Judas Goat

When processing plants want to slaughter sheep, they use a goat ... a "Judas goat" ... to lead them into the killing chamber.  They then let the goat escape but not the sheep.  Let me now draw my analogy.  MSNBC has a program starting at 6 AM called Morning Joe staring Joe Scarborough (and Mika Brzezinski) which has gotten quite popular.  Joe Scarborough is a former conservative Congressman from the panhandle region of Florida and has very often been an effective foil for the litany of lefties who are the mainstay of this show.

When Joe is away, the show is virtually unwatchable with its liberal demagoguery.  (Guests like Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Howard Dean and Charles Schumer make my skin crawl ... and recently, when Joe returned from a week off, he jokingly ask a smirking Mika what did they do with all the hammer and sickle banners.)  However, slowly, ever so slowly, Joe is being pulled away from his rock-ribbed conservative stances and too often now will start spouting off like James Carville.  He even recently has, without knowing enough of the evidence, accused and convicted George Zimmerman of manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin.  Tsk, tsk. Joe, you really know better than this.

But what has upset me even more is that Joe did not defend Pat Buchanan when he was booted off the show last fall.  I don't think Scarborough necessarily had to resign over this black-listing of Buchanan, but he clearly turned his back on his compatriot -- one of the few intelligent conservative voices on his show.  Now, in order to hear a few of Joe's right-leaning repartees, viewers are now given quadruple doses of left-wing pap.  I'm beginning to get the feeling that we, as conservative sheep, are being led into that slaughter house called MSNBC by a Judas goat whose name is on the marquee.