What’s a Solyndra scandal on MSNBC when there are Republicans to ridicule?

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Newsbusters catches this moment of clarity on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, which took thirteen minutes of a segment to ridicule the Republican candidates for President on everything from their policies to their attire. Mark Finkelstein compresses most of the thirteen minutes of the 6 am ET segment of the show, which is a blessing, as it’s repetitive ridicule gets more than a little tiresome in real time. What happens when host Mika Brzezinski brings up actual news, rather than Herman Cain’s hat, like … Solyndra and the Department of Energy’s pressure to delay a layoff announcement until after the midterm election? Oddly, the laughter stops, along with the commentary:

Ever been watching Morning Joe, and wished you could stop the steady stream of liberal blather? Simple. Say the magic word—Solyndra—and watch the gabby guests fall suddenly silent.

Today’s show offered a prime example of the phenomenon. For the first ten minutes, the panel had a great old time cackling and crowing on the theme that the Republican presidential field is a mass of morons. They laughed at the mere mention of Herman Cain, likened the GOP field to a vaudeville show, dragged out the shopworn “bar in Star Wars” simile, and called the Republican candidates “jokes,” “clowns” and “stupid.” But then, 13 minutes in, Mika Brzezinski mentioned a story reporting that the Obama admin had suppressed the announcement of layoffs at Solyndra until after the 2010 elections. Despite Mika looking around the table at her guests as she wondered out loud “why this story hasn’t picked up more,” there wasn’t a peep out of the quickly clammed-up crew and Brezinski breezed on to another topic.