(I know, I know... just settle down, troops).
No other conservative Republican has been more vocal or more visibly supportive of the Muslim Cultural Center than Scarborough. His criticism of Gingrich, et. al. has been scathing. Today he ramped it up even further.
Rarely does Joe agree with Frank Rich, even rarer does he say what he said this morning: "Frank Rich nailed it in his op-ed Sunday".
Picking up Rich's point that the neo-con's vehemence is probably doing the country unspeakable harm in the Muslim world, Joe challenged Republicans to join him in denouncing the fear mongers. He was like a pit-bull today - to the point of expressing his disgust with his party by saying, "I am a Republican - at least for now". Yes, big spending and other issues have him angry, but the demagoguery swirling around the cultural center has him frothing at members of his party. He spared no one - and called on leaders from both parties - George W, Clinton - anybody - to speak out against this outrageous attack.
He also made a great point about Karen Hughes's piece in the WaPost yesterday in which she argued for the center to be relocated. I hadn't noticed what Joe did: that nowhere in Hughes's article did she mention KNOWING Imam Rauf, let alone that she had traveled with him after 9/11 throughout the Middle East in an effort to build bridges of cooperation and understanding between the East and the West. Scarborough found the omission very strange, and seemed to suggest it was so glaring that it weakened her whole argument.
Good for Joe. Give credit where it's due. He is the loudest conservative critic in front of a microphone on this issue I've seen so far.