Today on his radio show, Rush Limbaugh gave his thoughts on the indefinite suspension of MSNBC contributor Mark Halperin who said President Obama was acting like “kind of a dick” on Morning Joe yesterday. Limbaugh used his old standby argument that no one would have cared if someone called President Bush that word but then went on to wonder why it’s inappropriate to say that but not at all a problem to lie about Republicans and their policies.

Lost in the din surrounding Mark Halperin‘s suspension from MSNBC over his remark that President Obama was “kind of a dick” during his Wednesday press conference is the fact that, Halperin’s intentions aside, the crack was not necessarily an insult. Liberals everywhere will point out that Republicans are the biggest bunch of dicks since the [...]

The Morning Joe crew opened today’s show as normal, with nary a mention of the Mark Halperin flap from yesterday. You know, it’s the classic story in which a morning show contributor notoriously calls the sitting president a “dick”; quickly apologizes, then gets suspended immediately? That one. Two minutes into the show, however, a slight miscue in the control room appeared to reveal some frustrations that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski might be having with the show’s producers.

The most outrageous statement in the cable news cycle today happened little after dawn, and by the end of the day, Mark Halperin had found no support for his statement on Morning Joe that President Obama was a “dick”– no support, that is, except for that of Jon Stewart, who was quick to call his statement “one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen,” and go on to praise fellow panelist Willie Geist for his classic “disapproving glare.”

Mark Halperin received universal criticism today after calling President Obama “kind of a d*ck” on Morning Joe today, and so far has found little sympathy for his comments from the media. On tonight’s In the Arena host Eliot Spitzer discussed his suspension with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, who had no problem with Halperin’s sentiment but objected to the language: “there’s another way to say it.”

This morning MSNBC’s Mark Halperin let it slip that he thought President Obama acted like a “dick” yesterday, and rather immediately MSNBC announced the decision to suspend Halperin “indefinitely.” Now some additional details are being revealed regarding what may have motivated such a quick decision.

Rush Limbaugh had a field day today reviewing Mark Halperin‘s explicit description of what he thought about President Obama’s press conference performance. Rush couldn’t stop laughing as he followed Halperin’s lead and referred to the President as “Dick” Hussein Obama. Then he humorously described the fact that today the stock market is booming solely because of Halperin’s comment.

In the event that anyone think that Morning Joe is becoming formulaic and predictable, I present the following clip. While discussing President Obama‘s press briefing yesterday (in which he showed a feisty, if not combative style), host Joe Scarborough asked regular contributor Mark Halperin what he thought of the President’s demeanor . After being assured that the show was on a seven second delay, Halperin called it like he saw it, saying “I though he was kind of a dick yesterday.” Update: MSNBC has suspended Halperin indefinitely.

Texas governor Rick Perry got a warm welcome at this weekend’s Republican Leadership Conference, with calls to run in 2012 escalating and a well-lauded speech. This seemed to baffle both Morning Joe hosts today, as Joe Scarborough tried to understand how “doing a George W. Bush imitation” was appealing to some while Mika Brzezinski merely added that she “felt like an alien” watching people applaud him.

Well if there was any question who the breakout star from last night’s GOP debate on CNN last night, it appears that there is a fairly clear answer. According to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s charisma helped her “popped visually” and “looked in command last night.” Regular Morning Joe contributor Mark Halperin agreed, and pointed out how credit goes to her political consultants, namely Ed Rollins, who just last week joined the Bachmann campaign.

America owes Donald Trump a bit of gratitude for his campaign daliance-cum-Celebrity Apprentice publicity tour, and its not for eliciting President Obama’s long form birth certificate, from which he claimed credit. No, we all owe Trump some level of thanks for revealing the core competence of political pundits that actually believed his dopey and transparent promotional scheme.

On Thursday’s Morning Joe, the influential morning show’s panel discussed the still-emerging, still-shifting details surrounding the raid that killed terrorist exile Osama bin Laden,and the White House’s dissemination of them. Along the way, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin‘s (heavily disclaimed) assessment that the raid is “controversial” caused co-host Mika Brzezinski to ask the crystallizing question “What’s controversial about killing Osama bin Laden?”

The Morning Joe crew reviewed President Obama’s deficit reduction speech and Joe Scarborough strongly believed Obama made a huge tactical error. Scarborough couldn’t understand why Obama invited Republican Congressman Paul Ryan to sit in the front row during his speech if Obama was just going to insult him. However, Mika Brzezinski disagreed and thought Obama’s strategy was better than how he is usually attacked by “cowardly” Republicans.

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.

While we still have no idea who’s running against Barack Obama in the 2012 election, the candidate announcements in the Hollywood 2008 election are coming in fast and furious! Just a few weeks ago, Julianne Moore was announced as Sarah Palin in the upcoming HBO film Game Change about the election and, since she looks basically nothing like Palin except in the broadest of categories, the only thing we could tell about her John McCain-playing counterpart was that he’d probably be older and probably be balding. But who could it be? Robert Duvall? Gene Hackman? Bruce Willis? Well, now we know as HBO has announced the casting of Ed Harris in the role.

Simon and Schuster has done a terrific job promoting a soon to released roman a clef that ostensibly based on Barack Obama’s first two years in office. But much of the hype surrounding the supposed insider take in O: A Presidential Novel is based on unknown identity of the author; much like Primary Colors was penned by “Anonymous” (later revealed to be Time‘s Joe Klein) no one has known who wrote the novel about Obama. Well, bad news for Simon and Schuster’s PR department, it appears that the identity of the author has leaked, and he is NOT a White House insider as some had suggested. In fact, he’s Mark Salter, who Newsweek called “John McCain‘s closest aide.”

While there is widespread outrage over Sarah Palin‘s misappropriation of the term “blood libel,” very little attention is being paid to the fact that her response is fixed around the lie that criticism of Palin has centered around the use of common electoral “targeting” metaphors, rather than the specific use of crosshairs, a lie that was called out last March by Gabrielle Giffords herself.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe welcomed National Journal Executive Editor Ron Brownstein and NJ correspondent Major Garrett this morning, the day the magazine and web site relaunched.

Of course, Garrett on Morning Joe is the headline – and he spent the first eight minutes talking about Fox News’ Juan Williams, offering a unique perspective.

Ever since Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s eruption on the House floor over the failed 9/11 first responder aid bill, he and fellow New Yorker Rep. Peter King have been making the cable news rounds (sometimes together) and battling over why it failed.

Today on Morning Joe, Rep. Weiner and Joe Scarborough battled over the issue.

The Morning Joe crew took on the First Lady Michelle Obama Spain vacation controversy this morning, with innuendo and ‘uncomfortable’ moments from NBC White House Correspondent Chuck Todd.

This led to a discussion of Pres. Barack Obama – Todd says the only thing he may be successful at in August is fundraising. MSNBC, ladies and gentlemen.

Meet the Press not only devoted some time to discussing Chelsea Clinton‘s wedding this morning, they brought in resident historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to add in her two cents. Joking aside, it is rather astounding how much attention Chelsea’s wedding has received. Goodwin thinks it demonstrates how far we have come as a county (though she neglects to mention in which direction).

Joe Scarborough would like to clear something up. Yesterday he did NOT say that he “thought that John Boehner did not work hard enough, or that he went out and partied.” Later clarifying that since Capitol Hill is very small, people know what people do, and “John Boehner is known as a guy that likes to golf, likes to have a good time and is not known as a hard worker.” Aha! Somewhere I am sure that the office of John Boehner doesn’t love the clarification.

Joe Scarborough tells it like it is. Or at least he calls it like he sees it. Or Something. Today on Morning Joe the former Republican congressman brought up rumors or John Boehner‘s work ethic — or the lack thereof — while speaking with Politico’s Jim VandeHei. It’s a remarkably candid moment for a morning news program that, once again, reminds of why Morning Joe is such a critical darling. Video of the back and forth, after the jump.

Bill O’Reilly found it fairly strange that, after clamoring for the President to show anger, many in the media then found it distasteful for him to turn around and express his frustration while trying to find “whose ass to kick” over the BP oil disaster. Of particular note was Drudge Report proprietor Matt Drudge‘s headline: “Obama Goes Street,” which O’Reilly saw as “nifty” and “kind of with it” but was amazed that anyone would see a hint of racial commentary in it.

Woo-hoo! Elena Kagan is everywhere! It’s Kaganfest 2010! She’s totally debatable as a Supreme Court nominee! She knows Eliot Spitzer! She’s better for a headline than Taylor Momsen! Everybody loves the Supreme Court! That is…now. But in 2008 during the campaign, no one cared.