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.”

Maureen Dowd‘s column yesterday suggested that Obama’s decision to involve the U.S. military in Libya came primarily from senior female advisers (namely Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and National Security Adviser Samantha Power.) This spawned an interesting discussion on Morning Joe, which lead Pat Buchanan to suggest that women in the administration were making an emotional argument in their advice to get the U.S. involved. Hoo boy!

With continuous resignations in the wake of the NPR hidden camera sting operation, the Morning Joe panel discussed whether NPR should continue to be federally funded, but did not seem happy to have to talk about it. Sitting in for Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle summed up the opinion of most on the panel when he suggested “talking about NPR, it’s ridiculous. It’s tedious.”

It’s always strange when one cable news outlet is compelled to report on the news being made by its competition. Case in point? The following report by CNN’s Joe Johns on yesterday’s announcement by Fox News that they were suspending the contributor agreements with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum because of the increasing likelihood that they will be running for president. Johns continues in his report to ask why other Fox News contributors — namely Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and John Bolton — haven’t been suspended.

Following in his own recent steps of defending a prominent conservative in turmoil when no one else was doing so publicly, MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan was at it again defending potential 2012 candidate for President, Rick Santorum and his racially charged comments about abortion. Buchanan claimed Santorum’s “facts are correct.”

On MSNBC yesterday host Andrea Mitchell wondered if Sarah Palin‘s controversial use of the term “blood libel” was just her being “ignorant” of the historical meaning of the term or as Democratic strategist Bob Shrum suggested, was it inappropriate for Palin to continue referring to her political opponents as evil? MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan refused to accept either proposal and strongly defended Palin’s video response saying “I think she’s done this exactly right.”

There is a lot to see in this clip from The McLaughlin Group including a wildly colorful sports jacket worn by host John McLaughlin and an even more colorful commentary by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan as he established the arguments against repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy. With most public figures championing repeal as a positive and historical civil rights moment, it’s at least interesting to hear Buchanan defend the opposing view so passionately.

The proposed Islamic center several blocks from Ground Zero has fallen into a perfect political storm of national tragedy, touchy international relations, and mid-August heat, and everyone with an opinion on the matter seems to be taking their arguments to the extreme. The latest to seemingly make an outrageous comparison is MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell, who uses an analogy that involves those who oppose the construction of the mosque and the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks.

The Shirley Sherrod media fiasco is, by its nature, a sensitive and unusual case, with plenty of racial semantics pitfalls for even the most careful TV personality. When Pat Buchanan was asked for his take on this issue on MSNBC this morning, he tried to evade those pitfalls by evoking legendary civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and making an unintentionally insensitive bus metaphor.

With Willie Geist out today, the job of reading the “News You Can’t Use” on Morning Joe fell to Pat Buchanan.

Dubbed “Skank Correspondent” by Mika Brzezinski, Buchanan gave his report on the pressing stories of the day – Lindsay Lohan and Levi Johnston.

That’s the question I’ve been stewing over all day. Who is the gutless piece of crap who leaked Dave Weigel‘s Journolist emails to FishbowlDC and The Daily Caller? While I don’t know that person’s identity, I have a feeling it was someone a good deal less talented, and a great deal less honest, than Weigel.

The world of traditional media has overturned in the past decade – and few have ridden the crest of this wave more savvily than Michael Kinsley. As a pundit on CNN’s “Crossfire,” editing Slate, experimenting with the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, and now at The Atlantic, Kinsley’s philosophy has been an open desire to speak truth to power, and to bend the boundaries of where and how the media engages with its audience. Philip Bump examines the arc of Kinsley’s career, and just how ahead of the curve that arc has been.

Say what you will about MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan– last seen wondering aloud about, um, why there are so many Jews on the Supreme Court– but he doesn’t think quite like anyone else on TV does. This morning, Buchanan was on the air to discuss the job Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak was offered by the White House, and the issue made Buchanan concerned about Sestak’s mental health, not that he didn’t “urge him to join the race every time I saw him on Morning Joe,” anyway.

As conservatives continued to look for a good mode of attack for Elena Kagan, Pat Buchanan chose a novel approach when he decided to criticize the Supreme Court nominee for being Jewish. Well, to be more specific, he criticized Obama and liberals for not nominating enough blacks, Protestants, and Catholics but, when you write a blog post that can basically be boiled down to “There are too many Jews on the Supreme Court,” you’re sure to get a negative backlash (which is just what Buchanan has gotten.)

On the heels of a New York Times article in which Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher praised CNN’s hiring of Redstate chief Erick Erickson, a pretty intense Twitter fight broke out in which Hamsher continued her defense of Erickson. In the process, she denounced Media Matters, and got a minor assist from Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough. They all seem to have missed the point.