Hardball host Chris Matthews devoted the first 11 minutes of his February 25 program to rehashing tired, discredited talking points about the upcoming March 3 speech to a joint session of Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaker Boehner tried to "sneak" Netanyahu into the country and the initial invitation was purely partisan, Matthews charged.
Matthews was apparently spurred on by Obama national security advisor Susan Rice's jab that Prime Minister Netanyahu's forthcoming speech is "destructive" to the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Matthews played her comments on the February 24 Charlie Rose show before turning to the first of his two guests on the matter, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
Neither Rangel nor Matthews's second guest, National Journal's Ron Fournier, challenged any of Matthews talking points, and naturally Matthews refused to bring on a defender of the Netanyahu speech. What's more, for his part, Fournier endorsed Matthews's theory that when all is said and done, Netanyahu and a significant portion of the Republican right simply want a hot war with Iran, and nothing short of war.
As I've documented previously here at NewsBusters, Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu -- which noted that the invitation was on "behalf of the bipartisan leadership" of both houses of Congress -- was initially for him to speak on February 11.
The president was notified by Boehner about the February 11 invite AFTER it was sent to Netanyahu but prior to Netanyahu's response, which turned down February 11 but offered March 3 as an alternate date, which Boehner readily agreed to.
Again, Mr. Boehner noted bipartisan consensus in extending the invite to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Either that is true and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have some explaining to do, or Boehner is lying or at best misrepresenting the bipartisan "OK" he got from his colleagues. Rather than presenting this as nefarious partisan conspiracy, Matthews would do better to attempt to get to the bottom of that question.
But let's recall that members of both parties have expressed concern that President Obama is foolishly pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran that is all carrot and no stick -- one that lacks punitive sanctions in the event an Iranian nuclear program is not averted. It makes sense that Democrats were keen on hearing Prime Minister Netanyahu's concerns before a joint session, that is, until the White House petulantly stamped its feet about the invite. Since then, Democrats have circled the wagons and given President Obama cover on Iran, at least until March 24, but still, the fact remains the president's policy has some pretty strong skeptics in his own party.
But, of course, these trifling facts matter not to Mr. Matthews, who is ever eager to smartly salute the Obama White House and giddily bash away at the Republican Party leadership in Washington as not only wrong but reckless.
