Nancy Pelosi has been rightfully roasted for the hyper-partisan, hypocritical comments she made about John Conyers on Sunday’s Meet the Press, but MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts created a new level of rationalization and intellectual inconsistency on Monday’s show.

Joe and Mika agree with Pelosi that Conyers is an “icon.”

After reiterating Conyers’ achievements, Scarborough gave critics a hearty shaming:

A guy who was a Korean War veteran, a guy who when he got into Congress was one of only four black members in Congress. A guy who single-handedly started the Congressional Black Congress. The man who was responsible for Rosa Parks laying in state in the United States Capitol. Oh, he was in Selma on that bloody, bloody day so many years ago. I would call that an icon.

And if you’re offended by that…well, let me just say that you remind me an awful lot of the Bible-thumpers I grew up with, and a lot like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

The two do believe Conyers should step down, but because of old age and dementia, not because of his predatory behavior. Scarborough recalled an incident in 2011 where Conyers spoke at the National Arab American Museum, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

When he got up to talk, he was talking about Miles Davis and John Coltrane, rambling around. He’s showing up in pajamas at meetings. People — somebody in his office needs to step in.

He’s clearly not capable of being a United States Congressman. People need to step in.

Come on, Scarborough. You’re just now, six years later, publicly calling for his family and staff to step in and tell him it’s time to go home?

That rambling speech wasn’t an isolated incident; Conyers’ mental decline has been evident for years. When John McCain asked some rambling questions during a hearing earlier this year, his capacity was immediately questioned and there were calls from the left for him to resign. (Of course, unfortunately we learned of McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis shortly after that incident.)

As with most things Democrat, someone had to take that ridiculous rationalization even further. Mika jumped in, talking about how hard it is to deal with elderly people and tearfully relating Conyers’ situation to the time she spent taking care of her father before his passing.

“When you’re talking about people in their late 80’s and early 90’s, you’re talking about people who are suffering from health problems. The behavior of someone in that age range is just – it’s hard to explain sometimes, and it’s very, very difficult to deal with, and it’s sort of sick to inject it into this conversation that we’re having. I think it minimizes it. And thank you, Nancy Pelosi, for speaking the truth.”

So now Conyers is just a forgetful old man who doesn’t know what he’s doing, Mika? We need to approach him with care and compassion and SHAME on the people who “inject” the truth about his behavior behind closed doors into the conversation?

Sorry, Mika, Nancy, and Joe. You had the opportunity to let Conyers honorably slide into retirement and wasted it.