Matthews' Muddled Logic: GOP Candidate Heard Criticizing Birthers Is 'Macaca 2.0'

July 26th, 2010 6:13 PM

Damned if you do, damned if you don't . . .

Imagine if a Republican candidate had been caught on tape praising birthers.  Chris Matthews would have been all over him. So what happens when a Republican candidate is caught on tape criticizing birthers?  Why, Chris Matthews is . . .  all over him, of course. Bizarrely, the Hardball host actually labelled the matter "Macaca 2.0," invoking the incident that--with the help of scores of stories in the Washington Post--brought down George Allen.

The candidate in question is Ken Buck, whom Matthews described as the front-runner for the GOP nomination for US Senate from Colorado.  Matthews rolled audio of Buck calling birthers who confront him with questions about Pres. Obama's birth certificate "dumbasses."

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Ken Buck, frontrunner in next month's Republican primary for Senator from Colorado is counting on the backing of Tea Party folk, but listen to him in this secret recording from a June campaign event.  Buck was speaking with a Democratic party operative when he offered this less-than-flattering remark about birthers, those people who challenge that Barack Obama was born in the US.

KEN BUCK: Would you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera?  What am I supposed to do?

MATTHEWS: "Dumbasses"!  Anyway, caught making fun of people he needs next month, Buck through a spokesman tried damage control today, saying something about not using appropriate language or whatever. He did not deny that he dumped on the birthers, and he did not retract what he thought of their open and relentless skepticism about Obama's Americanism.

The irony of course is that Allen was questioning the Americanism of the Dem operative who was videotaping him.  Here, Buck was rejecting those who question Obama's Americanism. You might have thought that Matthews would have praised Buck. But no, for the Matthews and the MSM, the greater good is attacking Republicans.  So call it Macaca 2.0--and damn the logic.