The last Morning Jolt of the week includes the headline, “What Is Scott Walker Doing Right Now? Duh, Winning!” but today’s excerpt deals with another figure on our television screens, who also can sometimes spur people to shake their heads and ask, “What is he thinking?”
Morning NO!
Sorry, I can’t summon even the faintest enthusiasm for this: “Republicans in Washington are trying to recruit Joe Scarborough to run against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) next year. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told The Hill on Thursday that he has talked to Scarborough a couple times about a Senate bid. And he indicated he’s still working on persuading the MSNBC host to run for the upper chamber. ‘I’d be delighted to talk to him a third time,’ Cornyn said.”
Zip at Weasel Zippers is particularly unenthusiastic: “No [implied bad word] RINO’s. I guess we didn’t make ourselves clear enough last November.”
Has he even lived in Florida anytime recently? Oh, that’s right. In the post-Hillary Clinton, post-Alan Keyes, post-Rahm Emanuel world, this stuff doesn’t matter anymore.
UPDATE: For what it’s worth, the National Republican Senatorial Committee vehemently denies the story.
Communications director Brian Walsh e-mails me:
This story is 100% false. They had a casual conversation last cycle about Joe possibly running for the New York Senate seat. That was the context of the Senator’s comments yesterday — not Florida — and unfortunately The Hill got this dead wrong. We already have plenty of great candidates looking at the Florida Senate race and the NRSC is neutral. We’re confident any one of them can beat Bill Nelson in 2012.
UPDATE: Scarborough says, “No, it was Florida.”
First Crist, and now Mr. No Labels? Stupid is as stupid does, Senator.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGod no. Why is Cornyn so tone deaf? He wound up with egg on his face in Florida just a few months ago. Why does he want to set himself up for it again? Especially since it's not like we don't have other solid candidates. Is it that Scarborough would be able to provide a good bit of self-funding after cashing in on TV?
If Republicans take the Senate in 2012 it will likely be in spite of Cornyn and the NRSC and not because of them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne thing's for sure, if old Joe decides to run then those many skeletons in his closet will finally be dug up by the likes of DailyKos, Media Matters, and Moveon.Org.
Precisely why he won't run.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs I've said before, Joe was my congressman, and I liked him in that job. But that's as far as I think I'll support him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJim, re-read that quote from The Hill. I think they are intentionally misrepresenting their conversation with Cornyn. I went to the nrsc website so I could give Cornyn a ration, and they are denying this story in their twitter stream.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven if this story is dead wrong, Cornyn blew it so badly last cycle that I'd prefer a fresh face in as head of the NRSC instead of retaining him.
Most of the pickups last cycle were done IN SPITE of his efforts rather than BECAUSE of them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe reason this story spread like wildfire is because the NRSC has a lot of work to do to repair its relationship with the base. For too long the NRSC was far more concerned with the opinions of the salons & cocktail parties of the Beltway (yeah lookin at you Mrs. Dole and your millions wasted on the effete fool Lincoln Chafee). They held those of us in flyover country with the same contempt as anyone at MSNBC or the DNC. I received several fundraising calls from NRSC minions last cycle who were dismissive, at best, and combative, at worst, toward conservatives. One even said, "I just don't know what the hell YOU conservatives want from us." To which I responded: "I want an NRSC who calls me and says WE conservatives, not YOU conservatives." I'll give directly to conservative candidates for Senate (as I did for Portman here in OH, and Rubio in FL) last cycle, but it will be a long, long, long time before I would ever consider giving a dime to the NRSC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet George LeMieux take it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt would be fun to defeat Scarborough in the GOP primary. He would be sufficiently embarrassed that he might disappear altogether (rather than only substantially disappearing by being on MSNBC.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>> UPDATE: Scarborough says, “no, it was Florida.” <<
UPDATE: Florida says, "No, Scarborough." Save your airfare, Joe, and don't bother wearing out our realtors looking for a nice pied-a-carpetbag so you can establish residency. You have no conservative street cred anymore, and conservatives are in the process of gutting and rebuilding the FL GOP. We just finished showing Charlie Crist the door, what make you think we'd want YOU?
Regards,
Joe
West Palm Beach, FL
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMorning Joe is a No Label guy. Run as independent, Joe. Even your girlfriend Mika would vote for you.
Lastly, Joe is waiting for Newt to ask him for VP slot.
Joe we hardly knew ya!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJoe is a NO, RINO... but in fact he isn't even a RINO lol
Joe is Joe NO LABEL... Save for MSNBC...
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