MSNBC political analyst Karen Finney said Friday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to "go back to a time when women couldn't vote, blacks couldn't vote."
Such was said on the Martin Bashir show immediately following the former Massachusetts governor's speech to the National Rifle Association (video follows with transcript and commentary):
KAREN FINNEY, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Two thoughts. One, the number, I can't wait to see all the fact-checks coming out of the DNC because the number of, I won't call them lies but misinformation that came out of Mr. Romney's mouth was stunning.
As shocking as it might seem, even her perilously liberal host noticed that's not what Romney said:
MARTIN BASHIR, HOST: To be fair, Karen, but to be fair to him, he didn't say that. He didn't say he wants to go back to a period before when African-Americans couldn't vote, did he? He didn't say that. I mean, there were other even more astonishing statements I thought in the speech.
Sadly, these folks don't understand that restoring America doesn't have anything to do with one's race, religion, or gender.
It's about fiscal and personal responsibility instead of government being involved in every aspect of people lives regardless of cost and whether folks want such intrusion.
Isn't it a shame that everything to liberal media members is about either women, minorities, or religion?
I guess that's the only way you concoct all these so-called "wars" Republicans are supposedly waging in this country.
*****Update: Finney has asked me via Twitter to include the transcript of her response to Bashir.
FINNEY: But when he says things like, “I want to return America, I want to restore America,” I guess the question, or when he talked about the Constitution not being a living document, I mean, some would say that because the Constitution is a living document, we passed rights for African-Americans to vote. We passed rights for women to vote because we recognize that that there were, that we should expand the freedoms of the Constitution not restrict those freedoms. That’s where I come up with that.
That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that Finney began by saying Romney wants to "go back to a time when women couldn't vote, blacks couldn't vote," which is utter nonsense that even the perilously liberal Bashir challenged.
