Chris Matthews's Mad Libs: GOP 'Confederacy of Hate' Is All About 'Secession and Nullification!'

October 21st, 2013 4:52 PM

 Chris Matthews on Friday continued his descent into self parody, attacking conservatives as a "confederacy of hate" who don't want African Americans to vote and dream of "secession and nullification." Talking about opposition to ObamaCare and the shutdown, the Hardball anchor mixed and matched all his favorite cliches. He began the show by teasing, "Confederacy of hate. Let's play Hardball."

With no explanation, the liberal journalist began throwing around generalizations, smearing, "They call themselves the American people, as if the majority that voted for President Obama are some invading force of others or a group of lesser Americans who should be credited with only three fifths of a vote, like they were before the Civil War and the 13th Amendment made them whole." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Remember, this commentary was before Matthews had even explained the topic of that day's show. He just launched into cheap shots. 

The host continued his context-free tirade against conservatives: "Now in this third battle of Bull Run -- for them, it's Manassas Creek -- the rebel cry and stars and bars are rejoining the cause. They speak again of secession and nullification and all the old language leading up to the war between the states."

In an unhinged aside, the  \anchor accused Rush Limbaugh of attacking the Republican Party for ratings and attention. Matthews compared the conservative radio star to a prostitute. Speaking of the Civil War, he connected: 

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Alongside the battlefield where the women and children once watched, we see the Limbaughs and the Ericksons turned out to cheerlead, the right- wing camp followers plying their trade like the women who got their name back in the earlier time from General Hooker.

Later in the segment, while talking to liberal writer David Corn, Matthews laughably insisted, "And when we say somebody's a racist -- I try to avoid that, but I can say when you try to suppress the black vote, you`re trying to suppress the black vote."

He tries to "avoid" playing the race card? 

On August 28, 2013, Matthews decried conservative attacks on Obama: "At least back in 1939 when Marian Anderson had to sing here, ‘My Country 'Tis of Thee’ rather than at the Constitution Hall, because – they said the reason was she was black. At least they were honest back then."

On August 11, 2013, he compared pro-gun senators to "Jim Crow" racists.

More recently, on September 27, 2013, Matthews decried a GOP congressman for taking a "cheap shot" at him.

Thank goodness the anchor doesn't take cheap shots himself.

A partial transcript of the October 18 segment is below:


5:00pm ET 

MATTHEWS: Confederacy of hate. Let's play Hardball. 

...

5:01

MATTHEWS: Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews in Washington. Let me start tonight with this. Fight, fight, fight! That's the echo of this week. You hear it in every remark or grunt from the hard angry right. They call themselves the American people, as if the majority that voted for President Obama are some invading force of others or a group of lesser Americans who should be credited with only three fifths of a vote, like they were before the Civil War and the 13th Amendment made them whole. It's that fight again. I once heard this older man standing at the Robert E. Lee mansion in Virginia, calling to another to keep up the fight. I overheard exactly what he meant. He meant the old Confederate fight against change, the lost cause brought back in the 21st century to battle anything marked Obama, anything that says this man was elected president of the United States.

Now in this third battle of Bull Run -- for them, it's Manassas Creek -- the rebel cry and Stars and Bars are rejoining the cause. They speak again of secession and nullification and all the old language leading up to the war between the states. They cheer now openly at the thought of ripping apart their political party -- this time, it's the Republicans -- to free them for total war.

Alongside the battlefield where the women and children once watched, we see the Limbaughs and the Ericksons turned out to cheerlead, the right- wing camp followers plying their trade like the women who got their name back in the earlier time from General Hooker. Yes, there's money in war, even this phony war of faux filibusters and televised jibes at park police, a confederacy of hate.