When I’m in the USA, I start my day with Morning Joe. I love politics as much as sports. Ever since I played Abraham Lincoln in a grammar school play, I’ve been hooked on the to and fro of democracy painfully working its magic. I stay up all night watching election returns even for the mid-term elections. So with the Yankees finished for 2011, and the Giants and Jets off to sputtering starts, and Chelsea an ocean away, and another Presidential election campaign underway, I’m totally committed to Morning Joe from 6am to 9am ET every weekday morning on MSNBC.

Morning Joe is hosted by Joe Scarborough, a boy’s boy former conservative Republican congressman from Florida, who has evolved into an eclectic, independent, right-leaning moderate as the Republican Party has moved dramatically to the right over the last several years. Joe is balanced against co-host Mika Brzezinski, left-leaning champion of the mommy issues and daughter of former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, whose principal role is to drive me mad and remind me that, in a democracy, other people get to vote too. Joe and Mika are joined by co-host Willie Geist, a Vandy grad and avid sports fan (sound familiar?), who keeps things moving while adding some youth and humor.

The format is three hours of relatively unstructured free-flowing chat and interviews about politics with some regular guests of multiple perspectives (a unique phenomenon on MSNBC!) periodically sitting in to join the fray. So if you like politics, or just want to keep up with the mood of the country, come join me every morning for a cup of Joe. (See also Morning Coffee).