Chris Matthews: Bush White House "Good Guys" Won't Silence Me
At a party last night celebrating the 10th anniversary of his MSNBC show Hardball, Chris Matthews lashed out at the Bush administration for its efforts to control his editorial content. But if his claims that "they will not silence me" ring a little hollow, they should. After all, Chris Matthews has spent the last several years telling us that President Bush, his White House and the Republican leadership team are "good guys."
Matthews' tough talk didn't end there. Without mentioning any of the laundry list of Bush wrong-doing, he claimed that "They've finally been caught in their criminality." Whether or not he was referring to Karl Rove's call to him in 2003 that Valerie Plame was "fair game" or Dick Cheney's supposed concern over Matthews' coverage of Scooter Libby's outing of the covert CIA operative or perhaps any other of their innumerable offenses, we don't know.
But what we do know is that Chris Matthews likes George W. Bush and the "good guys" of his White House - a lot. They may be, Matthews now suggests, thugs and criminals, but they are thugs and criminals you want to drink a beer with all the same:
"I thought in listening to the president, I was listening to one of the great neoconservative minds. We were given a rare opportunity to hear the real philosophy of this administration with regard to the war in Iraq." (August 9, 2007)
"I like him. Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left." (November 28, 2005)
"Sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility." (October 25, 2005)
"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical." (May 1, 2003)
"For example, George Allen is a lot like George Bush. He's friendly. He's a jock in a way. He's happy go lucky. He's a good guy to hang out with, kicks back." (May 24, 2006)
"They're very adept politically, this White House. And whatever you think of Karl Rove, he is good and he is tough." (October 29, 2004)
"Tony [Snow] has no regrets, nor do any of us for being his friend. Good guy, he has been, he is, and he will be." (September 4, 2007)
"And as we sign off today, it was the last day on the job for White House press secretary, the very likable, the very good guy, Tony Snow." (September 17, 2007)
"Tom DeLay, you are not in this buisness for the money. You live modestly. You commute back and forth from Washington to Houston, Texas. Why? What drives you every day?" (January 24, 2006)
"We'll be right back with House Majority Leader John Boehner. You can see this man's greatness." (March 6, 2006)
"And Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico - a good guy, by the way - intends to retire from the Senate when his term ends next year." (October 3, 2007)
"I think you beat a good guy [Jim Talent]. I looked at all the Republican candidates running for election in tough elections. I thought he was probably the best of them." To Missouri Senator-elect Claire McCaskill, (November 28, 2006)
"Mike DeWine, a good guy." (February 9, 2007)
"Chris Shays, actually a good guy, we'll see how he deals with this thing." (August 28, 2006)
In a rare moment of reflection, Chris Matthews on January 16, 2007 seemed to capture the pitfalls of his own warm feelings for the good guys of the Bush administration:
"By the way, if the cover-up works, we're not talking about it, just so you know about it. Don't get completely caught up in this good guy theory of government. It's only the cover-up. If the cover-up works, we never talk about the crime." (January 16, 2007)
Alas, George W. Bush had Matthews at hello, and the twinkle in his eye hasn't dissipated since:
"There's some weird thing about likability. Once you decide you like a guy, no matter how bad he is, you like him." (June 12, 2007)
Indeed. With enemies like these, who need friends?
Excellent compilation. What an asshat!
By Design Or Boarderline Personality Disorder
First let me say this: I am long past taking Chris Matthews too seriously. His vanity and jealous rages is the stuff that makes news a joke.
If you watch him closely, you can actually see him crate the issues that the media spends days being distracted from. Just when you think he stands for something, he resorts to a almost jealous position that no one has the right to know anything on his program until he says so. He will never let anyone on his show be too bright. He reserves that for himself. On MSNBC, he is god and don't get in his way.
Enter Kieth Olbermann, who is more than this man will ever be. I have notice an increase in his vantity, who have taken the "I will get them straight" attitude when he is talking to Republicans or Democratic politicians. He calls it playing hardball, I see it has rude and disrespectful
His all out attack on Hillary Clinton is getting old. I am starting to wonder why this man is so focused on Mrs Clinton.
For the record, he is on the edge of a insanity that has upper functionality that misleads viewers into thinking he has something more than partisan fixes to offer.
Joseph
I have found that whenever Chris Matthews made a few friendly statements on his show toward the "Bushies"... it was usually followed by an "Exclusive" interview with someone from the Bush administration... a "get".
It is so transparent. He definitely is opposed to the administration... but when he says a few things... friendly things... he gets a "get".
CHRIS MATTHEWS IS PRETTY SIMPLE MINDED AT TIMES......ESPECIALLY LATELY.....IF HE CANNOT FIGURE OUT BUSH AND CO. FOR WHAT DANGERS THEY POSE TO OUR DEMOCRACY.....THEN I CONSIDER HIM A FOOL.....AND A FOOL WITH A TV SHOW....I USED TO LIKE HIM AND WATCH HIM EVERY NITE.....BUT THE ANN COULTER DEBACLE DID IT FOR ME. CHRIS, GO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP.
I've watched Matthews for years, and he has infuriated me many times (but alot less than Fox)
He's got bi-polar politcal swings. Aside from his absolute HATRED for all things Clinton - including Gore, and his many man crushes on Republicans, he seems VERY conflicted.
NewToThis100: The wierdest "get" was in the run-up to the Iraq war - I think it was Feb '03: he went on Donahue as a guest - said some very anti-war things, bashed the neocons and their plans (prophetically talking about arousing Iraqi nationalism, rather than submission, "greeted as liberators, with flowers & sweets" happy-talk), all while telling Donahue his show was going to be cancelled for being anti-war.
He then went on his own show - directly after Phil's - and his "get" was Richard Perle (who he treated quite cordially)!
Perle told him that, because Bush had moved 200K+ troops to surround Iraq - even though we were told it was just to pressure Saddam to allow inspections - Bush HAD TO attack, or else he'd look weak. And Matthews didn't say boo!
Along with the aforementioned man crush(es), he is also conflicted on a couple of other points: He has 2 sons - prime draft age - and could see that Iraq was NOT going to be a cakewalk, but has said he was convinced by the "mushroom cloud" rhetoric from all the admin flacks, but he absolutely LOVES his Bush tax cuts - between his salary, and his DC anchor wife, and the investments he's hinted at, they have an 8-figure income, so you can see that he is getting an extra 6-7 figure "tip" from Bush shoved into his back pocket - so , in my book, he's bought and paid for...
Also, there's the "like to have a beer with," "towel snapping," "swaggering," "just one of the (good old) boys" attraction he feels for Bush.
Another clue: I remember when it became clear that Saddam had no WMD, he blamed Cheney and the neocons for LYING TO BUSH, to start the war - wouldn't even entertain the notion that Bush LIED us into war...
.
Chris Matthews tries to make stuff up. When those churches were being burnt down,he was trying for a disgruntled liberal did it. When it was found out that it was bratty young men doing it he dropped the story. I heard him trying on some other made up stuff the other night but I didn't write it down,however, I'll know it when I hear it.