What an arrogant and closed-minded, Washington beltway idiotic comment. That pompous Matthews casually sat there and wrote off most of America as children who bitch too much.
[Beneath The Spin]
I’d like to start by tipping my hat to Markos Moulitsas, founder and spiritual leader of the very popular website, Daily Kos, for setting that gasbag, Chris Matthews, straight.
He also put Tom Tancredo in his place several weeks earlier, so I guess he’s becoming something of a soft-spoken dragon slayer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVXlLxPaRyQ
What was wrong with pointing out that chicken hawk Tancredo claimed to be “too depressed” to fight for his country in Vietnam as Moulitsas did? Tancredo removed his ear piece and fled from their joint appearance on a news program.
More recently, Chris Matthews made the remark on his show, Hardball, that “I don’t consider them Democrats. I consider them Netroots. And if I see they vote in every election, or most elections, then I’ll be worried. But I’m not sure they’re regular, grown-up Democrats. I think a lot of these people are troublemakers who love to sit in the back seat and complain. They’re not interested in governing this country. They never ran for office, they’re not interested in working for someone in public office. They get their giggles out of sitting in the back seat and bitching.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP9Hv2sRF80
He was referring to progressive bloggers.
So let’s see, people who have never run for office, or are not interested in working for someone in public office are not grown-up Democrats? They’re trouble makers who get their giggles out of sitting in the back seat bitching, and it worries Matthews when he sees them voting? What an arrogant and closed-minded, Washington beltway idiotic comment. That pompous Matthews casually sat there and wrote off most of America as children who bitch too much.
The irony is, the unmitigated arrogance of that statement is exactly what makes netroots and blogging sites like KOS and TPM so vitally important to America. Due to the many self-centered and closed-minded hacks like Matthews, the mainstream media have become all but irrelevant, and Moulitsas pointed that out, very adroitly, and much more diplomatically than I ever could have.
He’s the one who came off looking like an adult, responding to the immature and irresponsible rantings of a child. Instead of indulging in insulting characterizations and name-calling, like I probably would have, Moulitsas, very calmly made his point through example. He pointed out that the following:
“In 2003, when Bush landed his plane in the aircraft carrier, and spoke in front of the banner that said, ‘Mission Accomplished,’ Chris Matthews had an entire show based on that event, and he said everybody knows that we won the war, except a few critics.” Moulitsas went on to say, “Well, I was one of those few critics. People like me in the Netroots were some of those critics. And it turns out that we were right and the Beltway conventional wisdom was wrong. And once again, we’re in a situation where people like Chris Matthews don’t learn from these mistakes. They’re trapped in this bubble and they think that they know better.”
Bingo! That said it all, and he didn’t raise his voice once. And he handled Tom Tancredo several weeks earlier with the very finesse. He literally ran Tancredo off the Ed Show, and again, without busting so much as a sweat bubble. The reason he doesn’t have to raise his voice, is because he’s confronting Washington hypocrisy with facts and courage – something that the mainstream media seems to have lost.
They’ve degenerated into cheerleaders with an unspoken agreement not to step outside the approved parameters of the status quo. Then Moulitsas is that guy who shows up at the dinner party with a crude but unyielding truth: “No, that’s not a bad egg – somebody farted.” That’s who bloggers are; that’s exactly what America needs.
To read more comments by Black Star News columnist Wattree please visit http://wattree.blogspot.com
Please post your comments directly or submit them to [email protected] to avoid truncation
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
