An agitated Chris Matthews on Wednesday fumed over Karl Rove's recent questioning of Hillary Clinton's medical condition. Throwing all the invective he could at the Republican strategist, Matthews reduced Rove's comments to this: "My theory is he could be almost like a kamikaze pilot in World War II. He could blow up the ship and blow himself up." The host continued, " Who cares if Karl Rove is known as an SOB? He already is known as an SOB." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Closing out the segment, Matthews insisted, "I really do think he's a kamikaze. And I'm not knocking previous kamikazes...They're patriotic people. [Rove's] a killer dog." He's not "knocking" "patriotic" kamikaze pilots? All this was a lead-up to the MSNBC anchor's praise of the "power" of Comedy Central hosts have to take on conservatives: "...The fiercest of them all, Jon Stewart, is tearing the inside out of those on the right, Limbaugh, Rove, and the rest."
Matthews delighted over how Stewart and Stephen Colbert are exposing those on the right: "We see chewing and belching on the Benghazi story and Nigeria, that smorgasbord like hogs in a trough."
The host closed by declaring:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Name me a politician in either party, or either House of Congress, or any governor, who has the nightly power of Stewart or Colbert to take apart a pomposity like Limbaugh or a circus act like Karl Rove with the sharpness that John and Steven display night after night after night. I say, good for them."
No journalist can match the power of liberals like Stewart and Colbert? Remember that the next time someone tries to explain away those two as "just comedians."
A partial transcript of the May 14 segment is below:
5:05
CHRIS MATTHEWS: My theory is he could be almost like a kamikaze pilot in World War II. He could blow up the ship and blow himself up. But who cares? Who cares if Karl Rove is known as an SOB? He already is known as an SOB, but he is in this case being the SOB that, to use the parlance that Wayne said, that dropped the bomb and did it with impunity.
...
MATTHEWS: I really do think he's a kamikaze. And I'm not knocking previous kamikazes. Okay? Just him. Anyway, thank you, Steve – They're patriotic people. He's a killer dog.
...
5:13
MATTHEWS: How Jon Stewart is leading the fight against the bomb throwers on the right. I'm talking about you, El Rushbo and you Karl Rove.
5:58
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this. I've long ago come to the conclusion that SNL and Comedy Central can make or break a politician. SNL and Chevy Chase did it to Gerald Ford, taking an all-American from Michigan and a graduate of Yale Law and converting him into an oaf, a dumb oaf. SNL and Comedy Central have been doing this, maybe they have already done a similar job to Vice President Joe Biden. They made him a prisoner of his gaffes. Fair enough, you can argue. Political satire, rough satire, has been in the political arena since the days when Thomas Nast portrayed Republicans as elephants, Democrats as donkeys. It's in our partisan blood stream.
But I think it's escalated now that Comedy Central has grabbed the minds of young voters out there, really grabbed them. There's a reason why we show you clips in the Sideshow every night of Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert. They're powerful. They cut to the quick of popular culture. They inhabit that world where people form their opinions of those who would lead us. And right now, as I speak, the fiercest of them all, Jon Stewart, is tearing the inside out of those on the right, Limbaugh, Rove, and the rest. We see chewing and belching on the Benghazi story and Nigeria, that smorgasbord like hogs in a trough.
I have long believed that cable television has come to challenge elected office as a platform for national leadership. Name me a politician in either party, or either House of Congress, or any governor, who has the nightly power of Stewart or Colbert to take apart a pomposity like Limbaugh or a circus act like Karl Rove with the sharpness that John and Steven display night after night after night. I say, good for them.
