By Don Irvine ——Bio and Archives--December 6, 2011
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Matthews: How did the party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and General Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan descend into a diabolic clown show? When did P.T. Barnum grab hold of the Tea Party and New York money and mix it into this witch’s brew of a TV Debate headed by Donald Trump? How did this clown show of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich find itself with the ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ as its grand ringmaster? How did the King of the Birthers become the midwife of right-wing presidential politics? And what sin did someone commit to unleash this torrent from hell on a once-serious political party? I don’t claim any deep sympathy, but it takes a deeply cold heart not to feel for those good-minded Republicans out there who have this grotesquery leap before their face. What happened to the moderates and the reasonable of the center-right? Did they go mute? Did they lose their tongues? Their right to speak out? Are they watching what I’m watching? Are they going to let this happen?
Are they going to chug along from here to Tampa, to the sweltering convention hall of next September, all the while anticipating the Hobbesian choice between a candidate who puts them to sleep and one who gives them nightmares? Is this what all the debates, all the speeches, all the wanderings-about has achieved – a duet of death, a karaoke of the choke-hold? “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Newt Gingrich. Donald Trump. Let me say no more.So now Matthews is resorting to quoting from Macbeth to describe the GOP presidential field? This isn’t the first time Matthews has called Republicans clowns. In August, Matthews called Texas Gov. Rick Perry a wax figure and a clown based on his appearance. And just last month he called the Tea Party a Clown Party. So at least he is consistent with his views of conservatives and Republicans. Matthews also used the clown reference earlier in the program in a discussion with Michael Steele and Ed Rendell that focused on Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. He summed up the segment by telling his guests the following:
Matthews: Gentlemen I feel good about our country with you two guys on the air. I wish you guys were running the country not this clown show on the other side. Thank you, Michael. Your party embarrasses me.What’s embarrassing is how far Matthews has to go to protect the President and the Democrats, by calling the Republicans clowns. He knows that Obama is in deep trouble with the economy and that he needs either a miracle or a complete implosion by the Republicans in order to win re-election next year. By calling the Republicans clowns he is trying to convince voters that they don’t have a credible candidate and that the only logical choice is Obama. If there is anyone who is diabolical it would be Matthews in his campaign against the GOP.
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Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media and its sister organization Accuracy in Academia. As the son of Reed Irvine, who launched AIM in 1969, he developed an understanding of media bias at an early age, and has been actively involved with AIM for over 30 years.