Hardball: Joan Walsh Calls Republican Critics of Obama 'Un-American' and 'Traitorous'

By P.J. Gladnick | January 01, 2010 | 12:02

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Remember when dissent was supposed to be patriotic? Well, it seems that only applies when a Republican is president. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, criticism of him is "un-American" and "traitorous." This new "tolerant" view of dissent comes from Joan Walsh of Salon.Com as you can see in this Hardball video from Wednesday. Below is the Walsh money quote but please be sure to also watch the video since it is important to watch as she drops any facade of liberal tolerance and lets her true dogmatic soul reveal itself in both her face and voice which seems to border on dementia:

The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to undermine and delegitimize this president. And it‘s actually un-American. It‘s traitorous, in my opinion. Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue to treat this president like he wasn‘t elected and he doesn‘t know what he‘s doing! He knows what he did. He knows what he‘s doing. I‘m proud of him. I believe that he has the stalwart, resolute nature to get this done...

This hate filled outburst from Walsh came in the midst of a Hardball segment which also featured host Chris Matthews and guest Ron Christie, a Republican strategist, discussing President Obama's response to terrorism. Here is the transcript:

MATTHEWS: ... to the double dealing charge against you personally, sir, that you have a different attitude about President Bush and President Obama. President Bush took six days, according to the record, to respond to the shoe bomber. The president we have now, our president, took three days or 72 hours, I believe it was.
What‘s the difference in the way you score this? You seem to score it differently—is there is bell curve for Republicans...
WALSH: Really!
MATTHEWS: ... where they‘re given more time? Is this the Katrina rule, where if it‘s anything faster than a week, it‘s somehow Speedy Gonzalez here?
(LAUGHTER)
CHRISTIE: Chris...
MATTHEWS: I mean, why do you give credit to Bush for six days you don‘t give to this president for three days? What‘s your scorecard, sir?
CHRISTIE: I‘m not looking at a scorecard, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Well, what are you looking at?
CHRISTIE: I‘m looking at connecting the dots. If you go back to Major Hasan Nidal (SIC) this past summer...
MATTHEWS: You‘re changing the subject.
CHRISTIE: ... the shooting at Ft. Hood...
MATTHEWS: Why does Bush get six days?
CHRISTIE: No, no, Chris! No! I‘m going to actually answer this question. Again, we had a very tepid response from the Obama administration initially. First they said everything was under control. Then they said it was an isolated incident. Then we come forward to the Christmas incident. Chris, the difference is one thing and one thing only, Christmas Day is one of the most holiest day in the Christian religious faith.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHRISTIE: This was a radicalized Muslim who tried to kill 300 Americans on Christmas Day. I wanted my president to come out and say, We recognize this is an act of terror by a radicalized Muslim on Christmas Day...
WALSH: That‘s ridiculous.
CHRISTIE: ... and we have the situation under control.
MATTHEWS: Why did he have to say “radicalized Muslim”? Why is that lingo so important to you?
WALSH: Richard Reid was a radicalized Muslim three days before Christmas. I had relatives flying in. It was 2001. I was actually scared to death at that point. So were a lot of Americans. But nobody thought to bray about President Bush staying on his vacation because that wasn‘t the climate at the time.
The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to undermine and delegitimize this president. And it‘s actually un-American. It‘s traitorous, in my opinion. Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue to treat this president like he wasn‘t elected and he doesn‘t know what he‘s doing! He knows what he did. He knows what he‘s doing. I‘m proud of him. I believe that he has the stalwart, resolute nature to get this done. In my opinion, sometimes he goes too far, but to talk about him like he‘s some socialist out-to-lunch...
MATTHEWS: OK...
WALSH: ... is just outrageous!