Friday, May 16, 2008

Chris Matthews: Proof that sometimes the simplest explanation is the best

By now most of you have at least heard about Chris Matthews smack C-list right-wing talk radio figure Kevin James around the head and upper body for loudly jumping on the "appeasement" bandwagon yesterday while having no idea what the historical facts of the "Chamberlain" reference might be.

If you missed it, here's a bit of harmless fun:



Around the table at Drinking Liberally last night, some of the finest minds of our generation currently at Madison's Grill kicked this moment around for a while.

Some said it was proof that Matthews was more complex than his reputation gave him credit for. Others said it was proof he's not completely on the right-wing goof-train, as his accusers say.

Neither of those explanations really seemed to click for me, but I couldn't put my finger on why.

This morning, I see I don't have to bother; turns out A. Serwer has the thing pretty well nailed down at TAPPED:

This wasn't a great journalistic moment, it was a David Broder moment; James came onto Hardball and trashed the place, and that wasn't his place. So Matthews got angry. It isn't the kind of thing that indicates a departure from embracing the kind of Right Wing themes that have made Matthews so infamous among some liberals, and if James had been polite, he would have gotten away with spewing as much bile as he wanted.

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1 comment:

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I like Matthews. I mean, sure, he's a motor-mouth, constantly interupts people, etc., but the fact that both liberals AND conservatives criticize him, that says to me he's probably doing a pretty good job.