Why I don't watch Scarborough Country

I have some respect for Joe Scarborough. Some. Unfortunately, while Joe can be a rock ribbed conservative at times, his powers of analysis can be questionable. Over at the HuffPo, Scartissue (as former Jiblog contributor Col. Ollie calls him) had this to say:

The conventional wisdom for tonight's Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994. <>

That was the election year when the most conservative wing of the GOP took over the party and swept into power in the US Congress.
[...]
My advice to Democratic voters this year is "Go left, young man!"

There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.

There is only one problem with Scarborough's logic. While there are damn few Scoop Jackson Democrat congressmen right now, there are still Scoop Jackson Democrats in this country. Veering hard left means Dems will need to veer hard left on the War on Terror, and in doing so they will sheer off part of their base, a part they are neglecting in order to grease the squeaky wheel. In 1994, that wasn't a problem because the platform of conservatives was acceptable to popular across the Republican base and into the "Reagan Democrat" portion of the left.