Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to your weekend open thread. When you’re reading this, I’ll be galivanting in Philadelphia celebrating my husband’s birthday. Have fun and play nice while I’m away!

Talking Points Memo reminds us of the good ol’ days right after Joe Miller beat Lisa Murkowski in the Alaska Republican primary. He had a wee bit of premature celebration:

So confident is Miller that he’ll win Lisa Murkowski’s Alaska Senate seat in November, he boasted last night to his over 4,000 Twitter followers that, on his trip to DC this week, he might do some house hunting. And perhaps buy some furniture. And also commission a name plaque for the door of his future Senate office.

Of all the defeated Republican candidates (there’s not many, true), besides Christine O’Donnell, Miller was my least favorite. He’s just so arrogant. Plus, he’s not giving up. Even though Lisa Murkowski has more votes than Miller even with the challenged ballots, he’s sued to block the election certification. He actually won in court temporarily, so there may be a longer wait for the election to officially end.

This is the dumbest story ever, and MSNBC’s Phil Griffin must be the dumbest executive ever.

MSNBC said Friday that it is suspending “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough for two days after he acknowledged giving eight previously unknown $500 contributions to friends and family members running for state and local offices during his tenure at the network, a violation of parent NBC’s ban on political contributions by employees without specific permission from the network president.

“I recognize that I have a responsibility to honor the guidelines and conditions of my employment, and I regret that I failed to do so in this matter,” Scarborough said in a statement. “I apologize to MSNBC and to anyone who has been negatively affected by my actions,” he said, adding that after he was made aware of some of the contributions, he called MSNBC President Phil Griffin “and agreed with Phil’s immediate demand of a two-day suspension without pay.”

MSNBC hires a former Republican Congressman and acts surprised when he gives money to Republicans? Also, Scarborough’s explanation of “forgetting” the donations doesn’t wash – one was his own brother. The only reason Scarborough was suspended was because Olbermann was suspended. So MSNBC compounds a stupid mistake with another stupid mistake. Thumbs up, MSNBC!