The misogynous nuttiness that is Chris Matthews

[dsc]

http://www.dailyhowler.com/

MATTHEWS (12/6/99): I'm Chris Matthews in San Francisco. Let's play Hardball!

Well, joining us right now from Washington, DC is author and journalist Gail Sheehy. She's got a new book; it's called Hillary's Choice. We'll get to the meaning of that.

Gail, thank you for joining us. I have to ask you one tough-as-nails question, not as a Hillary defender or as a Hillary critic, but just simply as a Hillary author and expert. What has she ever done for this country?

SHEEHY: Whoa!

No particular point of view there, in that opening, “tough-as-nails question!” Sheehy recovered from her surprise, saying that Hilary Clinton had offered Bill Clinton good advice in the 1999 Kosovo matter. Disappointed, her host asked for more—and introduced a construct:

SHEEHY: You know, there isn't any policy that he hasn't discussed with her. But in this case, she told him very forthrightly, you cannot let this ethnic cleansing go on at the end of the century that saw the Holocaust. You know, bite the bullet, Bill.

MATTHEWS: Well, go on.

SHEEHY: Well, I think that's pretty important.

MATTHEWS: No, give me some other things that she's done that she would put on her resume if she were to run for the Senate from New York, which she apparently intends to do.

end of quote (I don't want to over quote due to rules) please read the entire piece before commenting.

It really gets grusome. Let me be blunt here. Many of you all didn't care about Matthew's nuttiness then and certainly didn't during this primary but he will do this to Obama, mark my words. The man is a GOP inspired nut. He worships McCain and Obama is in McCain's way. You might care then but it might be too late. It is hard to walk back from cries of censorship that were levelled against those of us who wanted this deluded nut to clean up his act. Our public discourse deserved better then and deserves better now. The man is a sexist pig and did hate all things Clinton but he also loves all things McCain. Don't think he won't do this to Obama, it is just a matter of time.

[PCIntern]

1. Tweety is a sexist piece of shit and that's the nice thing I can say about him...

it gets "even woise" as I continue...

[Captain Hilts]

21. I'll take 'sexist piece of shit' for five hundred, Alex. nt

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. At the time, the question wasn't nutty. I campaigned for HRC and had

to explain her value often ... she had to overcome a great deal of resistance.

[dsc]

4. did you read the whole post, like I asked, before you answered

I only quoted that due to the 4 paragraph rule, there is a whole lot of nuttiness there.

[Fredda Weinberg]

23. Sorry, replied to the wrong post ... link here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6420444&mesg_id=6421630

[book_worm]

3. What has Tweety ever done for his country?

[grasswire]

11. well, he did serve in the Peace Corps where he contracted malaria..

...and he did serve for Tip O'Neill. I'm not defending the guy, but we need to be fair.

[book_worm]

13. he should be fair to Hillary then too.

Obviously someone who spent eight years as First Lady and seven years in the Senate has served her country.

[Fredda Weinberg]

24. He worships Tip O'Neill for being willing to work with Raygun

It wasn't popular then and wouldn't be acceptable now

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. The MSM will "feminize" Obama, as it does with all our male candidates.

The misogyny will continue uninterrupted.

[blondeatlast]

8. It makes a convenient excuse for avoiding an issue they are terrified to discuss.

Just like the "country club" comment from KKKarl Rove; they can't come right out and say what they are thinking, so they'll get oh-so-clever about it.

[blondeatlast]

6. He's repulsive and overtly sexist. I was an Obama supporter from the time it became two candidates

but I was utterly sickened by the sexism displayed on M$NBC then; even among more friendly hosts.

[woolldog]

7. I don't see the misogyny here.

Just Matthews questioning (in 1999) her credentials for being a Senator. It's a valid query.

There are very few Senators whose first elected political office was U.S. Senator.

[blondeatlast]

10. Read the entire piece, not just what's quoted here; as the OP respectfully asked. nt

[woolldog]

14. I did.

I don't see it. Maybe the OP should quote the portions relevant to showing his/her point.

Does Matthews like Clinton? Probably not.

Does speaking ill of her make him a "misogynist"? No.

[dsc]

15. I take it this bold printed material escaped your eyes

MATTHEWS: First of all, Hillary Clinton got the message wrong. The American people want to have health care for people who work for a living. Working families should get a good wage and they should get health care as part of a living income. She said, I'm going to give you universal coverage. I want to give every man who gets into this country, legally or illegally, free health care, and they're going to have to thank me for it, and bring flowers to me like I'm Evita. That's different than giving people workers' rights, or giving them what they go out and work for a living for, including health care. She didn't want to sell it as a workers' benefit. She wanted to sell it as socialism, because then she could get credit for it. She and the government, like Eleanor Roosevelt, her hero.

SHEEHY: Well, I don't think she wanted to sell it as socialism...

In this tortured fruitcake’s weak mind, Clinton was thinking “they're going to have to thank me for it, and bring flowers to me like I'm Evita.” As Irish Catholics ourselves, can we talk? The nuns and the priests were in Chris’ weak head at this point—and this time, they weren’t urging love for the truth. By the way, Chris had eye-rolled Eleanor Roosevelt on Friday too, when he explained why Clinton might win her senate race: “Here's this sort of latter day Eleanor. Not that Eleanor Roosevelt does much for me, but for a lot of New Yorkers, I think it still has that big picture magic.”

“Not that Eleanor Roosevelt does much for me!” Don’t worry, Chris! No one will ever think you admire some ratty old woman!

At any rate, Matthews was now worked up pretty good. Soon, he was making Sheehy hear his ur-theory of Clinton and Clinton. In this passage, you see the tortured soul that has driven this man’s inexcusable work for a decade:

MATTHEWS: Here's the weird thing about this dysfunctional relationship, and you've been sorting this out as an author for so many months. You have one partner on the team that thinks they're always right. They think they're better than us morally, politically, culturally, and intellectually and every other way. The other person believes they've never done anything wrong. If you have one who's a born cover-up artist who can't even turn in an honest golf score, and the other one who thinks she's always right about everything, God help us! As you say, Hillary's choice is the choice to be blind-sided or to be blind about the truth. What an amazing credential to be United States senator for New York!

[woolldog]

19. I don't see anything sexist there.

or the first time I read it.

[dsc]

12. since you evidenlty won't read even when asked

I will skirt the rule by quoting a different day of the same site.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh122006.shtml

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Kate, just looking at this—I know you`re a conservative, but this coyness, which I pointed to here, about ambition, not that she hasn’t announced, but she says—she acts as if her ambition isn`t relevant here. Jack Kennedy, to his credit, said, “I want to run for president because that`s where the action is. He probably meant it a number of different ways, but there’s not—why don`t they just say, you know, I’d really like to run this country, it would make me feel great to be president of the United States, to be on that short list.

O’BEIRNE: Chris, I’m sympathetic here with Senator Clinton. We`re going to hear from her early in the year. This is like the last level of control she may have, I mean, once she jumps into that field. She knows; she`s been there. So she`s got to control her announcement. I don`t fault her for that. She`s running.
In the face of her host’s incoherent assault, even O’Beirne was sympathetic to Clinton. Soon, though, Chris was letting us know why women should resent Clinton:
MATTHEWS: Is she a convincing mom?

O’BEIRNE: She’s certainly trying to be. I think she appreciates that a whole lot of women who aren’t all that liberal and maybe don’t—are not necessarily on board because of her role model aspect of this—are distrustful of Hillary Clinton. I think they might—

MATTHEWS: Well, should they be?

O’BEIRNE: I think—

MATTHEWS: She lets he husband get away with what he’s gotten away with? Don’t women resent that?

end of quote

I would hope that qualifies as sexist. Again, if you had done what I asked, you would have seen this, but you just plain wouldn't.

[woolldog]

20. again, I don't see it.

But if you're going to say he's sexist, wouldn't you put your most compelling piece of evidence in your OP?

I think it's strange to argue he's sexist in an OP, quote an exchange that's not sexist, and then when people tell you it's not sexist, to then tell them to go to another page for the real evidence of his sexism....and not specify what statements among a collection of statements there are sexist and why.

[eleny]

9. Surrogates need to prepare themselves

They ought to know the accomplishments of the person they represent in the media.

[kevinmc]

16. "What has she ever done for this country?" WOW -- misogynous nuttiness ....NOT...

that's just a question.

[dsc]

18. I stated, in clear, unambigious language that one needed to read

the entire dailyhowler. But I also, in this very thread, posted several more paragraphs. As usual, people like you can't be bothered to read. What a shock.

[hokies4ever]

17. The sky is blue, the grass is green

I think we all know that Chris Matthews had jumped off the deep end. I just didn't realize that he jumped off nearly a decade ago.

On another note, sticking up for Chris Matthews, I think that the sentiment for his first question was legitimate. It's really not clear what the accomplishments are for a First Lady to the governor or President. It's kind of like the Vice Presidency in the sense that you have very little inherent power and almost all of your accomplishments result from power delegation. Traditionally the First Lady role has been viewed in a sexist light.

[Fredda Weinberg]

22. Forgive me, but I have a life. I don't normally read a whole Daily Howler

anymore - the sports gone out of it. I've worked with MSNBC associate producers and know, painfully, all about the infotainment industry.

If there's something you think is particularly offensive, I'll just have to hold my tongue about what I saw and heard. My battles are fought and won ... I wish them all well.

[totodeinhere]

25. Asking "what has she ever done for this country?" is obviously ridiculous. But..

is it necessarily misogynous to ask such a question? Isn't it possible that if Hillary had been a man he would have asked that same question? Let's face it, whether it's fair or not, a lot of people including many Democrats don't like Hillary. But that dislike doesn't have to be because she is a woman.

[TheWraith]

26. So you want to sell this as sexism? Really?

When you yourself point out that Matthews whacked on Gore in similar ways, and say he'll do so against Obama?

You may not agree with Matthews much, and I don't. You might not see his questions as particularly insightful, because they aren't. And you may feel that he tends to fall for the right-wing spin and "character" issues too easily, which he does. But trying to sell that as sexism is dishonest, and smacks of trying to build up Hillary and the myth of her victimhood.

[AllentownJake]

27. Here is the thing

For years when its been two men running an attack and tactic would be I'm more manly. Calling Kerry french is a good example. A Thomas Jefferson surrogate called John Adams a hermaphordite. It's been going on since elections were contested in this country.

Now when there are more and more woman running some attacks may appear sexist but they are in fact attacks on the person not because of their gender but because its simply an attack.

Obama got the same thing except for him it was he was an elite latte sipper (translation and I hate this word a fag). I've heard many times talking about the lunch pail white beer drinkers..what he is talking about is the manly men and Obama is a sissy boy and how can the sissy boy relate to the manly men?

Matthews attacks because thats what he does. It has nothing to do with Hillary being a woman. Hillary had it no worse than any other front runner. When your winning they pile on. Its what the media does.