Republican operative and dark money overlord Karl Rove’s moment of on-air discombobulation did not go unnoticed at Fox News’s rival network MSNBC. A few of the liberal network’s hosts took a moment to relish the spectacle of the man once known as “Bush’s brain” attempting to willfully disconnect from reality regarding the vote counts coming in from Ohio.

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“I don’t mean to cross-advertise here,” said Rachel Maddow, “but I want to note that conservative cable news network Fox News Channel – Fox News Channel called Ohio for Obama, but the on-air talent is refusing to concede that they believe it. Karl Rove is describing this as being just like 2000 and it is not over.”

“Can you define that word ‘talent’ for the people who are not in this industry?” “Hardball” host Chris Matthews chimed in, “They happen to have positions. It doesn’t say anything about their quality.”

“People who wear makeup and have cameras pointed at them,” Maddow clarified.

Later in the segment, she took a moment to underscore what this meant in term’s of Rove’s role in the election itself.

“What’s happening on the right is that one of the on-air contributors at the Fox News Channel is also one of the single largest outside spenders in this race in favor of Mitt Romney, who is Karl Rove, who is now trying to get – on air – the Fox News Channel to rescind its call in Ohio in favor of the candidate that he has bankrolled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” she said.

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Chuck Todd agreed with her, but said that this was only to be expected, given that a significant portion of the conservative community has been living inside an information bubble of “skewed” polls and bad information. “A big chunk” of whatever side loses, he said, will refuse to accept the legitimacy of the election.

Watch the video, embedded via Mediaite, below: