MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews and liberal pundit Jonathan Alter agreed on last night’s show (5/14/13) that Barack Obama needs to be more assertive in controlling the various scandals swirling around his administration. But it was Matthews’ choice of historical comparisons that was especially illuminating:
MATTHEWS: I think actions speak louder than words. And I got to tell you something. When Reagan broke the PATCO strike and fired them all for breaking their oaths, everybody in the world, including the people in Moscow, got the word.
ALTER: Right. He should do that.
MATTHEWS: It’s one of the reasons we ended the Cold War, because they knew we had a strong president.
ALTER: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Talking ain’t going to do it. Henry Higgins. It doesn’t work.
ALTER: Right.
Praise for a conservative president’s breaking the air traffic controllers’ union—that’s what you hear on the liberal cable channel.
That wasn’t Matthews’ only reference to Reagan. Later on:
I go back to Reagan and the PATCO strike, I go to all the history of Iran/Contra. Reagan didn’t put that behind him until Nancy, his wife, got him to admit he did do it, he did trade arms for hostages. Until he did that, it wasn’t over with.
Was Reagan’s handling of Iran/Contra really anyone’s idea of how to handle a scandal?
Thomas Friedman in 1999: “The most important thing Mr. Reagan did was break the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike, which helped break the hold of organized labor over the U.S. economy.”
https://fair.org/media-beat-column/mass-media-hatred-of-american-labor/
The point you are emphasizing was not Matthew’s point. Matthews was asking the President to show leadership and strength, both of which are not his hallmarks. He has been a weak President, who does not know even now how to exercise the powers of the Presidency. Rather, his focus is on allowing Congress to be the prime mover. He is a pre-FDR President–exactly the opposite of what this country now needs!
Matthews is a hack.
One of those things I wanted to call Matthews down on. A poor example unless that is so easy to remember. But did he approve of it or not? Matthews seemed to approve of breaking that strike and putting everyone flying at risk.
Yea Chris, everyone got the word. Reagans war on working people has begun, especially those fortunate enough to have organized a union. Now everyone, well everyone except people in the Chris Matthews and his 1%er friends, is making less whether they’re in a union or not. We know whose side your on Chris. Shame MSNBC extended your stay. You’d find in so well as another lefty sell-out at Fox.
Jesus Christ! Matthews is the ultimate Beltway insider hack–he’s a fuckin’ simpleton, and a stooge for the received wisdom. I’ve complained bitterly about this self-aggrandizing asshole before; he’s the perfect avatar for everything bad and wrong about Washington’s “journalist” class–the compleat toady, a man utterly innocent of what life might be like lived on a salary of less than a million dollars a year. And now, he’s somehow been remade into a “liberal,” a fellow who “leans forward,” an honest broker of good old American centrist wisdom. A truly bad sign here, an outrageous marker along the road to ruin and failure on the part of the press’ ability to tell a straight and true story.
P.S.: If you want to get the full flavor of Matthews’ awfulness (and MSNBC’s complicity in all this–after all, they actually hired this sorry sack of shit), by all means listen to the short promo they run on the “progressive” talk radio stations. Perhaps you’ve already heard it, and it’s damaged your mind, and your good sense. Too bad. But in it, Matthew’s little promo for his bad self is beyond belief–it’s unintentionally hilarious, perfectly distilling his shallowness and ignorance and myopia, and then, at the end, MSNBC’s strange and stupid catchphrase–“Lean Forward.”
Good call. My only problem with this is the characterization of MSNBC as a “liberal cable channel.” People can call themselves whatever they want, but “centrist” or “center left” is a far cry from true liberalism. People like Alter, Maddow, and even O’Donnell (to an extent) push centrist ideas that just sound liberal now compared to the more and more pervasive Right Wing extremism. Moreover, MSNBC was bought out by Comcast (not exactly left-leaning) and showcases bona fide-less “talent” like S.C. Cupp while the Ed Show (blue collar centrism) gets shunted out of prime time.
That’s so true. I don’t watch any of it, but I do listen to Ed Shultz on the radio from time to time. S. E. Cupp? Really? She’s on prime time?
I never knew that Chris Matthews was such a dumbass. Reagan? Really? Who ruined the economy for us: Reagan. Who was out of it more than half of every day: Reagan. Who ruined the middle class: REAGAN!
I have noticed more and more ,that as time goes by -it seams that Mr Matthews may not be playing with a full deck.Im not even talking about what he said here.I mean overall there seems to be a problem brewing with his thought processes.He often says the strangest things.I wonder if his network handlers do not bite their nails in fear of what he may say next.I would take most of his ideas with a grain of salt.I think TIM N and I are for once in complete agreement.
Chris Dalzell:
MSNBC was never liberal. G.E. owned it before they sold out to Comcast. Both companies hate unions with a passion that would have made Ray-gun jealous.
It’s bad enough the Matthews thinks that union-busting is OK, but he has also has bought into the big lie that Reagan caused the fall of the Soviet Union (like most people)…
“…everybody in the world, including the people in Moscow, got the word.”
Anyone who knows anything about the situation in the SU knows that it would have fallen when it did whether Reagan or a Democrat (or other Republican) was in office.
There is a strange source for partial proof of this. There was a documentary done on how people in the SU were able to smuggle in music by The Beatles, and in this documentary, more than a couple of people blamed that and other ‘underground’ things as being the real reason for the fall, NOT Reagan, or any other outside government.
The people of the SU had tasted Western popular culture and were not ready to give it up.
A similar example is how when Czechoslovakia became free, it was because of the “Velvet Revolution” so named by Václav Havel as he is a fan of the Velvet Underground.
Governments the world over do not take into account how much popular culture can affect their people, especially when they try to prevent peoples’ access to it.
Clinton ruined the middle class by allowing Fannie Mae freddie Mac to issue subprime loans to people who would otherwise not qualify for them, leading to the 2008 mortgage crisis so for people to make baseless claims about how Reagan ruined the middle class is just crazy
“Reagan didn’t put [‘Iran/Contra’ scandale] behind him until Nancy, his wife, got him to admit he did do it, he did trade arms for hostages. Until he did that, it wasn’t over with.”
Just a little teapot scandal that Nancy set right. Luckily, it had no effect outside the beltway — except on what was left of American democracy, and on a scarred, traumatized small country that suffered horrible deprivation and thousands of deaths at the hands of American-paid mercenaries.
Chris Matthews for State Dept. spokesman — officially!
Erik that is a weird redux on the history of Regans time in office.if it makes you feel happy believe what you will.But your missing the point.Chris Matthews seems to be loosing it.Whether or not he makes a salient point here and there in all his bombastic dithering ,is kind of beside the point.He is not a good defender of the holy grail of liberalism,let alone anything else.Just a guy doing a bad show at this point.Not sharp…. would be my conclusion
Maybe Michelle can get Barrack to admit his roll in all the endless lies and scandals that swirl around him like a perpetual dust storm.As if there are enough hours in a day….or a year!