I don’t like Chris Matthews much.
Has anyone noticed Chris likes to put female conservative commentators on Hardball for the joy of showing the viewers what brainless, crude parrots they truly are? It’s just a theory, but after ambushing Ann Coulter by forcing her to confront Elizabeth Edwards after Ann called her husband a faggot, and recently bringing Melanie Morgan on to defend the indefensible contradictory outlooks that a 1994 Dick Cheney and a 2001 Dick Cheney had on an invasion of Iraq, I’m beginning to sense a bit of sexuo-political sadism on the part of Tweety. Buzzflash seems to have caught on to this cheap traffic as well.
In that latter example, I think even Morgan caught on to the glee by noting a “twinkle” in Chris’ eye when he dropped Cheney/Not Cheney in her lap. I don’t feel sorry for her in the least because she is a crazy bitch, but there is something less than savory about putting these unstable airheads on for entertainment. I labor under no delusions that Hardball is anything more than an ego trip for someone who loves the sound of his own voice, but it’s worth noting that Matthews’ program is at least part freakshow and should never be considered a serious forum for debate. There may be a shortage of wingers who can cogently explain themselves or what in God’s everloving name the Bushies are doing, but that doesn’t mean you should instead put on vicious, dye-jobbed halfwit rottweilers who are guaranteed to implode under the weight of the water one must carry to do so. It may be amusing, but it also may be getting a bit exploitative.
I’m not saying don’t put girlcons on-but give them a fighting chance, Chris, if you are truly interested in giving the right wing a forum rather than turning Hardball into the Jerry Springer of political talk shows-where it’s fun to watch Girls Go Wild. Besides, it only gives them the publicity they crave. To use their parlance, it emboldens them.