Thursday night, The Factor‘s Bill O’Reilly reported on how “the very liberal MSNBC network” has taken Pat Buchanan off the air because of opinions espoused of his book, Suicide of a Superpower, particularly where the issues of religion and immigration are concerned. Buchanan had previously denied being suspended from the network, explaining his absence as a medical leave.

We still don’t know what Phil Griffin and MSNBC will ultimately do in regards to the Pat Buchanan situation. What we do know is that if Buchanan is taken out permanently, there will be blow-back. And let’s start with what will likely become the focal point for those who take issue with Buchanan getting taken off permanently.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that Pat Buchanan would be indefinitely removed from MSNBC, in part due to some of the offensive racial and ethnic comments in his latest book. Not everyone was comfortable with this decision, as Fox News commentator Liz Trotta vehemently proved today, in a talk about how Buchanan’s suspension was “absurd” and a product of the “close to communist” MSNBC network.

Pat Buchanan is disputing reports he was suspended from MSNBC and contends that he was instead on medical leave. “Well, you know I’ve had some medical issues at the end of the year which were pretty problematic, and so I’ve sort of been out of speaking and things like that,” Buchanan told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Monday night. “I’ve started back writing the column in December, and I’ve got the column going. I’m doing ‘McLaughlin Group.’ But we haven’t gotten up on MSNBC.”

Reading what Phil Griffin had to say Saturday about the Pat Buchanan situation made me think about why this is happening. “During the period of the book tour I asked him not to be on,” Mr. Griffin said. “Since then the issue has become the nature of some of the statements in the book.” Mr. Buchanan argues in “Suicide of a Superpower” — which has the subtitle “Will America Survive to 2025?” — that the “European and Christian core of our country is shrinking,” which is damaging the nation “ethnically, culturally, morally, politically.” The book also contains a chapter titled “The End of White America.”

The future of Pat Buchanan at MSNBC is hanging in the balance, after a controversial book in which the conservative commentator made statements that were considered discriminatory by several groups. Over the weekend, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said that Buchanan was not allowed on the air indefinitely after the release of his latest book, and has not decided whether to allow the commentator to return.

For 21 consecutive months, MSNBC has been No. 1 among African American viewers in primetime. So maybe it’s no surprise that Pat Buchanan, the controversial pundit, hasn’t appeared on the network since late October. The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reports that Buchanan hasn’t shown up on MSNBC since Oct. 22, while doing the rounds on other stations to promote his new book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive To 2025?.

On today’s installment of The McLaughlin Group, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan had some strong words for the Occupy Wall Street movement, and in arguing President Obama would not be wise to embrace the protestors, suggested that as it continues to snow and the weather gets colder, they will pursue more violent means to accomplish their goals.

ColorofChange.org is perhaps most famous for having organized a boycott against Glenn Beck‘s advertisers while he was at Fox News, as well as for having gone against the network itself with a “Turn Off FOX” sticker campaign. Now, the group is setting it sights on MSNBC, specifically on convincing the network to drop its longtime conservative commenter and news analyst, Pat Buchanan.

About a couple months ago, Pat Buchanan got in a bunch of trouble when he used the phrase “your boy” in regards to President Obama. At the time, all Buchanan meant was that Obama was the favored candidate of the host he was talking to, Al Sharpton, however, he got caught up (unfairly in this writer’s opinion) in the tricky racial connotations of the word “boy.” You’d think, then, that he’d learn his lesson about the importance of word choice.

Perhaps not as, last night on Martin Bashir, he explained that black voters had been fed too much propaganda from the “liberal plantation.” Hoo boy.

President Obama’s approval ratings right now are bad. Really bad. However, according to Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe today, there may be, as his co-host Mika Brzezinski put it, a “silver lining with spurs on it.” None other than Rick Perry.

In discussing former Vice President Dick Cheney‘s cranial grenade of a memoir Monday, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough seemed to ever-so-gently suggest that the Iraq War had something to do with the Arab Spring, the series of uprisings in Mideast dictatorships. The premise got all the traction of a Yugo on a hockey rink, and even managed to unite The Earth Institute‘s Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan in the common cause that Cheney, Bush, and the Iraq War succeeded only in weakening the United States.

The Morning Joe panel had an interesting discussion this morning about Texas governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry‘s recent bout of rather inflamed, controversial rhetoric, specifically his decision to call Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke‘s actions “treasonous” and insinuating that President Barack Obama might not love his country. Obama himself gave Perry “a pass” for his comments, but told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that one has “got to be a little more careful about what you say.”

The gang at Morning Joe took some time this morning to discuss GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry, using Harold Meyerson‘s Washington Post op-ed piece on the Texas governor as their jumping-off point. In his article, wherein he refers to Perry as “Texas’ Manchurian candidate,” Meyerson writes that Perry, who has made wariness of the government a cornerstone of his campaign and his political persona, neglects to acknowledge the positive role the federal government has played in his state.

The panel pointed out that Perry inspires liberals to respond with an “incredible passion and anger” — a fact that can justify the frustration felt by Perry’s base and, thus, actually help him out. Al Sharpton weighed in on this phenomenon and what it might mean for Democrats and Independents.

Alan Colmes spoke with Don Imus this morning, and no topic was off limits as they tackled Neil Cavuto‘s “big head,” how the Democrats “folded like a cheap suit” during the debt negotiations and whether Pat Buchanan referring to President Obama as “your boy” in a conversation with Al Sharpton was racially tinged. Given Buchanan’s history, Colmes thought Buchanan might have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Just as one fire involving a MSNBC contributor and their description of President Obama is finally put out, might a new one be starting? Today on Morning Joe, Mark Halperin returned to the show after his suspension for calling Obama a “dick.” Yet moments after Halperin completed his analysis of the debt deal, it was Pat Buchanan‘s turn to address his fresh controversy.

Pitting newly minted host Al Sharpton against longtime conservative firebrand Pat Buchanan was bound to generate a potent shouting match, no matter what the topic. But given Buchanan’s record of questionable comments, it’s hard not to find something off-color about his debate with Sharpton today, where, discussing the debt, he argues that “your boy,” President Obama, was “whipped” by Sen. Mitch McConnell, and adds a “briar patch” reference for good measure.

It is far too soon after the tragedy to define Norweigian psychotic mass murderer Anders Breivik as bearing any mainstream political stripe, and yet his rambling, incoherent manifesto has landed him a number of adjectives– from “Christian fundamentalist” to”xenophobic anti-Islamist.” At least this much is clear: Breivik thought immigration was a threat to national identity, and he’s apparently found one ally on that front in America: Pat Buchanan.

MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan attempted to justify the Republican position of not accepting a debt compromise with President Obama by suggesting that the last Republican to go along with such a deal was President George H.W. Bush and his reward for raising taxes was one term. Yet none of the other Morning Joe guests in the discussion including MSNBC contributors Ed Rendell, Harold Ford Jr., Mike Barnicle and Jonathan Capehart were buying Buchanan’s argument that Republicans were taking a “principled position.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a “back-up plan” yesterday to guarantee that the debt ceiling would be raised, but only through a procedure by which Republicans wouldn’t have to cast a vote in support of it. The potential shift of power (and blame) to President Obama to raise the debt ceiling without any mandatory spending cuts has infuriated many, and on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan voiced some of the conservative frustration.

MSNBC’s conservative commentator Pat Buchanan took on the entire Morning Joe panel as he explained that President Obama is ignoring political reality if he thinks tax increases of any kind could pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Buchanan states that any Republican who signs such a deal would face angry and unforgiving constituents back home, therefore he predicts “Obama will fold.”

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen observed the Fourth of July yesterday, by publishing an inflammatory opinion piece entitled “Grand Old Cult,” which likened the GOP presidential field to a “virtual political Jonestown.” The on-air talent debated this piece this morning, with Donny Deutsch and Pat Buchanan going head to head on issues of American ingenuity, overseas outsourcing and other political hot topics of the day.

The debate over whether it is legitimate to question President Obama about his birth certificate and his academic records spilled over into Hardball today as Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan hurled humorous insults at one another during a heated debate. The MSNBC colleagues clearly enjoyed the back and forth as neither seemed to shy away from revealing their true opinion about Obama’s academic credentials.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Pat Buchanan suggested President Obama “didn’t think it through when he started the war.” The panel were discussing an op-ed piece by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that says “presidents want to be leaders of great causes.”

On the question of whether the U.S. wants to “own” Libya, Buchanan charged the president didn’t do his homework, which got Mika Brzezinski fired up.

If you thought Mitt Romney had his work cut out for him explaining his individual health insurance mandate, wait ’til you get a load of the policy skeleton that just popped out of Donald Trump‘s (R-$$) closet. The 2012 GOP maybe-hopeful has quickly ascended to towering heights on the strength of constant appeals to the “Birther” crowd, but his 1999 proposal to redistribute the wealth of the richest Americans via a one-time “Net Worth Tax” may invent a new brand of wingnut: the “Worthers.”