Joe Scarborough Quotes

I’ve been telling Conservatives for about two years that this guy is bad for the movement…This guy is losing it before our eyes. – February 21, 2011 Morning Joe, ranting about Glenn Beck and his Beck’s theory to show that the socialists, progressives, and unions are connected behind the unrest in Egypt and Wisconsin

He’s bad for the Republican party. He’s bad for Fox News. It’s that simple. – February 21, 2011 Morning Joe, ranting about Glenn Beck and his Beck’s theory to show that the socialists, progressives, and unions are connected behind the unrest in Egypt and Wisconsin

And that’s the funny thing. When I got to Congress, I was considered one of the really tough, hard-charging conservatives. And somehow I morphed from being this rightwing nut to now being seen as this moderate, mushy, left-leaning Republican. And I’m the same guy! Which may tell you where the Republican Party’s gone. They changed for the worst in every way. They haven’t become more conservative. They’ve become more liberal. They’ve spent us into debt. They’ve adopted a Woodrow Wilson foreign policy where they want to save the world through democracy, through American blood and treasure. They’re not conservative, they’re radical! The area where they’re seen as conservatives is their rhetoric—where they’re harsh. That’s where they need to be moderate. We’ve gotten it wrong. We need to be conservative on spending people’s money, but moderate like Reagan on temperament. Reagan didn’t hate anybody. – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

photo/ donkeyhotey

“I’m the most conservative guy at a liberal TV network. And believe it or not, they considered me to be a liberal guy on my radio network [ABC]. Where Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity work. They actually told me, ‘We never had a liberal working for us before. It’ll be interesting selling advertising.’ And I sat there thinking, ‘I want to shut down the Department of Education and send all the money back home to the states. Who’s more conservative than me?'” – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

And this will let you know something: Just in case somebody is reading this, a liberal thinking, ‘Oh, I love Joe Scarborough,’ I’m gonna bring up an issue that will shatter all those myths and make me a hated, loathed man by liberals in your readership.” (Nah, we don’t have any of those.) “I’m not gonna give you names [we will: Rick Kaplan], but a certain executive was always encouraging me, ‘Tell us what you’re thinking, put it out on the line, be more aggressive!’ And so one Easter weekend, during the Terri Schiavo deal, they said, ‘We want you to do a two-hour special on Terri Schiavo.’ And I said, ‘Okay, but I just want to warn you, I’m kind of strange on this one, and I don’t think people know the whole story.’ And they said, ‘Oh, go out, give it your all!’ So I just kept bringing up the fact that there were five doctors appointed by the court that looked at Terri Schiavo, and two of the five said that she had brain activity and could recover. Three said she didn’t. This wasn’t Joe the Conservative. This was Joe the Dad, who saw the two parents who wanted to take care of their daughter, and saw this husband, this redneck husband, who wanted to do what he wanted to do and go on with his life. And so I went on that night, and I brought up these things. And some people at MSNBC were outraged. Said I made a fool of the network. I actually had people trying to fire me. Al Franken was writing letters. Al Franken the comedian—that was pre-Senate days—demanding that I be fired. – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

“You know, I used to be most proud of the fact that I got elected to Congress at 31. With no money, no support, no name ID, and with the party establishment working against me. But I actually think, at this point, that I’m more proud of the fact that I have survived at MSNBC. For seven years. It has been a tough ride. There were several people that ran this company, as one booker once told me, who would have put handcu”s on me and escorted me out of the front doors, if they had their way.”   Because of your politics?  “Because of my politics.”  – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

On abortion: “That’s just not my business.” On gay marriage: “Why do I care what two men are doing in Des Moines, Iowa? Let the Supreme Court and the legislature sort that out.” But if you were making the decision? “I think I’m more libertarian. And I understand all of the concerns that everybody has. On both sides. But I don’t obsess over it. It’s just none of my business. I’m not o”ended if Alabama wants to ban gay marriage and ban abortions, and I’m not o”ended if New York wants to permit it.” – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

Who leaves Congress at the age of 38? “I quit because I had a 14-yearold son [Joey] who needed me.” Joe’s other son, who was 11 at the time, has diabetes and Asperger’s and stayed with his mother, Joe’s ex-wife. “Joey needed his dad; he needed a strong presence in his life. And I still to this day… I carry deep things with me. These so-called family-values people really didn’t understand about my son and about my family.” The only person who reached out to Joe and offered to help with his kids was Ted Kennedy. – GQ magazine interview September 2010 issue

Republicans didn’t lose in 2008 because they were too conservative. Republicans lost in 2008 because they were too radical. They were too radical when it came to spending, they were too radical when it came to foreign policy, and they were too radical in their rhetoric. – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010  CATO Institute Conference

Public domain photo/ Marylandstater via wikimedia commons

And if Leon Panetta (the CIA Director) is to be believed-that al Qaeda has been reduced to a quivering mass of a terrorist movement-great. Let’s declare victory and bring the troops home. – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010 CATO Institute Conference

We conservatives need to ask why it is that the same cautious Republicans who resisted Bill Clinton’s calls for military use in Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti, Sudan, and Iraq adopt George W. Bush’s preemption strategy without question. – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010 CATO Institute Conference

Why did so few conservatives criticize Wilsonian pronouncement that the United States of America would lead a global democratic evolution that would (his words not mine) ‘end tyranny on the globe’? – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010 CATO Institute Conference

Fiscally, we need to understand that this country has borne a disproportionate share of the world’s security responsibilities for too long. We need to begin to show some restraint and back away from some of our long standing military commitments. – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010 CATO Institute Conference

The United States military is overstreched, we are facing crippling debt, our economy is in crisis, or people are war-weary, and America’s days as the world’s watchman are over. – Keynote address at the March 18, 2010 CATO Institute Conference

The Joe Scarborough “trophies”:

His treasured Roy Lichtenstein print of Bobby Kennedy, signed: “For Joe, with great respect for your public service.… Bobby would be proud of you. Your friend, Ted Kennedy.” His Tim Russert tie that Mike Barnicle gave him when Russert died. A photo of Sarah Palin ripped from GQ. (“You guys didn’t do Sarah any favors with that picture.”) Ronald Reagan’s Chesterfield cigarette ad. A note from Chevy Chase: “To Joe, thanks for my fucking mug.” The Sgt. Pepper’s album cover. Of course. Jack Kennedy, in an iconic campaign photo—which Joe has adorned with stickers of big-boobed women and a thought bubble: “I love Hooters.” (Did you do that? “I did. I respect the Kennedys, but no need to saint anybody.”) His four kids. (His two sons from his first marriage are grown, and he has a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old with Susan.) A warm note from Bush 41. “He’s a great guy, and gracious in a way that his sons aren’t.” A signed photo of him and Bill Clinton that “always drew big laughs from my liberal friends. They’d say, ‘With appreciation for what? Impeaching him?'” – GQ magazine interview August 2010