NBC's Chuck Todd on Hardball Ponders: Is Ken Buck, 'Sharron Angle in Drag?'

NBC's chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd, substitute hosting for Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, managed to question the political viability of two Republican candidates in one sentence as he asked his guest panelist, Jonathan Martin of the Politico, "Is Ken Buck, you know, Sharron Angle in drag?" [audio available here]

Going over the results of yesterday's primary races with Martin and Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Todd claimed "Democrats were doing a touchdown dance" after Buck won the Republican primary contest for the Senate seat in Colorado and also relayed some rather colorful descriptions of Buck, as seen in the following exchange, aired on the August 11 edition of Hardball:

CHUCK TODD: Hey Jonathan Martin it seems as if Democrats are doing a touchdown dance about Ken Buck and they're trying to turn him into Sharron Angle and Rand Paul's, somehow, hidden brother in the basement.

JONATHAN MARTIN, POLITICO: Right.

TODD: Is Ken Buck, you know, Sharron Angle in drag?

MARTIN: Chuck it's funny you mention that. I'm actually doing a story right now about, what I call the race to define Ken Buck. And it just started last night, right after the results came in. Both the GOP and Democrats are in this furious battle now to see who can set the narrative of who is Ken Buck? Is he sort of this Princeton graduate, mainstream conservative, county prosecutor, respected pillar of the community? Or is he, like you said, is he the Rocky Mountain version of Sharron Angle? Which is what Democrats are saying, focusing on some of the controversial things that he said during the course of the primary that were not about spending, that were not about those sort of issues that Howard mentioned, that are winners for, for the Republicans this time around. I think it's still an open question. I don't think he has vulnerabilities, day in and day out, that a [Rand] Paul or, or an Angle has-

TODD: Right.

MARTIN: -who are pure libertarians. Who really have a strong philosophical view of, of the role of government. I think he's more of a pragmatist, Buck is. But there's no question about it, he went pretty far in some of his comments-

TODD: Right.

MARTIN: -during the course of the primary.