Today on Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough once again took issue with CIA Director Leon Panetta’s assertion that Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s terror policy is playing “gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

Scarborough asked Ed Schultz this morning if he agreed with Panetta’s statement, and was shocked beyond all belief by Schultz’s answer:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Do you agree with the CIA Director that it’s as if Dick Cheney hopes Americans die so that he gains a political advantage?

ED SCHULTZ: Absolutely. Absolutely.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: So you believe Dick Cheney wants Americans to die –

SCHULTZ: I want Dick Cheney to come out and say “I do not want this country to get hit, and I will do anything I can to help the president so we don’t get hit.”

SCARBOROUGH: You just said “absolutely.”  So again, I want this on the record: you believe the former Vice-President wants Americans to die in a terrorist attack so he can gain a political advantage?

In a less noticed exchange yesterday morning around 8 am, Scarborough suggested the equivalent of Panetta’s comment would be like Republicans saying that Democrats wanted Americans to fail in Iraq.

What Bitter Joe fails to remember is that plenty of Republicans suggested during the Bush years that Democrats wanted the United States to fail in Iraq.

Here are some examples from elected Republican officials:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): “I wonder if they [Democrats] are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): Terrorists “are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry.”

Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY): “The liberal leadership have put politics ahead of sound fiscal and national security policy. And what they have done is cooperated with our enemies and are emboldening our enemies.”

And now some GOP talkers and writers:

Architect Karl Rove: “Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.”

Former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman: “Democrat leaders never miss an opportunity to put politics before our nation’s security.”

Bill O’Reilly: “Nancy Pelosi and her acolytes, people who like her, they want us to lose in Iraq.”

Ann Coulter: “I’m getting a little tired of even having to discuss what the Democrats are chitchatting about. They want us to lose in Iraq. That will help them. They’re in the position of the Mujahedeen. They will acquire more power if America is defeated in Iraq.”

Dennis Prager: “The Democrats have put themselves in the position of needing failure in Iraq in order to win the next election.”

Cal Thomas: “Most Democrats seem so invested in defeat in Iraq that they apparently have no ‘Plan B,’ which would be success.”

Scarborough is so caught up in love of his party that he mistakenly believes Republicans adhere to principles. For every intellectual burst Joe Scarborough emits, he says something so terribly vapid that it’s impossible to take him seriously.

(Note: MSNBC did not put video for this specific segment from yesterday’s Morning Joe and does not post Morning Joe transcripts. I’ve spent the better part of both days searching for either one. I will continue to look for both.)