Chris Matthews Runs Rush's 'Liberal Lion' Kennedy Clip, Shrum Denounces His 'Appeals to Haters'

On Friday night's Hardball, Chris Matthews showed how willing he was to carry Democrat water on their manufactured outrage at Rush Limbaugh for mentioning "that great liberal lion" Ted Kennedy. Matthews played the Democrat clip and came out with a sour face -- an odd pose, given Matthews tastelessly mocked Ronald Reagan in 1995 after his Alzheimer's letter on ABC for forgetting he left the country with a big national debt. He let Democrat strategist Bob Shrum roll out the talking point:  

MATTHEWS: What do you make of it?

SHRUM: It’s outrageous, it’s typical of him. He’s a tasteless guy. He’ll say anything. He appeals to haters.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

SHRUM: And he is the face of the Republican Party right now, because no one else is doing a very good job and because he went to CPAC. This is not like the 1990s: Gingrich at his worst was massively popular compared to Rush Limbaugh. And stuff like this is just going to make it more difficult.

Matthews not only ran the audio clip and standard Rush picture of Media Matters for America -- MSNBC also added the Media Matters logo on screen for 10 or 11 seconds. Video is here (logo at 3:55).

Matthews claimed the president's health care plan was wanted by a lot of people, including business people, which meant it wasn't a left-right issue any more. This is exactly what liberals said about Hillary Clinton's fiasco in 1993 and 1994, that since some liberal businessmen supported it, it wasn't ideological any more. That only means that some businessmen aren't conservatives, not that nationalizing health care isn't a matter of capitalism versus socialism.

(Hat tip: Christopher)