A panel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that criticized Sen. Ted Cruz’s CPAC comments about Bob Dole has been slammed for its hypocrisy because two panelists called Sarah Palin “a moron” during the same broadcast.
“Consider the blatant double-standard,”
said Mark Finkelstein of Newsbusters.com.
“MSNBC has spent countless hours decrying Ted Cruz's supposed incivility, but its minions don't hesitate to vilify a conservative in the crudest and most insulting terms.”
Story continues below video.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, the Texas Republican told the crowd that three losing GOP presidential candidates, Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney, “don’t stand for principle.”
The panel was discussing Cruz’s seemingly insensitive remarks when political commentator Mike Barnicle launched into a tirade against Palin, the former Alaska governor.
"What does it say about CPAC, where the most popular speaker they had, the one who received the most rousing reception is a moron, Sarah Palin?" said Barnicle.
“I mean, she received a reception at that group that took the roof off the place. Sophomoric, nearly libelous, not amusing. What does it say about that group?”
Barnicle is no stranger to controversy himself. He was forced to resign as a columnist at the Boston Globe in 1998 due to charges of plagiarism and writing fictitious accounts,
AJR.org archives detail.
Even though host Joe Scarborough told him to “lighten up,” panelist Mika Brzezinski chimed in, dismissing Palin as, “A multimillion dollar moron selling a message.”
Scarborough then defended Palin, saying she’s a “very smart woman.” But Brzezinski added, “I think she is savvy in terms of selling a message that makes a lot of money.”
The day after Cruz’s attack on Dole, McCain said that the Texas senator had
“crossed a line” and should apologize to war hero Dole.
“He can say what he wants to about me, and he can say anything he wants to about Mitt,” McCain, an Arizona Republican said. “But when he throws Bob Dole in there, I wonder if he thinks that Bob Dole stood for principle on that hilltop in Italy, when he was so gravely wounded and left part of his body there fighting for our country?”
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