Cheers: Morning Joe Perks Up MSNBC

• Jan 31, 2008 06:25 AM ET
• by Bruce Fretts

Cheers to Morning Joe for becoming a must-have fix for political junkies. Ex-congressman Joe Scarborough seemed like a poor man's Bill O'Reilly on his old prime-time MSNBC show, Scarborough Country. When the cable net moved him to the morning shift, it seemed like a desperate stopgap in the wake of Don Imus' sudden ouster. Then a funny thing happened: Scarborough lightened up. He traded his suits and ties for fleece pullovers and surrounded himself with appealing sidekicks like Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. As the presidential campaign has raged on, they've talked about - and with - the candidates in a relaxed yet informative fashion. Scarborough's become the anti-Chris Matthews: Think of Morning Joe as Softball. And his team's hitting it out of the park.