The Morning Joe team continued its ongoing discussion on the White House’s controversial — and, now, changing — birth control mandate, with host Joe Scarborough urging people not to turn an issue about government interference in religion into a discussion on contraception. This debate, he told his colleagues, is farther-ranging than a specific health care issue.

On Tuesday morning’s Starting Point, host Soledad O’Brien led yet another discussion of the Obama administration’s decision to give non-church religious employers one year to comply with the Preventive Services Mandate, which some claim is an “attack on religious liberty.”

O’Brien did a good job of challenging that false premise, but allowed guest Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-TN) to slip in the lie that the mandate covers the “abortion pill.”

On Friday, the Morning Joe team once again tackled the question of whether a certain GOP candidate is just a little bit socially awkward, or just a little at a loss when it comes to relating to others. Mika Brzezinski referred to a New York Times piece by Frank Rich, where Rich notes that Romney’s attempts at small talk “famously take the form of guessing a voter’s age or nationality (usually incorrectly) or offering a greeting of ‘Congratulations!’ for no particular reason.”

MSNBC host and author Dylan Ratigan visited Morning Joe on Thursday, giving his two cents on Mitt Romney‘s recent comments about keeping his focus on the middle class and not being “very concerned about the poor,” and on Romney in general.

New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer appeared on Thursday’s Morning Joe to discuss his efforts in reining in the amount of corporate money spent on political campaigns.

Host Mika Brzezinski started things off by noting that Schumer’s colleagues in the National Republican Senatorial Committee “point out you are the number one recipient of Wall Street money in the Senate, and it’s funny you’re decrying the role of corporate money in the political process.”

The Morning Joe crew took a look at the fallout from — and the benefits of — using negative ad campaigns in presidential elections. The panelists agreed that Mitt Romney‘s success in the Florida primary was tied to his decision to “hit back” against Newt Gingrich‘s slew of negative campaign ads, both with his own ads and during debates.

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough — prompted in part by the characterization of “brain dead” Republicans in Richard Cohen‘s harshly critical Washington Post op-ed piece — had some choice words about the state of the media in regards to the GOP.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough took a moment to speak with GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, whom he’s known for some time. Santorum told the host he was gearing up to visit his old stomping grounds in Pensacola, Florida.

They grow up so fast, don’t they? Online political media giant Politico turns five years old today, and to celebrate, the site posted a video roast by some quotable notables in the political media world. While the site has arguably earned the right to toot its own horn at least once every half-decade, did they really have to overshadow the birthday of Saved By The Bell actress Tiffani-Amber Thiessen?

On Monday morning, Morning Joe‘s Mika Brzezinski reported that South Carolina’s GOP exit poll has primary winner Newt Gingrich ranking highest in electability, with 51 percent of the vote versus Mitt Romney‘s 37. And as the candidates look ahead to Florida, Romney is launching an offensive, labeling the former Speaker a “failed leader.”

Last summer, when Newt Gingrich made several significant campaign missteps, the media wrote his candidacy off before it even began. In December, thanks to his strong debate performances, he surged to the top of the field, and some analysts thought he would be the likely nominee. A few weeks later, his campaign fizzled and the media went back to writing him off again. So now that Gingrich is back in the spotlight, the media is naturally… writing him off again.

Comedy Central host and presidential hopeful Stephen Colbert visited the Morning Joe crew in South Carolina Friday to discuss the GOP race, as well as his (and Herman Cain’s) efforts in the state.

New Jersey governor and America’s Great Right Hope Chris Christie stopped by the Morning Joe set Wednesday, where talk eventually turned to his future aspirations. Or, at least, what some are anticipating and/or hoping his aspirations might be.

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.”

Richard Cordray, the newly-appointed — and rather controversial — director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stopped by the set of Morning Joe Wednesday to discuss his new role, and found himself treated to a little trip down memory lane.

Did GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney — not one to have been particularly surprising or controversial during this election’s many debates — hurt his chances during last night’s performance in South Carolina? That’s precisely what the Morning Joe crew wanted to figure out Tuesday morning. And, more importantly for our country, are Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ok?

Following Joe Scarborough‘s comments that all that was left in the GOP race was “big government conservatives” in the wake of Jon Huntsman exit from the Republican nomination race, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh lit into the MSNBC host, saying he was attempting to curry favor with his network’s executives. “I think that’s what you say when you have to keep your job at a liberal network,” Limbaugh jabbed.

CNN contributor and Editor-in-Chief of Big Journalism Dana Loesch took a lot of flak over the weekend for her declaration of solidarity with the four Marines who videotaped themselves urinating on the corpses of alleged Taliban fighters, in which she said “I’d drop trou and do it too.”

Countdown host Keith Olbermann and liberal watchdog Media Matters, among others, have called for CNN to fire Loesch over the remark, and according to Big Journalism, even Politico is in on the act.

On Monday, the Morning Joe team welcomed financial guru Suze Orman onto the show to discuss Elizabeth Warren‘s ideas regarding debt.

On Friday, the Morning Joe crew took a look into their crystal ball (sponsored by Starbucks) and glimpsed ahead into what the future may hold for big-name Democrats. Is current Vice President Joe Biden gearing up to run for another presidential run? Would President Barack Obama do well to tap Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be his 2012 running mate? Would either stand a chance if Boo were to seek the nomination?

Things on Morning Joe got a little heated Thursday morning during a discussion about Hostess Brands — the maker of Twinkies — filing for bankruptcy. “The good news,” host Mika Brzezinski read, “is the company will continue to produce Twinkies.”

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.

When Michele Bachmann dropped out yesterday after coming in a disappointing sixth place in the Iowa caucus, it piqued the Mediaite staff desk’s curiosity about who had made recent predictions about the Congresswoman’s success in the Hawkeye State.

On Monday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough surmised there will be backlash amongst Republicans if Mitt Romney is seen easily cruising to victory. “Anybody who thinks it’s going to be over after Iowa and New Hampshire, if Romney wins, does not understand the conservative base,” Scarborough opined. “”There will be blood if Mitt Romney seems like the guy who’s going to walk away with it.” Mark Halperin anticipated that nobody was going to drop out after the Iowa caucuses. “I think even Michele Bachmann will go, try to fight on in South Carolina,” Halperin predicted. “It’s perfect for Mitt Romney to have a crowded field in South Carolina.”

During a discussion about Ron Paul‘s controversial newsletters sent in his name during the 1990s on Thursday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough provocatively observed “There is always a strain of anti-Semitism” at the Republican presidential candidate’s events.