Joe Scarborough on Hoffman/NY-23

Joe Scarborough (yes, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough) has an interesting piece up over at National Review on the Hoffman/Scoffalaza race in New York.

But he runs one thing by them that pegs the bullshit meter:

“It used to infuriate me when Republican leaders from the House and Senate would come on television and defend President Bush for spending too much money, only to complain about Bush’s big spending and recklessness off-air in the green room,” says Scarborough. “They were blindly following. That’s why we got destroyed in 2006 and 2008. You would think that these people would learn their lesson. It’s clear, however, that the GOP leadership on the Hill hasn’t learned from their mistakes.”

Now, considering the GOP had been on a pork binge since Newt got them their majority, and even given GW's sadly liberal fiscal inclinations,the notion that they were "blindly following" is, what's the term, utter bilge.

First off, the White House can't spend one penny that doesn't come to them from Congress.

Second, we all laughed when Jay Rockefeller (D-Pathetic) tried to claim that Bush FORCED him to vote 'yes' on Iraq by using "psychological pressure." Are we now expected to believe that the entire GOP leadership carried on like some silent movie melodrama?

"No, no, Mistah, Pres'dent, y'all are fah too fo'ceful for poor little me!

Don't make me send you that awful spendin' bill...!"

Uh. Huh.

Now come on, Joe. Look, we get it, you're at MSNBC, where everyvbody who's ANYbody knows that the only difference between GW and the Antichrist is that the Antichrist is taller (and, we now know, impeccably creased). But you were a Congressman, you know how business was done there. Which makes more sense, your 'blindly following' scenario or something like this:

House GOP leader: "Ah, Jesus, Mr. President, we're really getting beat up over that whole "support Iraq" thing. You gotta give us something to take back to our districts. Now here's what we need to hold onto the Farm Belt..."

The haste with which the GOP leadership is so eager to shove all its own missteps and mistakes into Bush's lap is simply unseemly. There's no need to add to the embarassment, even if you do work for a network with a smaller audience than some of the blogs I read...