Posted on 11/02/2003 6:40:46 AM PST by Reagan Renaissance
In a speech to university students, MSNBC host Chris Matthews characterized President Bush as a shallow-thinking, unlearned man who when confronted by aides with the decision about going to war with Iraq was given something to think about for the first time in his life.
The Bush administration's rationale for the Iraq war was "nonsense" and totally dishonest, Matthews told a gathering of 200 students at Brown University this week, according to the Woonsocket Call newspaper in Rhode Island.
Vice President Richard Cheney was "behind it all," contended Matthews, who served as an aide to the late House Speaker Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts and wrote speeches for former President Jimmy Carter.
"The whole neo-conservative power vortex, it all goes through his office," Matthews said, referring to Cheney, according to the paper. "He has become the chief executive. He's not the chief operating officer, he's running the place. It's scary."
The vice president, he asserted, is the man "who put his thumb on the scale" to affect the balance between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
"The ideologues started circling around the president," Matthews said, according to The Call. "They saw a man who never read any books, who didn't think too deeply and they gave him something to think about for the first time in his life. This thing called pre-emption, the Bush Doctrine. They put it in his head and said 'Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.'"
Sources tell WND that management at MSNBC are becoming increasingly perturbed at Matthews for his outspoken criticism of Bush.
The commentator acknowledged the president has some "clear strengths" and is the favorite in next year's election.
Bush had a "King Arthur moment," he said, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center and declared into a bullhorn "'the people who knocked these buildings down are going to hear from all of us.' He pulled the sword out of the stone."
Matthews disclosed he favors former Vermont governor Howard Dean for president in 2004, according to the Rhode Island daily.
"He came out of Vermont, a small state, with no foreign policy experience and with sheer guts he believed in one big idea and that big idea was: 'It was wrong to go around to the other side of the world to fight a war.'" Matthews said.
Matthews said, however, Dean's problem is the American people have to decide, "do you put a lefty in at a time of crisis?"
Nothing like the pot calling the kettle black. The only connection between Matthews's only two remaining neurons must have been severed along time ago.
No.
Matthews is a pipsqueak who was a gofer for Tip O'Niel. He eats drinks (indeed) and sleeps the heady stuff of partisan politics. What could be more uplifting and elevating! He distinguishes himself by sometimes telling the truth about where most Americans are and what they think where the Ivy graduates can only mumble poll results about real Americans with all the conviction of your average establishment corporate tool.
But this one distinction wears pretty fast. Matthews is transparently a leftist democrat at all times. Why is a good question---he must feel it in his bones --certainly not his head. He seems to have the allegiance to the leftist dems that one would have for a baseball team one grew up with. Matthews' liberalism is passionately advocated, but is very shallow and never persuasive. He appears to be the archtypal team manager from a high school team. He cares more about these things than the participants--but God only can guess why he needs to be so passionate a member of the "team".
So, his melieu is to go to a college campus and talk to lefty kids in a vernacular that has the veneer of real life experience and cleverness.
Oh, had a forgotten to mention that he is an insufferable loud mouth that cannot listen t othe people he interviews and is always interrupting to answer the his question the way he wants the question answered. Hey, isn't that the mark of "a shallow-thinking unlearned man"? Hmmmmmm
Matthews' appearence to be otherwise is only occasioned by his passion. He is the archtype of shallowness.
MSNBC is run by morons. Have they checked Matthews' ratings at any point over the last 2 years? He sucks. No one watches. His ratings are lower than Donahue's were. Lower than Alan Keyes' Making Sense ratings were. These fools at NBC think Mathews is supposed to be their brand name, and meanwhile Ailes and Fox are wiping up the floor with them.
Matthews said, however, Dean's problem is the American people have to decide, "do you put a lefty in at a time of crisis?"
Deans problem is that he's a nasty little psychotic moron with a God complex.
He is, however, the best thing to happen to the GOP since Dukakis,
ROTFLOL
GO DEAN GO!!!!!!!!!!!
For months, Mathews has used every occurance to bash Cheney's top aide, Scooter Livvy. It got to be a joke with those of us who noticed....and if it were possible to count the times Mathews snarled out "Scooter Livvy", I bet it would boggle the mind. Now we know the reason....Mathews was subversively inching his way up the food chain to villify Cheney.
Does anyone know the reason for Mathews' visceral contempt of Cheney? It might go way back...I don't know what it is. But Cheney's early and open support for Howard Dean? I got no explanation for that unless maybe Mathews is looking to get fired from his Hardball slot. His ratings are dismal...and hey! Maybe he wants to run for office himself.
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