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Ed Schultz asked Barney Frank about his previous statement when he announced his retirement that "I did not think I had lived a good enough life to be rewarded by Newt Gingrich being the Republican nominee" and whether he still felt that way with Gingrich's win in South Carolina and his rise in the polls in Florida.

As Frank pointed out, the voters Gingrich are appealing to are the far right-wing of the Republican Party who are still just furious that President Obama was ever elected.

FRANK: What Gingrich has made himself is the embodiment of that anger and the people who are supporting Gingrich are not persuaded by the electability issue, because I've seen this. Often when you have people who are very angry, who were very committed, they believe that they represent the majority. And they will tell you that in fact there are, as you know millions and millions of people that don't vote. And what happens if the most passionately committed often claim the non-voters as their supporters.

And I guarantee you that there are people there, tea party people and the others who believe if they can nominate Newt Gingrich and they get this unvarnished absolutely angry conservatism, that a lot of people who don't now give polls, who don't now speak out will come out and vote. And I guess this is in some ways going to be a test, because the Republican establishment is going to try to stop him, just as the Democrats tried to stop George McGovern. [...]

So this is a question of whether these angry people in the Republican Party have the courage of their conviction. I think they're wrong and that the country will not welcome them, but let's have that test. Let's take that unvarnished conservatism, that's not just conservatism, it's angry, right-wing radicalism, and let's put it out there.

Frank wasn't much kinder to Mitt Romney and expressed some similar sentiments to the ones he made during his interview on Charlie Rose's show where he said this:

FRANK: As a man totally unburdened by any conviction except that we would all be better off if he was running things. You know, anybody in elected office is going to take the public into account and that's what they want to write about, what is this tension between what you want to do in a democracy. But Mitt Romney is a man who has shown no evidence that he cares about anything except, his confidence in his own ability and I am appalled that the extent to which he will say almost anything at any given time.

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Looks like John McCain lost control of that famous temper of his once again. After the Senate voted to filibuster the Defense Authorization Act and the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, McCain had this heated exchange with reporters in the Senate print gallery. According to ABC News, reporters are not supposed to take pictures or record video in that area, so here's how McCain acts when he assumes no one is recording him.

CBS's The Note also transcribed the exchange:

“Regulations are you do not go out and seek to find out someone’s sexual orientation,” McCain said. “You do not. That is the fact. That is the fact. Now, ma’am, I know the military very well and I know what’s being done and what is being done is that they are not seeking out people who are gay. I don’t care what you say, I know it’s a fact. Okay?”

“It’s not what I say,” replied the reporter.

“I know what you say,” responded McCain. “I don’t care what you say. I don’t care what others say. I’ve seen it in action. I’ve seen it in action. I have sons in the military. I know the military very well. So they’re not telling you the truth.”

The reporter then said, “Just to make sure – “

“Just to make sure,” McCain interrupted, “we do not go out and seek out – no one goes out to see whether someone is gay or not. We do not go out to seek to find out whether someone is gay or not.”

“Private emails are not being searched?” the reporter then asked numerous times. “There are documented cases.”

“They do not,” McCain stated. “They do not. They do not. You can say that they are. You can say that pigs fly, but it’s not true.”

“That is the case of Mike Almy,” a second reporter interjected. Almy was discharged from the Air Force in 2006 after a search of his private e-mails revealed he was gay.

“It is not the policy,” McCain replied. “It is not the policy. It’s not the policy. It’s not the policy. It’s not the policy. It’s not the policy. It’s not the policy. You can say that is the policy, sir, if you choose to, but it’s not the policy. I’ll be glad to get that to you in writing.”

Rachel Maddow brought on Maj. Mike Almy to respond to Sen. McCain's outburst. As he noted McCain should know full well that there are private emails being searched since he testified in front of McCain about it happening to him. As he said either McCain wasn't paying any attention during the hearing, or he's lying. I'd opt for the latter.That angry old man still isn't over having lost the presidential election.

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Former Mitt Romney Communications Strategist Kevin Madden insists that the Republican Party is being unfairly painted as the "Party of No" and that they have "put on the table substantive alternatives for the American public", but when pressed by Juan Williams about just what those ideas are, I only heard him give one specific, tax cuts. What I wish Williams would have asked him is why he thought Republicans should have been opposing the health care bill when it was basically nothing but his old boss' "Romney-care". That used to be one of their Republican "substantive alternatives" that they decided to obstruct because a Democrat proposed it.

MADDEN: The Democrats have spent the better part of almost two years now saying that the Republicans are the “Party of No” and it has not worked. It is also... it's a false argument because throughout the entire set whether it was the stimulus debate or the healthcare debate, the Republicans have put on the table substantive alternatives for the American public. They said at a time when the public is very angry about spending, we want to reduce spending. They've said in a time of a lot of uncertainty in the markets, they want more certainty with tax cuts and spur the private sector versus the government. And that is the contrast that we're seeing right now in a lot of these races, and it gives the Republicans a decided advantage.

And I'm not saying that in a -- I'm saying it in a clinical fashion. When you look at the anger about spending right now and the Democrats, every answer they have is a big government solution that has a huge price tag on it. And it puts them in very, very a difficult position. [crosstalk]

WILLIAMS: When I look at the numbers, here is what I see. Americans think less of Republicans than they do of the Democrats in Congress and much less than they do of President Obama. And when you are thinking about economic policy, Americans aren't about, oh, yeah, keep cutting taxes. No, people are saying let's be responsible in terms of how we spend money, let's reduce the deficit, let's get serious about our economic future. Let's not take radical steps, like oh, throw more money to the rich.

MADDEN: There is absolutely no credibility to that argument when you look at the Democrats... when you look at the spending bills they've passed in these last two years. They have no credibility.

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Ed Schultz expresses his anger of the White House deciding to stick its finger in the eye of organized labor after Blanche Lincoln won her primary race for the Senate in Arkansas. I might have chalked this up to just Politico starting trouble had it not been for Robert Gibbs standing by the statement by an "unnamed senior White House official". I agree with Ed.

Schultz: The last thing the White House should be doing right now is picking a fight with working families across this country. And to come out and diss labor for spending millions of dollars to get rid of a corporate Democrat I think puts the White House on the wrong side of the fence.

If the White House doesn't like our democratic process and the right of the electorate to run primary challengers against these corrupt corporate Democrats who don't have the interest of the voters at heart, well that's too bad. And as Ed says, we'll see you at the next showdown. Why they think alienating organized labor publicly is some good political move beyond me as well. It sure as hell isn't going to help them win any elections in November.

Dave N.: Kinda makes you wonder if labor unions threw away all those millions in 2008 helping Obama win the White House, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, what Digby says.

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Mike Papantonio talks to Ed Schultz about British Petroleum's political tactics and the use of their "flying monkeys" as he calls them such as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and "heck of a job" Brownie to do the fear mongering for them that the right wing extremists of this country and the tea bag crowd respond to. Ed said he'd have Pap on every night if that's what it takes to get something done about this disaster and to continue to draw attention to how the oil industry is handling it.

I think that would be a good thing since Papantonio unlike 99.9% of the guests you're going to see on cable "news" basically broke down their tactics pretty well. Misdirect anger, use corporate shills for your defense, focus on the Obama administration instead of industry, misdirect and basically try to scare the hell out of everyone about getting off of fossil fuels and if that doesn't work, bring god into it.

As Pap noted, BP probably doesn't have enough enough money to throw at this problem to make it go away this time, but that hasn't stopped them from dispatching their lobbyists to converge on the politicians in Washington D.C.

Sadly unlike Ed's show and a few scant others we're not going to hear much about corporate America's influence on the Washington D.C. and how that influence has led us to stay dependent on oil and to give little care for things called oversight and regulation. Businesses need rules of the road. When you take those road signs down, they're always going to abuse them. This BP disaster just looks like another example where we need to get the money out our of politics if we're ever going to reign them in and actually get us off of oil while making this industry act responsibility in the mean time.

I'm not holding my breath. Sadly it's looking like even one of the worst spills in history still isn't enough for the right wingers in the House and the Senate who are still pushing for more drilling offshore.

From Raw Story -- Dem governor: Fox News outdid tea partiers in ‘marshalling anger’:

Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, told the hosts of Fox & Friends Monday that they "deserve credit" for the success of the tea party movement, and that the movement could well dissipate if the economy improves.

"You guys deserve more credit for marshaling that anger than the tea partiers," Rendell told hosts Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, adding that he was "being serious" in making the claim and that "it's your right to do so."

In a long monologue during which the news hosts sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise, Rendell said that the tea party movement paled in size when compared to the anti-war movement during the Bush era, and that the tea parties "have been successful because the mainstream media, the media all over the country, has given them too much credit. I think they're sort of following the anger, rather than creating the movement." Read on...

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From the HuffPo -- Donny Deutsch Sidelined At MSNBC Over Keith Olbermann Segment:

Donny Deutsch has been pulled from MSNBC's 3PM hour after including Keith Olbermann in a montage of angry media personalities.

Deutsch, who had been hosting an "America the Angry" segment in the hour formerly occupied by David Shuster, was informed Wednesday that his time in the anchor's chair was over.

"For whatever reason, they decided they didn't want to go with it the rest of the week," Deutsch told the New York Times.

The Times' Brian Stelter reports that "four people briefed on the decision said the cancellation stemmed from an unflattering mention" of Olbermann. Deutsch had included Olbermann in what Stelter described as "a series of clips of media bloviators during a segment that pondered what role the media plays in fomenting the public's anger." Deutsch also hosted Hugh Hewitt, who called MSNBC's Ed Schultz a "hate-monger." The segment appears below.

Read on...

Keith Olbermann denied having anything to do with the show being pulled off the air. I think this had more to do with his boss not wanting the hosts on his network attacking each other. God knows Keith's abided by it since he has not made Joe Scarborough his "Worst Person in the World" and Tucker Carlson never made the list until he left MSNBC.

What the HuffPo didn't say anything about in their article is just how really awful the show was. I didn't watch all of it, but what I did watch was just terrible even without him bringing on hate monger Hugh Hewitt to comment on other people being over the top. One of our team members shared this with everyone a bit ago. It's an open letter to MSNBC asking to get David Shuster back on the air. I hope Phil Griffin read it -- My letter to MSNBC's Phil Griffin: "David Shuster".

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Glenn Beck wins Keith Olbermann's Worst Persons segment for this over the top rhetoric on his radio show summed up here by Jason Easley at Politicususa -- Glenn Beck Loses it and Claims to be Carrying out God’s Plan:

On his radio show today, Glenn Beck finally seems to have gone off the cliff as he not only claimed that God has given him a plan, but also he is carrying out God’s will and anger. Beck told his listeners that they it is God’s will that they get behind him and follow him. He said, “When we were starting the TV show there are things that I did that I wouldn’t do now because I had to be more of an entertainer.”

Beck asked, “Are you here to relax and be entertained, or are you here, will you pick up the mantle left to you by the Founders to a guardian of man’s freedom? Will you do it, because your children will ask you what did you do? I believe your God will ask you what did you do?…God is giving a plan I think to me that is not really a plan…The problem is that I think the plan that the Lord would have us follow is hard for people to understand…Because of my track record with you who have been here for a long time. Because of my track record with you, I beg of you to help me get this message out, and I beg of you to pray for clarity on my part.

...Beck then disavowed his status as an entertainer, “When we were, and I’ve never told this story before, when we were starting the TV show, there were things that I did that I wouldn’t do now because I had to be more of an entertainer to get people to go what is this show at five o’clock? I never said anything I didn’t believe, but I may have said things in an entertaining fashion.” Beck also claimed that God led him to attack Van Jones.

Beck is correct. He is no longer an entertainer. Instead he is morphing into a political cult leader who is intent on overthrowing our government in the name of the Founding Fathers. In typical cult leader fashion Beck starts out by claiming that although he is not God, he is doing God’s will, which is why people should follow him. Beck believes that the Founding Fathers were guided by God, but it is too bad that the Founding Fathers didn’t believe that they were being guided by God.

...Beck’s goal is to do away with the separation of church and state. He appears to want nothing less than a Christian theocracy governing the United States. He has been amping up his statements for months, and this is why it is foolish for the left to simply dismiss Beck as an entertainer. He has other goals, lots of other goals, and every single one of them is bad for democracy and America. Read on...

Couldn't agree more. The man is dangerous. Go read the entire post for all of Beck's insanity.

Keith's runners up were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- NJ gov's office payroll goes up under Christie

Revolution Muslim -- Revolution Muslim's Zach "Abu Talhah Al-Amrike" Chesser: Video Death Threats Against South Park Creators

and Contemporary Family Services -- Maryland Foster Agency Won’t Allow Muslim Mother To Foster A Child.

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CNN's John Roberts challenged GOP pollster Frank Luntz for his role in using "charged language" and fomenting right-wing anger at health care reform.

Heather: This was a typical softball interview from John Roberts where he didn't hit Luntz the way I would have if given the chance to ask him how he feels about selling his soul for a buck and giving the Republicans their talking points on the health care debate. That said, I think Roberts is the first person I've seen in the MSM to actually ask the man if he should feel any responsibility for whipping up the anger at these town halls. You would never see that question asked of Luntz over at ClusterFox that he loves to call home. It's a question that should be asked of him with some real follow up more often.

ROBERTS: From town halls to tea parties, a lot of people across the country are really ticked off. Last week in our special series "Mad as Hell," we looked at the sources and potential solutions for all of that national anger.

Our next guest has advised the Republican Party and other clients on hot-button issues like health care, issues that so many Americans are riled up about. Frank Luntz is a pollster, communications expert and author of the new book, "What Americans Really Want, Really."

Frank joins us now with some new insight on the outrage. Insight on the outrage. Good play on words there. So people in America, are they really angrier than they ever have been?

LUNTZ: They are, 72 percent of Americans define themselves - we took a survey - of 6,400 people. That's five times the typical CNN media poll. Seventy- two percent of Americans are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.

ROBERTS: Seventy-two percent.

LUNTZ: And they're mad at politics because they think there's no accountability in Washington. They're mad at business because they think that their employers don't respect them. And they're mad at Hollywood for the coarseness of the culture. So you've got all three things going on at the same time, and they don't find a solution to it.

ROBERTS: Let me quote from your book here because you say, "It's not necessarily what's so important is not necessarily that Americans are mad as hell. What matters more is that they're not going to take it anymore. Americans have hit a tipping point with Washington, and moreover, its political parties."

So we're at this tipping point. What does that mean for the country? You gave us kind of the background of what people are mad at. Why are they add at all of this, and what is this tipping point?

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