On Monday's All In on MSNBC, during a discussion of whether the Tea Party has helped conservatism, host Chris Hayes accused the Tea Party of being "reckless" in several ways, including "with people's lives," as he contrasted the GOP and Democratic bases, while MSNBC's Karen Finney asserted that GOPers only agree on "how much they hate Barack Obama."
Hayes began the discussion as he posed:
Karen, what do you think? Has it been good or bad for conservatism, the Tea Party? And not good or bad for the country. I think everyone at this table agrees that they're bad for the country, really bad for the country, terrible, destructive in all the ways we talk about all the time. But good or bad for the conservative movement?
Finney brought up GOP "hate" as she responded:
The conservative message is very garbled by the Tea Party. And, so many of them are spending so much of their time, money and resources to run away from each other rather than trying to say, "Okay, can we all agree on something and get something done?" The one thing they agree on is how much they hate Barack Obama. You can't win on just hate and no.
A bit later, during a discussion of how liberal groups pressure the Democratic Party, Hayes injected:
This is the difference, I think, is the virtue of recklessness, because what, I think what you've seen with the Tea Party is they are reckless. I mean, they are reckless with the country. They're reckless with people's lives, but they are also reckless politically. The shutdown was reckless, right? And the reason, the question is, does the recklessness over time end up, you know, being self-defeating? Or does it make people so scared of you that they just-
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Monday, December 9, All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC:
CHRIS HAYES: Karen, what do you think? Has it been good or bad for conservatism, the Tea Party? And not good or bad for the country. I think everyone at this table agrees that they're bad for the country, really bad for the country, terrible, destructive in all the ways we talk about all the time. But good or bad for the conservative movement?
KAREN FINNEY: It's been bad for the conservative movement because -- and particularly if you think about the 2014 election, that election is going to be nationalized. And the problem when you have a nationalized election is you have to have a unified message. They don't have that.
The conservative message is very garbled by the Tea Party. And, so many of them are spending so much of their time, money and resources to run away from each other rather than trying to say, "Okay, can we all agree on something and get something done?" The one thing they agree on is how much they hate Barack Obama. You can't win on just hate and no.
(...)
SAM SEDER, HOST OF MAJORITY REPORT: Let me build on what David's saying here because the dynamic here is different insofar as that you're talking about, one if you get those policies through when you talk about bankruptcy it's necessarily transactional. There's something that liberals have a disadvantage in that they are looking for government to do things, actually in some ways. And the PCCC is one of those groups that does not have the same sort of stakes.
HAYES: Right.
SEDER: They can burn bridges in a way that Democratic and left-leaning and progressive groups in the past have not been able to do. They can actually go out there-
HAYES: This is the difference, I think, is the virtue of recklessness, because what, I think what you've seen with the Tea Party is they are reckless. I mean, they are reckless with the country. They're reckless with people's lives, but they are also reckless politically. The shutdown was reckless, right? And the reason, the question is, does the recklessness over time end up, you know, being self-defeating? Or does it make people-
FINNEY: It already has.
HAYES: -so scared of you that they just-
SEDER: So far not.
FINNEY: It absolutely already has!
SEDER: Listen, I think they're done as a national party, but that doesn't mean-
HAYES (LAUGHING): That's no small thing!
SEDER: They are done as a national party insofar as I don't think they're going to win the presidency, but if you look at our policy in this country, we have a Democratic President, we have a Democratic-controlled Senate and we have a sequester. We're cutting food stamps!
--Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Brad Wilmouth on Twitter.
