek, then yes…
BRZEZINSKI: No underwear for Alex.
SCARBOROUGH: …you look at Paul Krugman and you think, “He is my hero,” because he is like a lot of bloggers on the left and the right a blind ideologue.
Interesting that even the perilously liberal Mike Barnicle thinks Krugman's tripe is the kind of stuff one would hear in a school's faculty lounge.
Which raises the question: why is this man taken seriously by anyone other than bloggers typing in their underwear in mom's basement?
