New Jersey Governor Chris Christie lashed out at Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson on Robinson’s home turf this morning, telling Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that people like Robinson “shouldn’t have a platform to speak, they’re so ignorant.”

In a remarkably heated back-and-forth on Friday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough grilled MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson over his controversial comments calling Rick Santorum‘s handling of the death of his newborn “weird.” “Do you think you may have gone overboard a little bit in your criticisms of Santorum?” Scarborough asked. “We haven’t talked about it. I’m not setting you up for anything. I was taken aback by what you said.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich may have risked his nascent lead by referencing a “humane” immigration policy at last night’s debate. On MSNBC’s Martin Bashir show this afternoon, Democratic strategist Karen Finney slowed the Newt “Humane Train” by noting that “he is a little like a sociopath. On the one hand, he is talking about humanity and the compassion. And he is saying little kids should go scrub toilets so they get work experience.”

President Barack Obama‘s Massachusetts vacation has Republicans up in arms, especially in light of him not providing a jobs plan before heading off to Martha’s Vineyard. On her program tonight, Rachel Maddow tried to make sense of the right-wing critiques, from the amount of vacation time to mocking his “Aerosmith” bus to Mitt Romney mocking Martha’s Vineyard while staying in a nearby neighborhood in his home state.

Yesterday, Karl Rove warned Republicans that, depending on how President Obama handles all of the shutdown hullaballoo, it could actually help him with the public. On Hardball today, Chris Matthews and his guests looked into how the President was doing. While the entire panel agreed that it behooved Obama to appear like a “compromiser” and an adult in a city of bickering children, Matthews pointed out something else that would help him; the President’s pearly whites.

On Monday night, conservative media watchdog Newsbusters published a column denouncing Mother Jones’ David Corn for making what they called an “anti-Semitic remark,” and whacked Hardball host Chris Matthews for laughing at it. Corn responded with befuddlement at the charge, and by Tuesday evening, the original post had been deleted from Newsbusters. Much to his credit, [...]

Although it seems to have originated at right-wing media watchdog Newsbusters, an accusation of anti-Semitism against Mother Jones‘ David Corn and Hardball host Chris Matthews is rocketing around the conservative blogosphere like a coked-up Ricochet Rabbit. Corn, who is Jewish, stands accused of making an “anti-Semitic remark,” while Matthews “laughs hysterically.”

There ought to be a special word for falsely accusing a Jewish person of anti-Semitism. Maybe “anti-Semitism³?”

Chris Matthews welcomed two frequent guests to Hardball, Salon‘s Joan Walsh and Washington Post‘s Eugene Robinson to discuss some controversial Republican stories ranging from Governor Haley Barbour refusing to denounce license plates that honor the KKK’s founder to Speaker of the House John Boehner refusing to tell Americans whether or not they should believe President Obama is a Muslim. Somehow Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann snuck into the conversation too, with Matthews finally just concluding that Republicans are a “party of crazy people.”

Perhaps it is no secret that Countdown host Keith Olbermann is not a fan of Fox News, but his blunt Twitter declaration that “Fox News is 100% bullshit” is worth noting, if for no other reason than that it is sure to draw some kind of response from its target. He was responding to a dissonant comparison of Fox News to liberal blog Daily Kos.

Apparently, Coundtdown fill-in host Chris Hayes didn’t get that memo, though, as he joined Rachel Maddow last week in crediting Shep Smith with helping to get the 9/11 First Responders bill passed.

Not content with cliché year-end wrap pieces, the voracious political media machine has resorted to reanimating the rotting corpses of memes past. Now, not only do we now have to avoid the stumbling, vacant groans of “Brains!” from Birther queen Orly Taitz, MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show has also thrust open the cemetery gates for “Death Panels.”

Using a report from Newsmax (Newsmax!) as its impetus, a panel that includes Jonathan Alter, Jane Hamsher, and Matt Lewis kicks the Death Panels around for awhile, but fails to deliver the requisite double-tap.

Chris Matthews certainly seems less upset about the new TSA measures than a lot of the folks we’ve heard from. Instead, he thinks the Right has been “ginning up” the controversy and that the alternate would be worse, imagining the reaction “five minutes” after a terrorist attack if the Obama administration hadn’t set up strict security measures. Really though, the reaction would be a thousand times worse if there was a terrorist attack with these protocols.

As predicted, the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives last night, ensuring that Rep. John Boehner would become the Speaker of the House. During his live “acceptance speech” in which he spoke about bipartisanship, the presumptive Speaker became quite emotional, choking up several times in the joy and import of the moment. This not only merited the attention of the MSNBC election team, but also their skepticism as they picked apart Boehner’s “weeping” in a most petty manner.

Haley Barbour is not only the Governor of Mississippi, but he leads the Republican Governor’s Association (which recently received a $1 Million donation from News Corp.) and is also considered a serious Republican presidential candidate for 2012. During a recent interview with conservative website Human Events, Barbour recalled his memories of growing up in a relatively tolerant and integrated South, claiming it was the “old Democrats who had fought for segregation so hard.” Enter Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson to fact-check, and well, it’s not a pretty picture.

Joe Scarborough took a shot at his own network’s prime time this morning in a conversation with Eugene Robinson on Morning Joe.

In disagreeing with Robinson’s claim Pres. Barack Obama is being attacked exceptionally more by his detractors than past presidents, he said he turned on MSNBC prime time last night and “my head almost blew off.”

Sadly, it seems my memo to BP CEO Tony Hayward (the short version: “nobody likes you”) didn’t get to BP quickly enough. Readers of the Wall Street Journal woke up to the distinct pleasure of seeing Hayward’s name in print next to a column explaining his company’s plan to clean up their disastrous mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Hayward delivers a strong, exhaustive explanation of his plan, and the most sincere apology he has yet to muster, but, unfortunately for him, his reputation precedes him.

Rachel Maddow went on a bit of a deviation from her usual style on her program last night– she told a story set in Tiny Town, USA. In Tiny Town, a mean old man notices that two deliveries– one with bakery goods and one with pool chemicals– get mixed up, so that chlorine ends up being delivered to a donut shop. I won’t ruin the ending for you, but what you need to know is that this is some sort of metaphor for the current situation at Goldman Sachs.

When news broke yesterday that Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) had made unfavorable comments towards Fox News (and perhaps more striking, favorable thoughts on Nancy Pelosi) one knew that Keith Olbermann was sure to pounce. And pounce he did, though in his own words, he was stunned. At a loss for words even.

Despite the absurdity of the Liz Cheney/Keep America Safe “Al Qaeda 7″ ad, and the fact that Cheney’s group sounds like its mascot ought to be a pee-pants version of Woodsy Owl, the spot has been generating a lot of heat. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and frequent Countdown contributor Eugene Robinson wrote a scathing op-ed yesterday attacking the fallacy behind the ad, but it could have easily been directed at his friend and colleague, Keith Olbermann

On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann made a special appearance to update his viewers on his father’s medical condition, and to respond to critics of his “Life Panels” Special Comment from last week, singling out Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. As is often the case, much of the criticism has been focused on how the message was delivered, rather than the substance of it. Keith gave his critics more credit than they deserved, and took on what little substance they offered.

After Jeff Zucker‘s trip to the Congressional woodshed at a House Judicial Affairs Committee meeting this week over lack of racial diversity at NBC, is Meet the Press about to take another stab at diversifying its panels and newsmakers?

The sudden downfall of Eugene Robinson‘s career at the hands of his libido (no pun intended!), brought to mind all the other politicians who have suffered a similar fate . Behold, a catalog of the most awesome most absurd ways the most lustful lads have been captured in the media.

Seriously? Sometimes, no comment is needed. This from our inbox this morning: WashPost Launches America’s Next Great Pundit Competition Aspiring pundits across the country have the chance to be “America’s Next Great Pundit” by entering The Washington Post’s political columnist competition. Starting today The Washington Post opinions section is asking people around the country to [...]

I’d like to apologize to Erin Andrews. Apparently, my lifelong obsession with professional sports — the tears I shed when the Giants won the Super Bowl and when the Mets lost the Subway Series, the John Starks “Dunk” poster I had on my bedroom wall, the tiny radio I kept in bed with me, tuned [...]