Back in the mid-1980s, a hero of Chris Matthews, Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy (D-Mass.) attempted to mock Ronald Reagan's anti-ballistic missile shield program, the Strategic Defense Initiative, by tagging it as a "Star Wars" program. But rather than catching on as a derisive term, most Americans thought it absolutely cool the idea that the U.S. could defense a way to blow up incoming nuclear missiles and thereby neutralize the Soviet nuclear threat.
Fast foward 32 years to tonight and it seems the MSNBC Hardball host thought that comparing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to Luke Skywalker was a great way to mock him for his soaring rhetoric on the House floor about defending the country from terrorism.
Here's the relevant video from tonight's program:
Video: @hardball_chris comparing @SpeakerRyan to Luke Skywalker as though it were a bad thing. #smh pic.twitter.com/ITELPdvC1I
— Ken Shepherd (@KenShepherd) November 20, 2015
MSNBC
Hardball
Nov. 19, 2015; 7:30 p.m.
Speaker PAUL RYAN (R-Wis.): There is still evil out there. We cannot ignore it. We cannot contain it. We must defeat it. And we must protect our people. The country is uneasy and unsettled.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, host: God, that sounds like Luke Skywalker. Anyway, welcome back to Hardball. That was the Speaker of the House himself, Paul Ryan, voicing his concerns over Syrian refugees coming into the country after the Paris attacks.
