An angry Chris Matthews on Monday flipped on Jeb Bush, abandoning the man he'd previously cheered for having the "guts" to stand up to conservatives. Matthews raged against the potential 2016 candidate for insisting he would make the same decision on Iraq as his brother, George W. Bush. The Hardball anchor fumed over "this strange, weird, desperate behavior of Jeb Bush."
Matthews ran through the possibilities of why Bush made the public declaration. One conclusion was that he wants "the huge money out there awaiting sitting there for any Republican presidential candidate who will pledge his soul to right-wing Mideast policies." According to the cable host, "the reason people initially took him seriously as a candidate" is because of the "assumption he's smarter than his brother."
Given past remarks, the liberal host seems rather schizophrenic on Jeb Bush. On December 2, 2014, he cheered the former governor as a reasonable choice for Republicans:
Jeb Bush seems like he wants to run but he wants to run on his own terms. He's not going to become a wacko bird. He's not going to join the clown car. He believes in education, he believes in Common Core education. He believes in immigration, good immigration. He is different than some of those Ted Cruz types out there. And he's not going to cross-dress and pretend he ain't. We're going to ask the roundtable what they think of that.
On February 3, 2015, he praised Bush's "guts" for standing up to conservatives. On Monday, the journalist lectured that "setting himself apart is the one way most of us can imagine or could have imagined Jeb Bush winning this thing."
Regardless of what one thinks of Jeb Bush, it's a bad idea to take advice from Chris Matthews. He doesn't exactly represent the interests of Republicans and conservatives.
A transcript of May 11 segment is below:
7:59
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this strange, weird, desperate behavior of Jeb Bush. Look, the reason people initially took him seriously as a candidate, the reason people have looked him over the years as a future hope is the assumption he's smarter than his brother, that he's a lot more like his father. Now, just to kill all that, Jeb is saying that things are less than insurance than a warning. He's saying that he's like his brother on Mideast policy generally and specifically like him on the Iraq war. He's saying that even given we all know now, he would have invaded that country, bringing our country into a bloody war of conquest, a dozen years of disgusting, unsuccessful occupation, and only adding to a legacy of death and hatred between us and the Arab world. He would do it all over again.
Why did he do it? Why did he say he would do it over again? This Iraq war, three quarters of which the American people say was not worth it, they're against it. That's putting it lightly. Five prospects: one, he made a mistake. Two, he wanted to make sure there is not a sliver of distance between him and his brother. Three, he wants to line up with all the other Republican hawks now in the field, all except Rand Paul. Four, he wants to make up for being for immigration reform, and Common Core education standards. Or five, he wants the money -- the huge money out there awaiting sitting there for any Republican presidential candidate who will pledge his soul to right-wing Mideast policies. Whatever motive Jeb had for offering up his political soul to the right wingers and hawks of his party, it certainly doesn't set him apart. And setting himself apart is the one way most of us can imagine or could have imagined Jeb Bush winning this thing.
