Matthews Plays Religion Card: Reminds Voters Brown Protestant, Coakley Catholic

[H/t NewsBuster P.J. Gladnick.] How panicked is the MSM at the prospect of a Scott Brown victory tomorrow? So much so that Chris Matthews has stooped to seeking to use Scott Brown's Protestant religion against him in heavily Catholic Massachusetts . . .

The Hardball host made his despicable pitch during a Morning Joe appearance today.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: But this election's interesting.  I don't even know what religion--religion seems to play no role in this election, which is so unique in Massachusetts. Brown is a Protestant. Nobody's even mentioned it—I guess I just did.  And Coakley's I guess a Catholic, although I don't think that she sort of squares away that way in terms of her politics.  So I mean it's just so interesting: it's so post-tribal.

Matthews' smirking little laughter revealed he knew precisely what he was up to: attempting to stir up those "tribal" passions.  Can Matthews and the MSM sink much lower? Can you imagine the howls of liberal protest if a Republican pundit tried a similar stunt?

Shame on Chris Matthews.

Note: NB editor Ken Shepherd points out it's odd of Matthews to tout Coakley's Catholicism, given the way she looks down on devout Catholics.

Note Deux:  Another irony.  Remember then Sen. Obama's speech to the 2004 Dem convention? The one that put him on the political map, the one where he said: "even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

Now we have the squalid spectacle of one of PBO's most ardent supporters attempting to divide us in the most vile kind of way.