Buchanan.

Among others in the blogosphere, Andrew Sullivan is crying foul on MSNBC finally ditching Pat Buchanan.  Underneath all of Sully's reasoning we find the real reason he's miffed - that behind closed doors and in green rooms, Buchanan is a nice guy who once sent Sully a comforting note upon finding out he had the HIV virus.  Also, all the folks on Joe Scarborough's show lamented his being let go because he was a "friend to everyone." Which is all warm and fuzzy, and perfectly understandable.  Once someone's your friend, it's hard to fully admit they might be batshit about a lot of things. But that doesn't mean we need to be subjected to whatever cockamamie ideas Buchanan wants to spew on us any day in the name of being "fair and balanced."  This is 2012 - do we REALLY need a voice to represent the daily hysteria of the fears that white America is being taken over by dark people? Really? Fair and vigorous debate always has a place at the table, but at some point continually bringing someone in to claim 2+2=5 just for some sort of "fair equivalence" is nonsense.

Alyssa Rosenberg:

Sunlight is the best disinfectant only if the ideas at hand have actual traction and need to be dislodged. Nobody takes seriously the ideas that Jerry Sandusky’s alleged abuse and rape of children has any connection to marriage equality for gay couples, or that Anders Brevik, the Norway terrorist, has the right worldview. Their credibility has nowhere to go but up, and lending someone a seat at the table confers some of that credibility, even if it’s only to acknowledge that the idea has power that’s dangerous. That risk should be weighed against the possible benefit of debunking the most marginalized, weak ideas by debating them in public.

Just because someone has "convictions" doesn't make those convictions worthy of being aired on national tv every day as part of a serious "debate." We don't have a representative from the "the moon landing was a  hoax!" gang on every time we celebrate the moon landing.

The scary thing is actually how long it took to get rid of him, although not really surprising since once you become a pundit o tv it's virtually impossible to get rid of them, no matter how inane they are. Pat Buchanan is hardly history's greatest monster, but if he's gonna be spouting out stupid shit like this on a regular basis, I can't say I'm gonna miss him, either. He doesn't deserve a place at the table ad infinitum just for existing.