On his Tuesday program broadcast live from Chicago, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough railed against those pushing the Republican Party in a rightward direction, specifically those criticizing former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his critique of some conservative voices within the GOP.
The outspoken former Florida congressman insisted that Jeb Bush’s suggestion that even former President Ronald Reagan would have difficulties getting his party’s nomination because of its shift to the right had some truth to it.
“Let’s see, if I’m going on Intrade and trying to figure out whether the future of the Republican Party belongs to Grover Norquist, who I know and like, or the Jeb Bushes of the world, I’m pretty confident Jeb wins,” he said. “Listen…there is this back-and-forth that happens all the time. I will tell you Jeb Bush’s Republican Party is a party of the future.”
“I don’t compare myself to Jeb. He is a great man. I am a mere servant of the ‘Jebular.’ But Joe Scarborough’s Republican Party is the future of the Republican Party.”
Scarborough continued his rant by expressing his view of what ingredients a successful Republican Party needed, which is not what many tea party activist have been promoting.
“I’ve had people come up to me hysterically the past couple of years screaming and yelling. I say put your hair out,” Scarborough said. “I guarantee you my way forward is the future and not yours. Your Republican Party is in the past. My Republican Party is the future.”
“You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to take care of long-term debt. We’re going to be responsible on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Our goal will be to have GDP 19 percent of how much we spend on government. We’re going to try to keep taxes as low as possible, but I’ll tell what you we’re not going to do. We’re not going to cut infrastructure for the next 50 years. We’re not going to cut R & D for the next 50 years not going to cut education for the next 50 years.
“We’re going to hold government accountable. We’re not going to let teachers unions keep wrecking public classrooms, but we’re going to do it and I guarantee you — and Mika [Brzezinski] will tell, you we’ve given speeches — 450 speeches to the most conservative groups in America as well as the most liberal and they all agree.”
Finally, the MSNBC host aimed his attack at Bush’s detractors, whom he dismissed as basement dwellers on “dingy” laptops.
“You know, you can go online and act like a jackass and say what you want to say and now everybody is calling Jeb Bush a RINO,” Scarborough said. “Just shut the hell up. You can stay in your mother’s basement, you can eat your Cheetos, you can type on your dingy laptop. That’s all you got, but you are not the future of the Republican Party. So just keep screaming at your walls downstairs, your day is done.”
“Jeb did something very important that I wish Mitt Romney would have done couple of years ago when Glenn Beck was calling the president of the United States a racist and a bigot. Jeb is speaking out. I think other Republicans are starting to speak out. Mitt Romney doesn’t have the courage to speak out against this type of hatred but our day is coming, Mike [Barnicle]. Our day is coming. When that party reemerges — oh, my god, the following they will get from swing voters.”
