By now Chris Matthews' righteous rant on "Morning Joe" on Monday in which he kicked Reince Priebus's miserable ass is the stuff of legend.
Matthews ripped Priebus for the GOP's blatantly false, blatantly racist TV ad campaign. It was a rare moment when the GOP has its lies tossed back in its face. It was a thing of beauty.
Matthews hasn't always been a progressive hero. He didn't acquire the nickname Tweety out of love. But he was a Righteous Warrior for the Truth on Monday. Watching it go down I was saying to myself, "Damn, I have to watch this show more often."
But, of course, speaking the truth about Republican lies has its consequences.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi weren't happy with the way Matthews disrupted the clubby atmosphere they like to maintain on the "Morning Joe" set.
Scarborough was especially displeased. During a luncheon at the Poynter Institute in Tampa after that show, Scarborough laid down the law for Matthews' continued appearances on his show:
Scarborough said he was upset that “Morning Joe” “wasted five minutes of the audience’s time” during Matthews’ outburst by doing “absolutely nothing to illuminate the conversation.”
“We love Chris, Chris loves us, Chris comes on the show all the time, and we want him back again,” Scarborough said. Nevertheless, he doesn’t support political outbursts like Matthews’.
“If people come on our show and do that, they’re not going to come back on our show until we’re certain they’re not going to do it,” Scarborough said. “The problem is, that people who do that, whether it’s on cable TV or online … they are rewarded by either the extremists on the far right or the far left.”
So ..... if Matthews wants to return to "Morning Joe," he will have to be a good boy and not engage in outbursts. It apparently doesn't matter that what he said was 100% true. Matthews committed the cardinal sin of disrupting the collegial atmosphere of "Morning Joe."
Matthews ought to tell Scarborough to go fuck himself. But, of course, he won't.