Scarborough on talk radio 'bullies': Republicans should 'punch them in the face'

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is calling on Republicans to push back against talk radio "bullies" like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh by punching them "in the face."

The conservative host on Monday noted that some on the "far right" had realized that "our stupidity was not rewarded on election day so, perhaps, we're going to have a more fact-based view of the political scene."

After observing out that Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol recently suggested that modern conservatism had started as a movement and degenerated into a "racket," Scarborough pointed to talk radio as part of the problem because candidates felt forced to parrot the opinions of Beck and Limbaugh.

"What do you do to a school yard bully?" he asked. "You punch them in the face. Do you think any of these people on talk radio if they’re punched in the face by a Republican nominee, do you think they would push back? No, they’re cowards. They’re bullies. Punch them in the face, and they back off. Bullies do that."

"Mitt Romney -- and we said it non-stop -- for two years, he would never stand up to these bullies. And so, they framed his campaign and he got his tail whipped."

"When Glenn Beck said the president's a racist who hates all white people, we said, 'This is your Sister Souljah moment,'" Scarborough recalled. "We keep following their pathway to a permanent minority, right? Who are they to say anything about what the future of what this party and this movement is?

Watch this video from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast Dec. 10, 2012.

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