On Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough lashed out against conservatives lobbying Republicans to take an aggressive tack toward the Obama administration.
Scarborough said those Republicans wanting to shut down the government were not representative of Republican primary voters and downplayed their role versus that of the so-called “silent majority” within the party.
“I know the Republican primary electorate and I can tell you what they do,” Scarborough said. “They go to work. They don’t stay at home and blog all day. They’re not on Twitter at 7:30 in the morning. They may have this show on in the background. They may have Fox on in the background. But you know what they’re doing?
“They’re getting their kids ready for school. And I can tell you — I’ve always found, you always have the people coming up to you know, foaming at the mouth saying, ‘You know, blow up every building in Washington, D.C. Shut it all down,’” he continued. “And then you find out that the quiet people — Nixon’s silent majority, this time the silent majority is inside our party. They go to work. They play by the rules. They are my dad.”
Watch:
But former Clinton aide and long-time former CNN contributor James Carville refuted Scarborough, saying the more moderated approach hasn’t worked for Republicans electorally in the last two election cycles.
“What the Rush Limbaughs are saying — what they’re saying is every time we do what the Scarboroughs want — we put the John McCain out there, we put the Mitt Romney out there,” Carville replied. “We try to appease them and if we ever put a real conservative out there — if we put somebody who stood for our principles who was articulate, then we would win elections. That’s their argument.”
Scarborough countered by arguing he was on the same page with Limbaugh in that McCain and Romney weren’t the preferred candidates and it was a matter of not having that articulate qualified candidate to fill that role.
But Carville explained to Scarborough he isn’t well received by many in his party, to which Scarborough begged to differ.
“Joe, these guys do not consider you one of them,” Carville said. “I’m talking about the hardcore out there, which is a big part of your party.”
“You should read the end of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’” Scarborough replied. “If you have walked a mile in my shoes, James Carville — you haven’t. I can tell you, there are a couple of Cheeto-crunchers in basements, in their underwear, in their mom’s basements on blogs may not care for me, but I can tell you when I walk through airports, when I go to little league ball games, when I go shopping — let me finish, when I got to book event, I’ve got Republicans coming up to me hugging me going, ‘Thank God, thank God.’”
(h/t Mediaite)
