Joe Scarborough has been claiming to be a moderate Republican for years. His lip service to moderation often comes in the form of pretending that both the Democrats and Republicans are just as bad as one another. This, of course, is utter horseshit designed to provide cover for the Republican extremism that has infested our politics. It’s far easier to cast a pox on both houses than face the reality that your own political party has gone completely insane.

Early Thursday afternoon, however, Scarborough entered a whole new realm of make believe:

He followed up that stunning bit of sophistry with this tweet just to make sure everyone got the point:

Wayne LaPierre’s views on guns are as extreme as Paul Krugman’s views on debt.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 14, 2013

Let’s take a quick look at what LaPierre believes:

1. More guns equals less violence so everyone should have a gun at all times – Proven wrong 2. Armed guards will prevent school shootings so we should turn schools into armed camps – Proven wrong 3. We need guns to fight off the government because they’re going to take over ANY DAY NOW – Wrong. The government isn’t going to “take over” and besides, they have tanks while you have Bubba and his buddies. 4. Obama is taking away all guns – A complete and total lie 5. We really need guns for the impending collapse of society – Or maybe when the aliens attack or the zombie apocalypse finally happens?

Yeah, that’s some pretty extreme stuff. Now let’s look at what Krugman believes:

1. The stimulus was not large enough – Proven correct. The economic boost it provided is easily measured and that it fell short is obvious. 2. Austerity doesn’t work – Proven correct. There is not a single country in history that has ever successfully cut its way out of a recession. Further, every single country that tried austerity after the crash in 2008 is an economic disaster and several have slipped back into recession. 3. Deficits and debt are not a short term problem – Proven correct over and over again. It’s been five years since the crash. Our debt and deficit are still enormous. Yet the economy is recovering. I thought the debt and deficit would destroy the economy RIGHT NOW (“right now” being every day for the last five years)? 4. Now is the right time for increased government borrowing – So insanely correct it’s nauseating. Our interest rates are so low (and have been that way for years) that countries are literally paying US to hold on to their money. If you can borrow money with almost no interest rate and use it to boost your economy to make that money back and more, you do it!

It doesn’t appear that Krugman is extreme at all. It is possible to label him extreme in the same way Copernicus was labeled a “heretic” for claiming the Earth revolved around the Sun but, honestly, being right is not a form of extremism except to the people you are proving wrong.

The last time Krugman was on Scarborough’s show, he said, “How many times do they have to be wrong and do people like me have to be right before people start to believe this?” The response? “You only have to be wrong once.” So, in the “both sides are guilty” universe of Joe Scarborough, conservative economists can be wrong for years on end and that’s fine but a liberal economist can be proven right for half a decade or more and that makes him an extremist for sticking to his claims.

One plus one does actually equal two. That’s why Paul Krugman is a Noble Prize winning economist and Scarborough needed 20 dead kids in Newtown before he “suddenly” realized that Wayne LaPierre was sick freak only interested in shilling for the gun industry. No rational person should listen to a single word that comes out of his empty head. It’s clear he can’t, or won’t, make an objective assessment of reality if his life depended on it

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