Chris Matthews Squirms as Scarborough Discusses JFK Buying West Virginia Primary in 1960
There was a truly delicious moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday as the gang discussed the Republican presidential race from Florida.
When host Joe Scarborough recollected John F. Kennedy buying the West Virginia primary in 1960, Hardball host Chris Matthews, one of JFK's biggest fans, was seen visibly uncomfortable shifting position in his chair (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I'll give you another example. John Kennedy, you know this story very, very well, John Kennedy doesn't do well in Wisconsin. He goes to West Virginia in the 1960 primary, and after a Catholic wins West Virginia, Teddy White was like, "This is amazing. They're so open-minded." And what was the cynical remark behind the scenes to Teddy White? "Yeah, they're very open-minded when you're paying every sheriff and every county commissioner tons of cash." [Matthews shifts in chair] I mean, but that never got in the paper. It was all about Kennedy's brilliance.
For those unfamiliar with the name, Teddy White was an author that went to Harvard with Kennedy's brother Joe. He later wrote a series called "The Making of the President" beginning with JFK's election in 1960.
As for Scarborough's historical recollection, this is one of those really inconvenient truths that folks like Matthews care not to discuss.
While he and his colleagues consistently complain about the money in politics - this lengthy Morning Joe segment began with Matthews bemoaning the news that Mitt Romney has outspent Newt Gingrich by four to one in Florida - they choose to ignore the immutable fact that Joe Kennedy Sr. bought his son a presidency, and it began with the West Virginia primary.
Keep that in mind the next time you hear someone like Matthews carping and whining about the money in politics, for these folks only care about campaign finances when someone's outspending their candidate.
Those really up on their history should recognize the picture above as a May 11, 1960, AP photo of JFK reading about his surprise victory in West Virginia.
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Comments
Wow, Chrissy, did you forget to include that little episode...
Submitted by KyWriter on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:51pm.
...in your book? Oh, right, it wasn't important enough to mention.
Matthews had another strange moment today . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 4:36pm.
. . . on Morning Joe. Matthews -- the self-described veteran political analyst -- insisted quite adamantly that Gingrich is out to destroy Romney, and that should he (Gingrich) lose the GOP nomination, he would prefer that see Romney lose the general election.
Now, Gingrich stated a number of debates ago that this election is about beating Obama regardless of who the GOP nominee is.
Yet the pre-adolescent intellect of Matthews maintains that Gingrich would rather have 4 more years of Obama than see Romney elected. To Matthews, it's all about vengeance, like a couple of junior high schoolers going after each other.
JFK was as corrupt as anyone
Submitted by poseA on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:13pm.
JFK was as corrupt as anyone else with the last name of Kennedy.
Mika half naked
Submitted by CJohnson on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:25pm.
Maybe Joe can show some leg too, when he really needs to make a point.
soon the news will be filled
Submitted by jkwtrading on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:53pm.
soon the news will be filled with JFK's "buying" the 1960 election.. this is gonna get good. then comes Johnson and all his old past.
Yeah right, that'll happen
Submitted by Schofield Kid on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:31pm.
Yeah right, that'll happen about the same time they talk about the actual money Romney pays in taxes instead of the rate or that its apples/oranges to compare to earned income. And then they'll talk about how the media didn't seem to care about Kerry's enormous wealth or what he paid in taxes.
Vote buying
Submitted by creative_destruction on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 2:12pm.
What its a secret that JFK's old man's money bought his son more then one election?
Steve
It's no secret
Submitted by ahusser on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:14pm.
But the left conveniently forgets these facts (at every opportunity. Heck they can't even remember if a Dem is a Dem when they get their hands caught in the cookie jar). The issue in that race was not WVA but Illinois. Where Joe Sr. made a pact with the devil and bought Chicago and thousands of dead voters. Chicago brought Illinois and Kennedy won. Nixon apparently didn't want to besmirch the campaign and create a scandal with his suspicions (or proof) of perfidy by Kennedy. Now a naive concept in Total War Politics.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
My mom and dad were from Logan County, W.Va.
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 3:07pm.
That was traditionally one of THE most corrupt counties in America during the reign of the United Mine Workers as a major political force. It was routine to expect cash, liquor and anything else to secure your vote. So anything Kennedy brought to the table was above and beyond what was already there.
The biggest problem the white democrats had with Catholics wasn't just their religion. There were already thousands of Italians & Poles in the northern part of the state and Italians &Hungarians in the southern part. Catholicism was associated with foreigners brought in the break up the UMW.
In the early days of unionizing the mines, blacks were brought up from the south. When the backs realized it was too dangerous at work, and getting home from work, they joined the white miners. So with the flood of immigrants coming in at the start of the 20th century, the non-English speakers were brought in to do the work.
By the time of Kennedy things had settled down greatly from the days of the mine wars. But the resentments stayed on. My dad, a 1st generation American of Hungarian parents, was a math and physics teacher. When he started dating my mom, my granddad didn't know what was worse, dad being a Hungarian or a Catholic. He ended being the favorite son-in-law.
But Kennedy and later Johnson did more to ruin life in West Virginia than did the poverty they exploited. The abundance of welfare cheats and meth heads of today are the legacy of The Great Society. This is one reason that I became a Virginian after I left the Navy. West Virginia was a great place to grow up but it had only gotten worse while I was gone.
Kennedy had baggage too.
Submitted by stunned on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 12:50am.
My father was an Irish immigrant bartender in NYC with more charm in his little finger that should have been legal and as a result got a lot of work at private parties in the social set in Manhattan. One Democrat fundrasing party he met and spoke to Jackie for five minutes and fell helplessly in love, my mom still jokes about it today. She was a LADY my dad always said but not a snob like some of the so called ladies he met. After the she and the other ladies left so the men could talk "politics" in came the girls. There was a prominent journalist of the day there that night as well. NONE of it ever made the papers and EVERY damn "journalist" who covered Kennedy knew all about it. Dad was no prude but he was shocked to his core and became a Republican that night. LOL
I always said he should have wrote a book about those days...his stories about meeting Rock Hudson and his 'friends' that he told my mom back in the early sixties alone would have made it a best seller :)
tired of liberal lies
Tugboat Phil
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 5:06am.
My dad is 1st generation - his parents were from "the old country" and he became a physicist for JPL! He grew up in Richmond Indiana, so no miners, but my mom told me about a neighbor being {failed} car bombed by the unions back in the day.
Ronald Reagan
Democrats, voter fraud and West Virginia
Submitted by alright now on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:43pm.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/west-virginia-sheriff-fal_n_124...
Voter fraud in West Virginia is alive and well as it turns out.
I have to hand it to the reporting news agency
Submitted by ahusser on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:50pm.
It took 9 paragraphs but they did identify that both miscreants were democrats.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
It's a given
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 7:38pm.
voting fraud has been a West Virginia tradition for years. More so in the southern, coal counties. And it's almost impossible to even find a Republican in that area.
We had a pretty interesting case here in southwest Virginia a few years back. Just a quote from the story.
McKinney said she and other residents of her government-subsidized apartment complex were offered cigarettes, beer and even a bag of pork skins in exchange for their votes.
A democrat buying an election?
Submitted by ohio granny on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 8:04pm.
A democrat buying an election? Surely you jest. No self-respecting democrat would be that corrupt, would they? Well, actually they would and they do. Democrats will buy or steal any election, whatever it takes. The sooner the republicans accept this fact, the sooner they may start to do something to stop or at least slow them down.
Democrat party = the party that will lie, cheat or steal to "win" any election anytime, anywhere.