After again endorsing his sister in the upcoming House race in South Carolina and after her opponent, former Gov. Mark Sanford's appearance on Morning Joe this Wednesday, where he was given a big wet kiss by the crew of the show and Scarborough announcing that it was "going to be, Morning Joe vs The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert was more than happy to respond.
COLBERT: Oh... oh... it is on! Morning Joe vs The Colbert Report. Did I want this fight? No. [...]
Of course in some ways, it's always been Morning Joe vs The Colbert Report, though technically at that time of the morning, my network runs a P90X commercial. Yes. It's all about the muscle confusion. Where as Joe's show is just about confusion, in that sometimes people confuse it with news.
But not this morning folks. Because this morning was just pure infomercial for his old buddy, Mark Sanford.
After showing footage of the lot of them sucking up to Sanford, the worst of it being Mike Barnicle, who actually told Sanford that "he was struck" by Sanford's "honesty" over his affair, after he got busted "hiking the Appalachian Trail" with his mistress and if "there was any fear of that honesty coming back and playing a perilous role" in his political future, Colbert responded.
COLBERT: Oh, that's some in depth reporting. You know, Woodward and Bernstein may have had Deep Throat, but Mike Barnicle is doing something similar to Mark Sanford. I just hope... I just hope Mike can breathe through his nose. Because he's right. He's right. When Sanford finally surfaced, the first thing that everybody thought was "Man, that guy is being so honest about how much he lied." And I'm sure he would have been just as honest if no one had caught him.
Well, it's my turn Joe Joe. I'm going to shock some people right now, and endorse my sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch for Congress. Yes... yes... yes... she's a Democrat, but she's a businesswoman, a job creator, who when raising three children on $14,000 a year went back to school, built a twenty year career in international trade and is now leading Mark Sanford in two consecutive polls.
Are we ready to do this nation! Yeah! Yeah!
And I tell ya. I'll tell ya. Mark Sanford should thank you Joe Scarborough, because I would not have done that, if you had not inspired me.
I look forward to seeing if the crew on Morning Joe actually acknowledges this segment and responds to it, or if they choose to try to pretend it didn't happen, or worse yet, if they respond and selectively edit Colbert's remarks and spare both Scarborough and Barnicle from the worst of his criticism. We'll find out shortly.
