Hardball

According to Chris Matthews, Tuesday's off-year elections were a big win for liberalism. The MSNBC host proclaimed, "From Ohio to Mississippi, from Arizona to New Jersey to Maine and beyond, most voters went the Democrats' way." In fact, Republicans and conservatism won big victories in several states, including Mississippi, Virginia and Ohio.

Matthews could hardly contain himself, opening the show by bubbling, "Leading off tonight, reversal of fortune." What Matthews ignored are these facts: In Virginia, Republicans won 68 state house seats, a super majority and will now effectively control the state senate. In Mississippi, Republican Phil Bryant made history, becoming the first Republican to ever succeed another Republican in the governor's mansion.

It has now been nine weeks since stimulus-funded solar company Solyndra declared bankruptcy.

Yet despite Thursday's vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee panel to subpoena internal White House communications concerning the company, MSNBC's prime time hosts Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton still haven't said one word about this scandal:

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman appeared on Wednesday's Hardball to mock Republican presidential candidates as simplistic. He exclaimed, "But, they're advertising their ignorance is what I'm saying!"

Fineman, who now is the political editor at the more overtly liberal Huffington Post, dripped with condescension as he described the potential GOP nominees. The journalist berated, "What I find fascinating about [Cain's] candidacy, and really the tenor of a lot of what the Republican candidates are saying, including Rick Perry, is they are saying, 'We don't need to know all those fancy facts.'" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews urged Herman Cain to admit to sexually harassing women and even predicted what the Republican front-runner might say: "I think even if it's really bad he has to put the context to it. He has to say, 'It was an extraordinary night, I had too many drinks, I normally don't act like that, this is not me.'" [Audio available here; view video after the jump]

Common decency dictates you shouldn't congratulate someone for possibly ruining the career and marriage of a fellow human being.

Such morality eluded MSNBC's Chris Matthews and the Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson Monday when they actually congratulated - on national television, no less! - Politico's Jonathan Martin for Sunday's hit piece on Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While hyping his new book on John F. Kennedy on Friday, Chris Matthews seemed to connect "vicious" "right-wing" "hate" to the assassination of the nation's 35th president. At no time in his Hardball editorial did Matthews admit that the President's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was a pro-Communist leftist, who, at one point in his life, defected to the Soviet Union.

Speaking of Kennedy's trip to Dallas in November of 1963, Matthews connected, "[Kennedy] was living the life of an American politician, trying to figure things out politically, trying to figure out what was in the water down there in Dallas that made some people so viciously right-wing. An hour later, he was gone." [MP3 audio here. See video below.]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Thursday blamed the Tea Party for Congress's record-low job approval.

Much as Bill Press did on MSNBC Wednesday evening, the Hardball host totally ignored the fact that Democrats control the Senate (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC could easily change its acronym to MSNARAL given its concerted effort to attack a pro-life ballot measure that goes before Mississippi voters in 12 days.

Hardball host Chris Matthews joined MSNBC colleagues Thomas Roberts and Tamron Hall today in featuring guests on their respective programs who blasted Initiative 26, an amendment to the state constitution that would confer legal personhood on unborn babies if it's approved by Magnolia State voters this November 8.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday reiterated his cartoon view of the Republican Party as a political organization that wants to cause "cruel pain on people" and intends to "get rid" of cops and firefighters.

Highlighting a couple of isolated outbursts at GOP debates, Matthews frothed, "They want more people to fry. They love executions. They want people that don't have insurance to die on the gurney in the hospital bed." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Maybe Princeton professor Cornel West should redirect his get off the crack pipe suggestion to MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

On Monday's Hardball, the host actually said with a straight face that John F. Kennedy is "the American president we Americans most want to see joining Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt up there on Mount Rushmore (video follows with transcript and commentary):

You have to wonder if a day has gone by since the September 7 GOP presidential debate without someone on MSNBC referring to audience members cheering when NBC's Brian Williams asked Texas governor Rick Perry about capital punishment in his state.

Likely the most colorful description of this incident to date occurred on Monday's Hardball when host Chris Matthews said Republicans "look hot and horny for executions out in that Reagan library" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In case you missed it, the Washington Post published a Birther-style hit piece on Thursday accusing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) of lying about when his parents moved from Cuba to Miami.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews invited the author, Manuel Roig-Franzia, to discuss his allegations on Friday's Hardball, and ended the segment by lauding over his guest, "You ought to get some kind of Pulitzer" (video follows with commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Friday interviewed 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and smeared the rest of the Republican field as "crazy," asserting that the Utah Governor is the only "sane" choice. This prompted Huntsman to reply, simply, "Thank you."

The Hardball anchor knocked Michele Bachmann as "looney tunes" and wondered how Huntsman could "sit next to a person who says there shouldn't be any taxes and have a reasonable conversation with her?"  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's scurrilous charges of racism against the GOP continued yesterday as Hardball host Chris Matthews tag-teamed with South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian and Judith Browne-Dianis of The Advancement Project to insist to viewers that a newly-enacted voter ID law will prevent thousands of blacks from voting in the Palmetto State. The law is currently under review by the U.S. Department of Justice.

As is standard operating procedure for Hardball, no defender of the South Carolina law was featured during the October 19 program's segment -- entitled "Voting Wrongs" -- to balance out the discussion.

Chris Matthews despises many conservatives, but saves some of his most vitriolic comments for Newt Gingrich. On Wednesday's Hardball, he slammed the Republican presidential candidate as "demonic."

Discussing Gingrich's debate answer to a question on health care, Matthews trashed, "You know, the demonic aspect of the person of Newt Gingrich– and I do mean that– he speaks with a forked tongue where you see both forks at the same time."

Wednesday marked the six week anniversary of solar company Solyndra declaring bankruptcy.

Despite this, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton have yet to report one single word about this growing scandal on their respective prime time programs.

Barack Obama might give Chris Matthews a thrill up his leg, but the "Hardball" host said Wednesday, "There’s nobody I like to bump into more and meet than Hillary Clinton."

"I get the biggest giggle out of meeting her," he gushed like a ten-year-old speaking of his first crush. "She is something else in person" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Unlike most liberal media members, MSNBC's Chris Matthews isn't sure the Occupy Wall Street movement is good for the president or the Democratic Party.

Quite the contrary, he not only doesn't think Obama would receive "big applause" if he visited the protesters, on Tuesday's "Hardball" he also said, "Let's not forget the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House at numerous times in our lifetimes, and they didn't fix the tax system when they had all the power in the world" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday worried about the emergence of Mitt Romney as a serious front-runner and a threat to Barack Obama's reelection. Talking to Democratic strategist Mark Penn, the "Hardball" host spoke the language of the Occupy Wall Street protesters: "Suppose [Democrats] make [Romney] Gordon Gekko? Suppose they say, he's one of the pigs on Wall Street?"

Matthews continued, suggesting Democrats turn the Republican candidate into "one of the big investment bankers, one of the equity people who's been making tons of money through lobbying in Washington and keeping their taxes from having to be paid?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Chris Matthews used to get a thrill up his leg when he heard Barack Obama speak.

After Thursday's pathetic presidential press conference, the "Hardball" host compared Obama to a "lousy" new car that ended up being  a "clunker," and then asked the Huffington Post's Jennifer Donahue, "Are you going to buy one next year?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

From time to time, MSNBC hosts like to do their part to further the meme that Republicans are out to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning constituencies such as blacks and the elderly by using voter ID laws as a back-door way to discourage voting by those groups.

Today Hardball fill-in host Michael Smerconish picked up the baton, interviewing Michael Waldman of the liberal Brennan Center for Justice about his group's claim that its new "comprehensive study" finds five million Americans will be effectively disenfranchised in 2012 thanks to new voter ID laws in numerous states.

For his part, Smerconish did play a bit of devil's advocate:

It is now five weeks since the solar company Solyndra declared bankruptcy.

Despite the Obama administration lending this failed company $535 million dollars, and a growing scandal involving the White House, MSNBC's prime time hosts Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton have yet to say one word on the subject.

An overwhelming majority of Americans currently believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction.

Yet MSNBC's Chris Matthews told his "Hardball" audience Monday about how wonderful the world will be if President Obama is reelected next year, and warned that a loss for the man that gives him a thrill up his leg would send "Tea Partiers and neocons...celebrating the death penalty, elevating torture, ending environmental protection as we know it, breaking unions, punishing gays, starting more wars, and enacting one more giant tax cut for the rich – or worse" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Does Chris Matthews listen to himself talk? On Thursday's Hardball, the MSNBC anchor told top McCain '08 aide Steve Schmidt, "We were all rooting for you, by the way. And a lot of us in this business like John McCain a lot."
   
The cable anchor who famously informed America that Barack Obama gave him a "thrill" up his leg, added, "He didn't think we did and we were tough on him last time. I liked Obama. But I tell you, I've always liked McCain."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Despite the growing scandal involving failed solar company Solyndra - now officially four weeks old - MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton have still not reported the matter on their respective prime time programs.

The only regular MSNBC host to mention this subject in prime time is Rachel Maddow who predictably discounted its importance Monday (transcript and commentary follow):

While running through his usual litany of attacks on anti-Obama conservatives, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday included the National Rifle Association as part of the "crazy far-right" who "hate" Barack Obama.

Matthews began by wondering, "What is it about Obama that inspires this kind of weird, zealous hatred?" He later added, "Well, here's something, another strain of the crazy, far- right." After referencing birthers and other groups, the Hardball anchor played a clip of NRA President Wayne LaPierre deriding the President's stated support of the Second Amendment as a "big, fat lie."

Update [17:01 ET]: Full transcript added.

Appearing on Saturday's NBC "Today," MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews proclaimed that efforts by House Republicans to pay for FEMA disaster relief by making budget cuts elsewhere was akin to "what parliaments do right before military coups in other countries." He then declared it was a "Complete disaster, complete failure to do their job." [Audio available here]

The segment began with co-host Amy Robach asking Matthews about the Obama administration discarding key provisions of No Child Left Behind without congressional approval. Matthews staunchly defended the action, ranting: "You have two points of view in the United States Congress. One is revolution, 'It's time to cut everything no matter what the fight, cut the spending, say no to the President.' On the other side, business as usual, 'Let's make the government work.' And in this case, the President gave up on Congress and said, 'I'm going to do it myself.'"

View video after the jump

Republicans have suggested that if billionaire Warren Buffett is going to be the basis of a "Buffett rule" of taxation, then it would seem obvious that perhaps Buffett should be asked to display his tax returns. If he's going to be the exemplar of class inequities, he should lay his taxes on the table. On Thursday night, MSNBC had a mysterious new term for this demand: "Buffett birther."

It has nothing to do with Buffett's birth certificate, but with his tax returns, but don't bother radical-left Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson with demands for precision. He guest-hosted the Ed Show on MSNBC Thursday night, and launched his lame new term:

Chris Matthews was tremendously impressed by an obviously political photo-op Barack Obama did Thursday at a bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky where he pushed for his jobs bill to be passed so that a new modern span could be erected between the two states.

Not at all surprisingly, the "Hardball" host failed to tell his viewers that there's absolutely no mention of this bridge in the President's bill (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While most of the media continue to obsess about millionaires supposedly not paying their "fair share" of taxes, the liberal Brookings Institution has let the cat out of the bag concerning just how absurd this whole thing is.

According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, he discussed this issue with Brookings' William Gale, and disclosed his findings to Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" Wednesday (video follows with transcript and commentary):