Hardball's Tweety is a real Johnny-Come-Lately on Iraq.

[muntrv]

He's interviewing John Edwards and, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that Tweety is an anti-war activist. But, all of us at DU remember his swooning at Chimpy parachuting on the aircraft carrier and slamming war critics.

[madokie]

1. to never forget

[PCIntern]

2. i'm with you...

and you're right. I've posted many times over the past few months on the 'conversion'.

He's a prick...pure and simple.

[SoFlaJet]

3. actually in all fairness

he was against this war before he was for it and THEN against it again...(I'm not being a wiseass here)

[SaveOurDemocracy]

4. According to him ...

He's been against the war from the beginning.

>>>> http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/21/matthews-against-war/

[Neecy]

5. He might have been against the war privately...

But he certainly followed GE's line once the war began. Now that Bush's numbers have gone south and public pressure is mounting he feels 'safe' to criticize. But I remember his mancrush on Chimpy that extended through 2003 to early this year.

[karynnj]

21. He was about the only one on TV speaking

against it in the ramp upto war - Jan/Feb 2003.

[Auggie]

28. Yes, when he had Hardball on the college tour.

[PCIntern]

6. Well. according to me, he's FOS...

he claimed to be skeptical while interviewing every pro-War asshole in the US, saying uh-huh over and over and over, and then denigrating those openly opposing the war. He would then 'editorialize' that he was not happy with the progression of the war plans and then the war.

He wanted to hedge his bets no question.

[H2O Man]

7. Mr. Matthews has been

against the war from the beginning. The "confusion" we see on DU results from Mr. Matthews' liking President Bush. Many people are not able to recognize that these two things are different. If we were to make a graph, we would find four groups: {1} those who oppose the war, and dislike Bush; {2} those who oppose the war, but like Bush; {3} those who support the war, and like Bush; and {4} those who support the war, but dislike Bush.

Most DUers probably fall into the first group. Mr. Matthews falls into the second. It is beneficial for progressive democrats to understand simple concepts such as this.

[senseandsensibility]

9. That does not explain his dismisive attitude

(and that is putting it mildly) of ANY anti-war spokesperson who was invited on his show. Nor why such spokespeople were outnumbered by cheerleaders by five to one, at least. I could care less who he "likes", even though his gushing over chimp was way,way over the top by any standard. His coverage was unfair and pro-war.

[jaysunb]

11. See post # 8

:rofl:

[jaysunb]

10. Amen...

I was just about to refute the idea that Matthews was a hawk. He publicly stated his opposition during the run up, but said nothing against it after the first bomb was dropped.

BTW ,
I don't like the war, Bush OR Matthews...:evilgrin:

[PCIntern]

13. Sorry for the 'confusion'

but I'm hardly confused.

You can't be pro-Bush and anti-War. Sorry...that tautology does not exist in this Administration. No such animal. This guy Tweety jerked us off in so many different directions he should put an ad on Craigslist.com under Erotic Services.

[H2O Man]

14. Sure people can.

Your confusion is evident when you talk about what "exist(s) in this Administration." Mr. Matthews is not in the administration.

The way to pressure Congress -- so that Congress will pressure the administration -- isn't by making sel-righteous claims to purity, and by demanding that everyone who opposes the war must meet your standard of disliking the president. Progressive democrats must be more mature than that.

[PCIntern]

15. Listen...

the MSM has been the mouthpiece for this Administration. This War is the sole export of this Administration, and those guilty of repressing those against the War from its inception are complicit.

OK, you go to Congress and petition them to renounce the War while admiring your President. Be my guest.

[H2O Man]

19. You are silly.

I do not like Bush, but I am not so rigid in my thinking that I do not have the capacity to grasp that many US citizens who like Bush are strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. Progressive democrats can not afford the luxury of being so narrow-minded as to think that only people who think in the exact same terms on every point are worth joining forces with.

[Kahuna]

16. BRAVO, H2O Man! I hope your post will FINALLY put to rest

the confusion about Matthews' stance on the invasion. Indeed, as you have stated and many others have attested, Matthews was against the invasion and said so and wrote a column stating so, PRIOR to the invasion. Still, the same players continue to insist that Matthews was initially in favor of the war. As you have stated, he was not. Yet, as one who liked * personally, he continued to support bush while having his doubts about the invasion. As you have stated, it is possible to "support" a person while not agreeing with or supporting every single thing that they do.

[H2O Man]

20. For this type of

situation, Ben Franklin was fond of saying, "When passions drive, let reason hold the reins." Even on this thread, we see where some people allow their emotions to dictate their responses. That is understandable, but ultimately self-defeating. While those who fall into group #1 -- meaning they oppose the war and dislike Bush -- are entitled to their thinking about the war and feelings about Bush, it is politically immature to insist that there are no other people to be allied with outside the this group, when it comes to opposing the war.

[PCIntern]

23. Excuse me...

I watch him at least once, often twice, and sometimes, unfortunately, three times a day when he is inundating MSNBC with his bravado, his false modesty, and his tripe.

If you want to act like an academic, please be my guest. Parsing his words when his intentions are just so clear is, shall we say, politically naive. In the future, please make an attempt to listen to what others rightfully perceive as propaganda for the masses as opposed to what you personally think/believe/hope the reporter/commentator is stating in such a fashion that you are of the opinion that you can mke a legal argument as to its content and intention.

If you do not agree with me, that's just fine. Enjoy your spitting fat slob as he attempts to retrench his former statements with that great passion which he reserves for self-preservation, rather than that for which he might seek the higher-order truth in the first place. Listen worshipfully at his knee for his great political insights as he deems himself a product of working-class Philadelphians (!) or a progressive Democrat because he worked for Tip O'Neill, when he espouses beliefs which belie these pedigrees. Respect his great consistency as he utters the words'yeah' and 'uh-huh' as the warmongers vomit forth their diatribes, and then bark at the gloom and doom naysayers of war, who turned out to be correct of course in their surmises.

Go right ahead. And 'Bravo to You'.

[H2O Man]

27. You're excused.

If you want to act like a stubborn student who refuses to accept their missing the answer to a question, it's okay. Feel free to reinforce the lack of insight with silly comments such as the "spitting fat slob" business. Go right ahead. Channel that confusion outwardly. Do it. Do it now.

[PCIntern]

29. Dear Professor:

The reason I want to drop your class is that you are just a bit too much of a prig. I wish you well in your endeavors to teach the Student Body which is DU how to act, post, think, and evaluate, utilizing your superior wit and intellect.

PC

P.S. Are you attempting to deny that he spits all over his guests when goes into his apoplectic rants? Maybe you're just admiring HIS codpiece a little too much.

[H2O Man]

31. Thank you.

You're excused.

Howard Cosell wrote on the back of his autobiography: "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a show-off. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." I am honored to add "prig" to my own list.

I am not aware that Mr. Matthews "spits all over his guests."

[PCIntern]

34. Then you have not been watching him

Case Closed.

I had a Dental School professor whoe attributes you exhibit. He was a supercilious snob who commanded attention due to his unusual verbal abilities - no word with fewer than 3 syllables and many adjectives placed prior to nouns. Anyway, one day during a seminar, he was asked about the then-recently developed hydroxyapatite coatings for implants. He just had that blank look and we knew he was just a fraud who wasn't as 'up' on the literature as he professed to be.

[H2O Man]

36. I watch Hardball.

I have never seen Chris Matthews spit on anyone. But I do think that your focus on it shows the level of your argument. Where I used to work, there were people who had oral fixations.

[PCIntern]

37. Aren't you just so...'clever'...

I suppose you haven't been reading the posts all over DU for years, which alude/tesitfy to the fact that when Tweety gets excited, he spits all over the place.

But why dwell on the humorous, when the weight of the world has been placed upon your shoulders? Tweety is a half-assed phony slob who has attempted to play both ends agaisnt the middle. Who coddled that criminal DeLay after the interview...or didn't you hear that portion of the interview which was not supposed to be taped? Or makes sexist jokes at Hillary's expense every chance he gets...or who belittled Kerry's service record and worse, allowed others to belittle it without so much as a fare-thee-well during the campaign.

We're on to his tricks...and to those who defend his brand of proto-fascist 'jounalism'. It is because of these MSM 'folks' that we're in the shape we're in today, who allowed the assumption of the Presidency with little or no questions as to its Constitutionality, even as 'defined' by the beloved 'Supreme Court' whose personalitites like Sandra Day O'Connor are trying to retrench to re-establish their places in history, for they are the chosen who placed this cipher in charge. If there had been more outcry at the stoppage of the vote counting, they would not have felt empowered to uphold it.

[H2O Man]

42. I do not

place any weight on the posts that you mention. It does not matter to me in the least if you think that Mr. Matthews spits on people. I'm confident that even if a person who has known him since the Tip days were to tell you that he does not spit on people, you would merely find it proof that they were bad. Very bad.

I remember thinking that Bill Frist was a flaming asshole for diagnosing a person based on the film clips he saw on tv.

[leftofthedial]

8. he's a whore

a really ugly whore

[devilgrrl]

12. Chris Matthews is a dip-shit..

I can't believe anyone here takes that bloated gasbag seriously.

[Crunchy Frog]

17. It's true that he did swoon at Chimpy in his codpiece

but I believe that he was pretty firmly on the record as being opposed to the Iraq invasion from early on. He tends to be a bit bipolar on these things, so he often goes back and forth, but I think he opposed it from early on.

[scarface2004]

18. matthews is a mealy mouth...

cocksucker who would hold his sister down so bush could fuck her in the ass if he wanted too!!!

[PCIntern]

25. Scarface:

Now there's a vision...wow.

that about sums it up. Couldn't have done any better myself.

[UTUSN]

22. Dear Mr H2Oman post # 7

It is irrevalent to "like" or "dislike" Shrub. I DETEST the a-hole. *I* knew the "war" was a PHONEY war from the get-go, not only because I knew the a-hole was an a-hole, but because he could NEVER give a REAL reason for the aggression.

Now, about Tweety. The CANARD that Tweety was against-the-war-from-the-beginning has been repeated here ENDLESSLY, including others like, BECAUSE HE HAS DRAFT AGE SONS.

He ALWAYS played the game of being more "Liberal" in his (defunct) newspaper columns, while playing to the wingnut cable masses.

He's a CLUELESS beltway A-hole. He's a PHYSICAL COWARD. He has HURT DEMS (GORE, KERRY) more with his DAILY puke than any Rethug BELIEVER.

[stanwyck]

24. You nailed the duplicity that is Chris Matthews

he's been doing the "please watch my show" dance for years now. It's his version of "fair and balanced". He is, as you say, a coward who has failed to put any heat behind his own convictions out of fear of losing rightwing viewers.
It's funny to me that a talking head pundit with years inside the Beltway can't find his voice as easily as a couple of guys on The Comedy Channel.

[Infinite Hope]

26. The parachute was years ago. Matthews has been against the war for some time now. n/t

[Toots]

38. When did Bush* ever parachute anywhere?

He wore one when riding in the jet that landed on the aircraft carrier but I doubt if Bush* ever actually parachuted anytime in his life. That actually takes some courage. His father on the other hand is notorious for abandoning his crew and parachuting from his aircraft in WW II.

[Hubert Flottz]

30. First he was against it, then he was for it and now he's against it!

He is smart enough to see how well Keith Olbermann's ratings have improved!

[CTyankee]

32. Anybody got his actual quotes?

Since I don't watch the guy, I truly cannot comment. But in this thread fight it would be good for someone who has them, to quote what Matthews actually SAID pro or con the war prior to his "conversion," if that is what it is.

For myself, I will reserve judgment until I see what the man said. Hurling insults back and forth won't cut it for me.

[H2O Man]

35. I think one

of the more telling things about Mr. Matthews can be found in pages 265-267 of the book "Hubris," by Isikoff & Corn. They tell how Libby and Cheney were furious about Matthews' reporting on the war, especially when he "had gone beyond even what Wilson had charged" in commenting on the lies that led us into the war.

Libby called and lodged complaints against Matthews with his immediate supervisor, Adam Levine. When it did not result in the changes Scooter wanted, Libby again contacted Levine and stated, "We need to get him to stop."

The book also details how Paul Wolfowitz and Libby accused Mr. Matthews of being anti-Semitic. (page 266)

When Mr. Matthews continued to report on the OVP lies that brought us to war in Iraq, Libby took the fateful step of calling Tim Russert to lodge a complaint. Libby complained to Russert that, "It's always Libby and Wolfowitz and Perle." The book tells how Russert suggested to Scooter that he could call the president of MSNBC; Russert himself immediately called Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC. (This resulted in a record that contradicted Libby's later lies about Russert telling him about Plame.)

Shapiro would later recall telling Russert, "Hey, this guy is still the vice president." He clearly knew that VP Cheney was part of the party complaining about Mr. Matthews.

I also would suggest that people read the opening pages of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's book. It was Chris Matthews who alerted Wilson to the White House attacks that targeted his wife.

[PCIntern]

39. Anyone not in complete lockstep with this extremist

group was complained about and beaten down. The fact that some in the MSM had the temerity to even ask questions was regarded as hostile fire. It doesn not surprise me in the least that there was pressure on Matthews's superiors...there was pressure and is pressure at all levels which continues to this day.

[CTyankee]

40. I have Wilson's book in the bedroom. I'll check that out. Don't

have "Hubris," tho.

But I am also interested in direct quotes that Matthews said on his show, if anyone has them. I'm scrambling to get to my part time job after a few days off; I'll google them myself later. I'm very interested in getting to the bottom of this.

[CTyankee]

41. I have read the references to Matthews in Joe Wilson's book

and I don't think what he says is dispositive one way or another on Matthews' support or nonsupport for the war in Iraq. The first reference is noncommital but seems to me to be straight telling of what happened. Matthews is described as having a "signature, staccato" style of delivery. I didn't get the feeling that Matthews was telling Wilson anything for his own good. He seemed to be checking out what Rove had told him.

In another reference to Matthews, Wilson does call him a "respectable reporter." To me, that is a clear enough statement which I take to mean that Matthews was doing his job as a reporter. I could certainly interpret that to mean that Wilson thought that Matthews was not just a shill for the White HOuse.

[Supersedeas]

43. never forget the filth that lives deep within Tim Russert

[RedStateShame]

33. Yeah. What's Hillary's excuse?