Chris Matthews Blows a Gasket... Then Everyone Misses the Point

You don't have to watch all nine minutes and change to get the gist of it; Chris Matthews is very, VERY angry. But then again, it's perfectly reasonable to take umbrage with the notion of an official elected to our nation's Congress making statements exposing their complete ignorance of American History. Michele Bachmann in particular is very highly lauded by the Tea Party and other members of the far right, yet she actually thinks our Founding Fathers were anti-slavery. Pitiful, disappointing and just plain stupid are a few unequivocal descriptors that come to mind. Shame on you, Congresswoman Bachmann.

Yet it's my opinion that Matthews crossed the line. Despite that I agree with his outrage over the fact that we live in a nation where people of questionable intellect hold elected office with what seems like a high frequency, he is a supposed newsman/commentator/moderator/whatever you want to call him. People of such stature should hold themselves to a higher standard while on the air.

Chris, control your emotions, man! Tirelessly berating Tea Party co-founder Sal Russo, as fun as we all know tormenting Tea Partiers can be, is no way to get your point across. Practice composure when you expose the party's ignorance and hypocrisy and their likely-flimsy response will play right into your argument.

Now we have Glenn Beck coming to the defense of the Congresswoman (who does a great job of combining Sarah Palin's empty stare with former Florida Attorney General Katherine Harris' awful makeup) with his GENIUS assertion that the Three-Fifths Compromise was intended to destroy slavery. With "reporting" like that, how does this man even have a following and what can we do to make him go away?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/glenn-beck-chris-matthews-bachmann_n_815610.html 

But wait! On another note, someone named Joanne Bamberger seems to think Matthews' repeated use of the term "balloonhead" in regards to Bachmann was sexist.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/michele-bachmann-is-a-balloon-head-in-chris-matthews-book/ 

Uh, just because it was directed at a woman by a man does not automatically make it sexist. And just because he made a previous comment about Sarah Palin that, quite frankly is borderline at best, in my opinion, does not cause any remarks he makes about women here forth fall into the same category. 

Despite my relative ambivalence to Bill O'Reilly's frequent use of the word "Pinhead," if it did upset me, I'd be very presumptuous to decry it as sexist were it to be used against a woman. (This gets me thinking, could a Pinhead potentially pop a Balloonhead? Because we should have chaperons if the two are thinking about getting cozy any time soon...)


Matthews is right about Michele Bachmann; the contrary argument does not hold up, Glenn Beck. Regardless of one's past scathing remarks, a "Baloonhead" does not a sexist make, Ms. Bamberger. The whole point is that Matthews had a lay-up to make a good point, but he missed it.