couldn t make his hotel room key work so he passed on the floor in the hallway. folks, i m not surprised he was drinking. i mean, it is their sworn duty to take the bullet. folks, why do you think they are always running alongside the president s limo? they are too drunk to drive! good morning. it is thursday, march 27th. welcome to morning joe. with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. very good day to have you in today given the news that is going on. former communication director for george w. bush and former senior adviser for the 2008 mccain presidential campaign, nicole wallace. and in nashville, jon meacham. we have so much to get to this morning. right to what the president is doing in europe. he is wrapping up his audience with the pope. their first official visit and minutes ago, they arrived at their meeting in st. peters square. a long procession down rows of hallways. the two world leaders met and shook hands and posed for photos in frons t o
sharon engle in nevada. here is one i just saw that was main news this weekend. in mississippi thad cochrane, i think we can all agree if he s nominated by the republicans in mississippi, he is likely to get re-elected. here is what he had to say about the tea party recently, though. the tea party, you know, is something i don t really know a lot about. it s a free kcountry. we have open opportunities for people to participate in the election process. i mean, so thad cochrane, and he is a credible tea party challenger from mississippi running against him be and then we just got the news the other day former democratic congressman, conservative democratic congressman travis chilleders has decided he is going to run for the senate in mississippi. you can see the framework of the setup. if mcdaniel beats cochrane, says crazy things, the democrats have a credible candidate.
uprising that has steered the republican party far to the right by engineering a series of shocking primary victories over republican establishment figures turned five years old. the question is whether that same upheaval, the upheaval that lifted candidates like christine o donnell and sharon engle to shocking primary victories and allowed democrats to win races they otherwise had no business winning, whether that same upheaval will define the republ republican party in this year s midterms. it s a critical question since control of the senate is very much within reach for the gop this november. the evidence is conflicting. take ted cruz who won his senate seat in a texas tea party uprising in 2012 and quickly alienated many of his colleagues in the upper chamber when he used his grassroots appeal to push the party into a politically disastrous government shutdown last fall. in the wake that have debacle cruz seemed eager to make nice with his colleagues and promised not to intervene
russia does not the withdraw troops from ukrainian territory of crimea. we ll go to the white house for the latest on that in a moment. first more on the events moving at break neck speed in ukraine this weekend as indicated by the substance of that phone call. russian forces have been taking over crimea apparently without firing a single shot. without even appearing to be russian forces, for that matter. long lines of tanks and trucks and soldiers wearing uniforms without any identifying marks moving into critical areas of the southern ukraine territory of crimea, a section of the former soviet republic that juts out into the black sea which makes it strategically very important. the acting president went on tv to announce under the guise of military exercises they had entered crimea. they captured the local parliament building and commune hubs and the airports. planes landed throughout the night. soldiers have since been seen digging trenches along the crimean border. this
i use the word survive but he hasn t necessarily flourished, not like lamar alexander next door in tennessee who is widely loved figure. he s more of a polarize gs figure who wins by frankly scorched earth tactics. he s vulnerable to fell. it s a replay of harry reid nevada. it really is. harry reid won with upsidedown numbers and mitch mcconnell knows that s their path. they believe the numbers aren t there for democrats but need to make grimes seem unelectable. i don t think she s sharon engle. how they turn this into a referendum he made it on himself. that s the mcconnell job here. it s not easy because he has to spend two months getting conservatives back he s going to win but not going to break 60. there is a chunk of republican voters who will punish him a little bit. he s going to spend time that s the question, right. and it s tough.