Morning Joke™ (The Snarky Mika Edition)

Nothing like a little Morning Joke™ to get the blood flowing in the morning.

While ending their interview with Steny Hoyer and the bumper music playing out, here is what transpired:

Joe Scarborough: Hey, Steny we gotta go but I got a question from Twitter here. Somebody e-mailed me and said, "I see the House $410 billion spending bill has 9,000earmarks. It's totally insane. What's wrong with these people?!" Are there really 9,000 earmarks in that bill?

Mika Brzezinski: Please tell me that's not true.

Steny Hoyer: I think that's two and a half times what they're - about 4,000 earmarks for all the members and for 435 districts around the country. Um...

MB: That's kind of a lot, isn't it?

SH: It is a lot, but it's been very substantially reduced - cut in half over the last two ears.

JS: Alright. Very good, Steny...

MB: ...That doesn't make it alright though.

JS: Hey you know, isn't it great following a Republican party that for eight years porked it up, uh, huh, it's uh...

MB: ...Everything's RELATIVE.

JS: ... it's easy to draw a good contrast.

MB: Yeah! Good on ya.

SH: Well, we're in the process of getting back to a place where we were some years ago before the Republicans, as you say, quadrupled the number of earmarks.

MB: Okay, that doesn't make it okay. But alright.

JS: Good to see you.

SH: Making progress.

MB: (laughs) He's honest.

Now, I understand the earmark issue, but if it's obviously that important to Joe and Mika, why not come out and ask Hoyer at an appropriate time in the interview and debate the issue instead of blindsiding him with the excuse of a "tweet"?

Let's also not forget that not all earmarks are bad things. This is how congressional leaders help their individual districts. There might be some waste, but you can't generalize - they should be looked at individually.

This also begs the question - will President Obama send this bill back because of the earmarks?

By the way, Chris Matthews was on the show for an extended period - does he ever sleep?

ADDING... Pat Buchanan learned something on the show today.

"I think that Barack Obama is taking the biggest gamble in American political history, I think he's at his peak I think we learned, and he's headed for real trouble."

To which Joe Scarborough responded: "Buchanan! He's already predicted the downfall of Barack Obama! I'm stunned!"

Me too.