Chris Matthews is no fan of retiring conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), but it's rare that he attacks everyday rank-and-file Republican voters. Tonight was an exception as the MSNBC Hardball host excoriated the voters of Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District for repeatedly having elected her to the House of Representatives.
Video and transcript below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with a question I have about voters. What are people thinking when they send someone like Michele Bachmann to Washington?
Are they doing it to send a message of contempt for the place? Does voting to her feel like throwing a grenade into this city? Does it feel good to know that you're simply causing disruption like lobbing a monkey wrench into the engine gears? Tell me, are you serious or is it a way to let off steam? You know, like the guy in that movie Network who kept bellowing, "I'm sick and tired, I'm not taking it any more"? Is it like that?
Does it feel a little better to leave the voting both at the local school or neighborhood center knowing you threw a rock at the establishment? Are you like one of the poor kids from the bad neighborhoods whose only means of self expression is spray-painting some graffiti up under the train tracks so passengers will see it and pout about it on their morning commute? Is that what you're voting for? People like Michele Bachmann, is that why, and the rest of that clown car? Is that what it's about? Is it?
Well, I've got a better idea. Find yourself a true blue conservative who's trying to come up with a better way of running the government. A Rand Paul or a Scott walker or a John Kasich and hope they get their voices heard the way Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan or Jack Kemp did.
Don't waste your vote backing people who don't reflect your conservative thinking, only your disgust.
Isn't it precious that Matthews thinks conservatives are eager to take his electoral advice?
One last note. It's rather odd that Matthews, who is quite the cinemaphile, could so abjectly botch the celebrated line from Network bellowed by the protagonist, Howard Beale (as portrayed by Peter Finch): "I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
