Chris Matthews: Rick Perry Could Be 'Bull Connor With a Smile'
Hardball host Chris Matthews on Tuesday smeared Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry as "Bull Connor with a smile," referring to the segregationist Commissioner of Public Safety who famously used attack dogs and fire hoses on civil rights protesters in the '60s.
Left-wing journalist Wayne Slater, who has previously lumped Tea Party protesters with the Holocaust museum shooter, attacked Perry as someone who talks about "states rights, states right, states rights" and "could make some voters, again, very nervous." In response, Matthews excoriated, "Yeah. This could be Bull Connor with a smile. "
[See video below. MP3 audio here.]
As a reminder, Rick Perry is a GOP presidential candidate. Democrat Bull Connor, as PBS' Eye on the Prize miniseries explained, turned "high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on them, creating some of the most indelibly violent images to date."
It should be noted that both Slater and Jim Hightower, Matthews' other liberal guest, laughed at the MSNBC anchor's Connor joke.
Earlier, Matthews, talking to Slater, derided Perry's attacks on Obama: "I know you're an objective reporter, but I smell birtherism about this guy. His attack on Obama isn't just policy. It's about the nature of the person who's president. It seems to me."
[Thanks to MRC intern Alex Fitzsimmons for the video.]
A transcript of the August 16 exchanges can be found below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS [to Wayne Slater]: I know you're an objective reporter, but I smell birtherism about this guy. His attack on Obama isn't just policy. It's about the nature of the person who's president. It seems to me. Your thoughts?
...
MATTHEWS: Another potential liability, as you point, for Perry is what he said about Social Security and Medicare in the past. Here's what he told the Daily Beast just last fall on the record: "I think every program needs to stand the sunshine of righteous scrutiny, whether it's Social Security, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Medicare. You have $115 trillion of unfunded liability in those three. They're bankrupt, they're a Ponzi scheme." So calling Social Security, Wayne, a ponzi scheme to somebody watching right now this program, who's 65 or older and is getting Social Security, may not like the sound of it being trashed as a Ponzi scheme. They may say, "This is a legitimate thing I paid into when I was working for 50 years. I'm not benefitting righteously from it. Stop trashing it."
...
WAYNE SLATER (Dallas Morning News): You hear Democrats talk now about the Texas miracle really wasn't a Texas miracle and a lot of, you know, minimum wage jobs and pollution and so forth and so on. That's not going to work in the fall, if the economy is still bad. The question is, the attack on Perry is that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, Medicare need to be changed or potentially abolished, which is not precisely what he said. Raising questions about the Voting Rights Act saying it is just a tool for gerrymandering in the south and the Civil Rights Act, the terms under which we established, this has the look of someone who, when he talks about states rights, states right, states rights, could make some voters, again, very nervous.
MATTHEWS: Yeah. This could be Bull Connor with a smile.
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Comments
Wayne Slater is a state-wide joke in Texas.
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:05pm.
He is the Rona Barrett of Texas political reporting, with the same type of credibility as the lowest gossip reporter for a trashy grocery store tabloid. Weekly World News with pictures of Ratboy and the alien baby would all be a massive step up for him.
Jim Hightower
Submitted by glogo on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:13pm.
No comment from him in this clip, but he would certainly be a "fair and balanced" commentator on Rick Perry. Rick Perry knocked Hightower out of political office in the statewide race for Ag Commissioner. Perry knocked off the incumbent, Hightower and he has been a no-show politician in Texas ever since. No grudge on big Jim's part, I am sure.
A 10-gallon fool
Submitted by rightwinghawk on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 9:28pm.
Hightower is all hat and no brains. No wonder he's Chris's kinda guy.
Leave it to Matthews to attach more violent imagery to . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:14pm.
. . . GOP candidates. Every white conservative GOP male apparently has a secret agenda to secede from the Union and restore slavery. Nevermind that the political party that actually did that 150 years ago is the Democratic Party.
Exactly Galvanic...
Submitted by crimsonspark on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:17pm.
It's amazing how fuzzy Prissy Chrissy's memory is. Did he forget that Bull Conner was a democrat?
Democrats
Submitted by wingnut55 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:45pm.
You got that right, crimsonspark, I don't think Chris should be pointing out these kind of Democrats. He could lose his show if the wrong people get wind of this.
right...
Submitted by MidAmerica on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:45pm.
Lincoln not only had to resist the Southern secessionist democrats but he also had to deal with the Northern democrats who were willing to let the South secede if that would let them regain power. Fortunately some timely battlefield victories allowed Lincoln to be reelected. The Northern democrats were willing to tear apart the nation for political gain. My.... how some things never change.
shut up
Submitted by grammajane on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:21pm.
Schultz and Matheews, shut the hel up!! You two immature fools are so sickening and find it hard to believe Comcast gives either of you a pay check. Just shut up.
That's okay, because Prissy Tingle's is Bull Sh*t with a smile
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:21pm.
And he's attracting flies.
The shiny green kind.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
'It's about the nature of the
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:23pm.
'It's about the nature of the person who is President'?? Gee, Leghumper...........you really swerved into that one, because there's not a whole lotta difference between Barama's political outlook and attitude and agenda, as compared to the way that he views himself. And I'll say the same thing for his dopey wife too............
Suddenly it's about the character of the President?
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:31pm.
So now we are back to a contradiction - where character does matter. We were told that personal and political lives could be separated. We were told that it didn't matter if a president could not keep his zipper up, keep his nose out of FBI files to intimidate opponents or openly flaunt affairs with gangster's molls in the White House. Now all of sudden character does matter. Too bad O'Batears has no character whatsoever, except that of a corrupt Chicago machine politician.
With all of the problems Zero will be facing politically, from the probable Supreme Court review of O-care to the gun-running mess to the unemployment hovering above the point where no president has ever been re-elected, Tingles has to run his full-bore distraction machine to the point of exhaustion. It will be a loooooooooooong way until 2012.
Good work, Doc...........what
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:48pm.
Good work, Doc...........what do you call a person who is so divorced from reality that they cannot correlate their own actions to the results that are happening around them, and being caused by - in a large way - by them???
I had to laugh (well, I laugh a lot at Barama's statements, just to keep from breaking something) at his blame on '6 months of bad luck' statement!!! As if he's floating above us all, checking things out, and has nothing to do with any of this.
And, like I said before..........I view his wife the same way.........
To answer your question, Killa...a one-word response...
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:50pm.
...a Democrat.
Hmmm....Perry talks about a scheme....?
Submitted by NeoKong on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:28pm.
Wasn't James Earl Ray involved in a scheme once....? Need I say more ?
So you're from the
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 1:01am.
one point determines a line school of geometry. You take a word, find someone you loath and find them using that word as well and there you have it. Is that supposed to make any kind of sense? Or is making sense an unnecessary quality of your "observations"?
You can't be that dumb.
Submitted by NeoKong on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 1:13pm.
It's called S-A-R-C-A-S-M Einstein.
Try to keep up.
Chris Matthews question......
Submitted by halfacarafe on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:30pm.
....What does "birtherism" smell like?
Boozers with diabetes....
Submitted by jmigyanka@msn.com on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:37pm.
...should tone it down a bit. Don't you think?
Matthews used to amuse me with his obvious man crush
Submitted by johnsonl on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 6:39pm.
on Obamao, but now he's just another phucking idiot.
maybe that's why he and cooper
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 1:02am.
like the words tea bagger so much.
We''ve already seen THE smile.....
Submitted by GregE on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 7:32pm.
http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Fascism-American-Mussolini-Politics/dp/038...
~Bull Connor was a Democrat
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 7:37pm.
Ahh, truth. You inconvenient b!tch.
truth....inconvenient bitch
Submitted by nanabanana on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 8:30pm.
Oh. My. Lord! Those poor kids. That SOB!
Except that Bull Connor was a Democrat
Submitted by WarEagle01 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 7:38pm.
just like Chrissy Matthews and his leg.
lol
Submitted by djwolf12 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 9:02pm.
And I bet that Tingles would register his leg to vote Democrat too.
Cristie Mathews could be an
Submitted by John21 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 7:45pm.
Cristie Mathews could be an intelligent human being too, but those odds are very long.
Another classic example of red herring
Submitted by djwolf12 on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 8:26pm.
Tingles: EVERY GOP CANDIDATE IS A RACIST! Meanwhile this country is going to hell on a vespa.
This is about as dishonest as that promo he does for MSLSD where he attacks Obama's critics for saying he thinks it is very unfair for people to say Obama hates this country. He drools about Obama's story, but DOES NOT ADDRESS OBAMA STATING AS A FACT THAT HE DOESN'T HATE THIS COUNTRY.
Okay, tighten up, Whitlock. You failed to point out that Conner
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 8:47pm.
...had a big, fat "D" after his name. :-^)
LOL - Just kidding, as most all of us here already knew that.
Not sure about Prissy, though.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Matthews
Submitted by Curly on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 9:19pm.
Yes - Chris and you're the scarecrow without a brain! MORON!
Dave
Submitted by halfacarafe on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 9:49pm.
Like your post handle
"It’s either Obama or America. There cannot be both."
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/08/16/chris-matthews-ri...
Make Government inconsequential!
I Actually Agree with the Ponzi Scheme Reference
Submitted by gruyere cheese on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 10:18pm.
Many people paid into their Social Security years ago and they should collect their checks as they are entitled to it. The problem with this scenario is that this program is broke. The government cannot gurantee that we "the investors" who pay into Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid today will benefit from these programs when our time comes to collect years from now; and so, the government will recruit new investors (our children) to cover these expenses. When we make a purchase and pay for it, we are guaranteed to receive the merchandise right? So, why can't we expect the same from our government?
Chris "Tingles" Matthews to
Submitted by TE on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 10:40pm.
Chris "Tingles" Matthews to Wayne "Whisper Campaign" Slater: "I know you're an objective reporter, ...."
Tingles "thinks" that Slater is an "objective reporter"? That's exhibit no. 1,000,000,000,000,000,001 that Matthews is a brainless leftist moron.
I've read the Dallas Morning News and Slater for years. Slater is a whack job, uber, ultra, hard and far, far, far, far, far left, virulent, militant, leftist freakshow freak, political activist and nut job leftist conspiracy theorist. Every election Slater can be counted on to allege in the Dallas Morning News that unidentified "Republicans" are conducting a nasty "whisper campaign" against Slater's fellow leftists seeking elected office. Slater, of course, never provides a shred of evidence to support any of his conspiracy theories or allegations. The guy's plain stupid.
Tingles
Submitted by PrimalElements on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 12:02am.
And Bull Connor was a Democrat........can you say that Chris....HHHHMMMM?
Wallace must spead a fortune
Submitted by uhohshortsonthe... on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 4:38am.
Wallace must spead a fortune on back braces and chiropractors, what with all that phony liberal white guilt he lugs around.
States rights?
Submitted by uhohshortsonthe... on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 4:36am.
Oh my god, Perry plans to repeal the civil rights act! Somebody stop him now!
George Soros laughs all the
Submitted by felizagain on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 3:20pm.
George Soros laughs all the way to the bank every time Chris Matthews utters another stupid, inept, and lame comment meant to do no more than create noise to boost his poorly watched tv show.
Rick Perry said nothing racist.
He's done nothing prejudicial.
He's only spoken openly about his opposition to Obama's policies.
That alone makes him a racist, per Chris Matthews.
Dear Chris: Disagreeing with a President who is black/white does not make
you a racist, it makes you intelligent.
I know the tingly feeling going up your leg when he speaks has lessed this past year.
But, you still get flush when he is on the screen, I get it.
Disagreeing with him, pointing out his many faults is not racism....it's the sign
of a brilliant mind - one that realizes he's all smoke & mirrors.
Bull Connor- a Democrat.
Chris Matthews - a Democrat.
George Wallace ,a Democrat most of his major political life.
Chris Matthews- still a Democrat.