Joe Scarborough Fails To See Martin Luther King/Nancy Pelosi Comparisons

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by Frances Martel | 3:49 pm, March 22nd, 2010

» 13 comments

We already knew sometime around 10:30 last night that today’s episode of Morning Joe was going to be eventful, it was just a question of how. Joe Scarborough, who was never too keen on the health care bill, made hyperbolic Margaret Thatcher and Apolo Ohno references, but it was Tufts history professor Peniel Joseph‘s suggestion that passing the bill was on the same historic and moral level as the 1964 Civil Rights Act that finally made him snap.

MSNBC has no shortage of excitable pundits beaming about the House’s passage of the health care bill last night, and they are willing to make all sorts of preposterous comparisons (though Geraldo Rivera’s Lazarus and phoenix metaphors don’t lag far behind). Joseph’s overstatement of choice was comparing the bill to the Civil Rights Act, and noted that he believed “people see health care as a new civil rights movement.” Scarborough failed to see the similarity:

“…to compare what happened in Selma in 1965 with a bill as bad as this bill that makes money for insurance companies, that cuts deals with big pharma, the cornhusker kickback… how can you even draw a comparison with the Civil Rights Movement in 1965 and this hulking, slothful beast of a bill?”

Well, for one, Joseph argued that “there were critics to the right and left of those bills.” Both bills faced bipartisan opposition, unlike any other bills in history! Joseph got help elaborating his point from Lawrence O’Donnell, arguing that there was a moral equivalent between people of all races being able to eat at the same restaurants and children being able to afford health care instead of dying. He also challenged Scarborough’s personal congressional record, asking if Scarborough had ever spent more than three hours studying health care. This prompted a yell of “that is such crap!”, a rogue soy latte reference, a few Bill Clinton impressions, and more!

Video below:

Apolo Ohno, civil rights act, Civil Rights Movement, Democrats, Geraldo Rivera, Health Care Reform, joe scarborough, Lawrence O'Donnell, Margaret Thatcher, morning joe, Peniel Joseph, Republicans

Cubby

Joe may be an asshole, but he makes a lot of sense. He’s a Republican who’s not afraid to consider concepts outside of his ideology, which is a rare thing to find these days on either side. His criticisms of the health care bill are much more thoughtful than the idiotic talking points you hear repeated by Tea Party protesters and Fox News pundits (“government takeover of healthcare”, “death panels”, etc). Unlike pretty much any other morning show, his program features thoughtful discussions by politicians, scholars, and authors. Its low ratings are just another sad example of how the American people prefer crap to things that challenge them to think.
Jim R

I must admit to watching Morning Joe every morning, and while he can be insufferable at times he is less so than most of his compatriots on the right.

If there had been a little more time in this episode he might have clarified for us that the only time he spent in Congress thinking about health care was when he schemed with Gingrich to cut Medicare or shut the government down.

That didn’t go so well, Joe, in case memory doesn’t serve.
Cubby

Yeah, one of the things that makes Joe so insufferable is the way he looks back on his time in Congress through the rosiest of rose-colored glasses.
PureFreedom

This show would be so much more successful if it was on another network. Joe understands the health bill and I agree with him. but you had four other people against him preaching that this is like the civil rights movement in the 60″s… what a bunch of crap!
m

I agree with Joe Scarborough.
JamesA1102

Yeah, one of the things that makes Joe so insufferable is the way he looks back on his time in Congress through the rosiest of rose-colored glasses.

Joe reminds me of Al Bundy talking about when he played high school football.
tigerprez

This is silly. This Health Care bill easily trumps every other piece of legislation in American (if not world) history. It makes the Bill of Rights look like a grocery list by comparison. It renders the Emancipation Proclamation nothing more than a fart in a hurricane. Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just freed us ALL.

And anyone who says any differently is probably a Nazi, a KKK member or, worse, a Teabagger.
autobahn

tiger, you’re copying Greg Gutfeld’s line. “If you disagree with me, you’re probably a racist homophobe.”
Jim R

This particular issue aside let me take this opportunity to compliment the entire Morning Joe crew.

I don’t think anyone has ever put together such an eclectic group that plays so well off each other, while still managing to make the day’s news and trivia interesting and topical.

Given the Imus Show (which I also watched) debacle they were working from, all I can say is job well done.
TylerDurdin

O’Donnell is an ass. Period!
The Real Royal King

I actually think with HCR we’re in Magna Carta and Charter of the Rights of Man territory.

Well, actually not, but that doesn’t mean Scarborough is not a buffon. Let’s face it, he was scarcely more than a coat hangar in the cloak room when he was in the House. Now, he did transform it to a lucrative career, so he need a pat on the back.

Now, seriously, HCR is the most significant legislation since 1966. That’s some doing.

BTW: Way to go, Lawrence!
Nachi

Joe fails to see. Period. He’s a Falwellian guy who won’t let go.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Boni/69800433 Thomas Boni

Bravo, Joe!

It amazes me how MSNBC pundits rightly dogged Tea Partiers for their unfair comparisons — such as Obama to Hitler, and suggestions that America would soon experience its own Holocaust — or how they can easily jump to conclusions about political foes — such as when Sarah Palin said her crib notes kept her in good company, as God carved everyone in the palm of his hand, and how Lawrence O’Donnell (of course) proclaimed that “Sarah Palin COMPARES herself to GOD!” Yet when Democrats try something as obviously scripted as deeming Nancy Pelosi the next coming of Martin Luther King — a sentence I feel guilty even typing due to the unbelievable insult that hurls on King’s legacy and the civil rights movement — MSNBC pundits are glad to toe the company line — and any other “lines” thereafter.

So, let’s use MSNBC’s logic (which, in this case, would be correct): the civil rights movement was its own movement, and nothing can or can’t be fairly compared to it, given all the incredible emotions and implications its meant for race relations. In the same way that the Holocaust can’t be repeated, and it’s an insult to its victims and their descendants whenever someone says (insert Obama administration action) is a “Holocaust,” it’s insulting for anything’s end to be compared to the Civil Rights Act. And again, it’s just a line. And in this age, with folks like Rahm Emanuel in the White House, it’s no stretch to ponder whether it’s carefully orchestrated by the administration. (Well, you saw “Wag the Dog” — and after you did, you never quite saw national politics the same way again.)