Scarborough Helps Huckabee Play Jesus Card

Joe Scarborough got together with Mike Huckabee and helped the good reverend play the Jesus card one more time before the Iowa caucuses. There is no shame in politics any more. What are we saying? There's never been shame in politics.

Joe Scarborough played rhythm guitar with Mike (the "Huckster") Huckabee at a raucous Tuesday night, January 1, fundraising blow-out in Iowa, as Chuck Norris rambled on about the unfairness of taxes. Now what could be more of a testament to how "news," politics and entertainment have merged than this bizarre popular culture scene (known as Republican "populism," kind of a cross between a drive-in church and "Andy Griffith")?

The "Huckster" made sure to let everyone know that the event -- in which, we swear, he "jokingly" exhorted his supporters to let the air out of the tires or disable the batteries of cars belonging to his opponents so that they could not vote on Thursday night -- was blessed by Christ: "We cannot do it by arming ourselves and taking anyone out. We will go to the caucuses having knelt on our knees and having asked God for his wisdom."

So here was the culmination of what our political media-political-entertainment church circus has become: a former GOP Florida panhandle congressman turned television political commentator doing the Lee Atwater ("I'm really just a downhome rock n' roll guy at heart") thing with the Elmer Gantry of this year's election, joined onstage by Hollywood's white male tough guy fantasy. That's some combo deal, but it says everything about how we have become a nation that can't distinguish public policy from entertainment. It's ALL a show, and the "Huckster" is quite the entertainer.