For those of you just joining us, I wrote a column last week in which I mentioned in passing that Joe Scarborough is engaging in neo-McCarthyite tactics: repeatedly accusing the president and the Democrats of promoting socialism. And on Friday, Joe Scarborough wrote a response to my post.
In short, Scarborough claimed that he hasn't engaged in red-baiting even though he's on record attacking the president and Democrats for being socialists and wealth redistributors -- knowing full-well how this talk is perceived by the public.
Also, despite his self-righteous attitude, Scarborough is hardly innocent when it comes to name-calling and "uncivilized" discourse. On his show, he's called Barack Obama "dainty" and "prissy"; he once said that Keith Olbermann was "too stupid to be on TV"; he blamed his frozen car lock on Japanese saboteurs; etc, etc.
But more than anything else, his column was childish and petulant. While claiming to embrace civil discourse, he made sure to thoroughly underscore his three-decades-long friendship with Arianna and how he's not sure he wants to blog for her if he's going to be attacked. He's clearly saying to Arianna (and perhaps as a warning to me): either you ban the mean commenters and muzzle nasty name-calling bloggers like Cesca, or I won't play on your site anymore.
That's the short form summary. If you'd like to review my previous posts about this fracas, click the "Joe Scarborough" link below for the archive.