This morning on Squawk Box, Representatives Connie Mack and Frederica Wilson (R and D of Florida respectively) appeared to discuss their state’s primary and the status of the 2012 race as a whole. Mack, a self admitted Mitt Romney supporter, explained why he thought his candidate of choice was the only one able to get us off “the road to Greece,” while Wilson explained that President Obama was “the education President” and…oh, who gives a crap. None of the viewers watching could hear anything they said over the sound of Wilson’s hat. Seriously, what is up with that hat?

Did the folks at Squawk Box have a really bad experience in Europe or something? Did they find half a worm in a croissant? Did they find themselves on the set of Hostel 3: More Of This Nonsense? Whatever happened, it seems to have left a lasting impact as, during a segment this morning, Europe received quite a beating.

On CNBC, the decision by Standard and Poors to downgrade America’s AAA status got some support from PIMCO managing director Neel Kashkari, who said on Squawk Box that until Republicans and Democrats show an ounce of backbone and actually do what is in the interest of the American people, rather their what is in their own immediate political interests, I can’t argue with S&P’s conclusion.”

On CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, John Harwood seemed both far too tired to engage in jokes comparing members of the Tea Party to “terrorists” and quite convinced that voters, before too long, will forget the debt deal that will likely go to President Obama today. “It will be forgotten by voters pretty quickly,” said Harwood. “Everybody took a hit. It was not good for President Obama. It wasn’t good for John Boehner. But at the end of the day, they got something done. Remember, John Boehner knew as soon as he became Speaker after the election that this issue in particular was going to be like waterboarding for him. Because he–you had the impulses of his newly elected members and many conservatives in his caucus, everybody in Congress hates the debt ceiling. Everyone. But he knew that it had to pass eventually.”

In an interview on CNBC this morning, Donald Trump described the weekend debt deal as “a joke” that ultimately doesn’t solve the nation’s economic problems. Trump told Squawk Box‘s Joe Kernan “eventually you have to balance the budget, and this is a long way from balancing the budget, it’s a joke. It’s a down payment at best.” Trump said President Obama did get something “that was fantastic…because he got the deal past the election…the fact is, if this were going on sometime prior to the election, he would have zero chance of re-election.”

On this morning’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, discussion turned to the News of the World phone hacking scandal that has embroiled News Corp. when host Joe Kernen took an interesting tack. His claim: that some on the left see a culture of corruption infesting other News Corp. entities. In Kernen’s view, “liberals think that [...]

CNBC announced today that New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin is taking over as co-host of the program Squawk Box. An internal memo sent out to CNBC staff explained that Sorkin is replacing former co-host Carl Quintanilla, who left the program earlier this week for the network’s morning show Squawk on the Street, [...]

The overseas scandal that brought down News Corp.’s News of the World tabloid is doing significant damage to the company’s bottom line back home in the U.S. CNBC reports Rupert Murdoch‘s media empire has lost $18 billion to “reputational damage” and as CNBC’s Kayla Tausche reports this morning, “the bleeding of course at News Corp. continues.” In a morning segment called “Empire Under Attack,” Tausche outlined that the the Murdoch-owned Times and Sun have seen their Sunday circulations drop–as competitors have gained. “Those readers are moving away from Murdoch’s papers.”

Usually when a business news network busts out the six-box, that means a lot of analysts on the screen at once, talking about some super scary financial news. Today, well, it was about Carl Quintanilla‘s dreamy haircut–and his new job. Starting today, Quintanilla and Melissa Lee take over hosting duties on the network’s Squawk on the Street, filling chairs left empty by the death of Mark Haines and departure of Erin Burnett, whose new CNN show is slated to debut in late September.

June unemployment figures released this morning show unemployment rose to 9.2 percent, the highest rate since December, and analysts on CNBC were blunt: “any way you cut this data, it’s lousy.” The jobs data left the CNBC panel “stunned” and, as Rick Santelli described it, “we’re somewhere between a soft patch and a double dip.” The report dampened expectations many had about the recovery, and raised the possibility of a push for more stimulus to spur growth–and hiring.

Rep. Ron Paul finally feels like he’s family. The perennial presidential candidate tells CNBC his days as a GOP outsider are over. “I finally feel like a Republican,” Paul said in an interview on Squawk Box. The conversation about markets, entitlements and money turned to politics when Squawk Box anchor Joe Kernan asked Paul what it would take for him to become “more mainstream” and to appeal to enough Republicans to have a “viable chance” to win the GOP nomination. Paul said “I happen to think I’m mainstream.”

Paul said issues like balancing the budget have become mainstream issues, and “compared to four years ago, it’s incredibly different for me, because people are moving to the position of being mainstream.” Paul argued that his support among voters might be stronger now than Bill Clinton‘s was at this time in the 92 campaign.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday, Rick Santelli ranted about members of Congress–and members of the media–who’ve criticized the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives. In an amazing display of sarcasm, Santelli went off on the critics–including The New York Times–who’ve objected to the reading of the Constitution as either too expensive or too self-indulgent.

Last Friday on Squawk Box, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus had some harsh criticism for the Obama administration. The man, who previously made a few headlines by implying that any retailer who doesn’t vote Republican should be, y’know, killed, explained how the folks in Washington just don’t get small businesses. He had some helpful suggestions though including President Obama disguising himself and walking amongst the people like a king in an old fairy tale or a reality show starring Timothy Geitner.

FBN is far behind CNBC in viewers, but they found a strange way to reach the top-rated business news network’s audience today.

In the rush to get “the get,” FBN attempted an ambush interview, along with CNBC and likely others, of new GM CEO Ed Whitacre – that partially aired on their competitor.

Correspondent Rick Santelli and anchor Steve Liesman yelled at each other for about two minutes this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Santelli, whose famous rant in February became a media sensation, seemed to have some major problems with what his colleague had to say – and vice versa.

Last week we broke the news about Charles Schwab dropping their sponsorship of CNBC’s Fast Money after a segment seemed to tie them to the forthcoming “Porn” documentary on the network.

But Schwab kept their sponsorships of other CNBC programs. One of those was Squawk Box, who wanted to make it very clear yesterday they are fans of the company.