Political Trivia: How Many Times Must a Question Be Answered For Chris Matthews to Finally Understand?

Ten?  A hundred?  A thousand?!? 

You got me. It's a trick question. Unless Chris Matthews likes your answer, (that is, unless your answer jives with the Obama administration's talking points) he'll just never, ever get it.

Take this clip from his show. It's a fantastic example of what I'm talking about. Here's the gist, but watch if you have ten minutes, as seeing Matthews get absolutley destroyed is well worth the time invested.

Matthews: "What is the GOP plan to cut budgets in the House bill?"
GOP Rep Walsh: "There are $111 billion in non-defense discretionary spending cuts that will be determined through bi-partisan negotion."
Matthews: "Yeah, Congressman, but there are no cuts in the bill."
Walsh: "Umm, there are $111 billion worth of cuts."
Matthews: "But Congressman, can you just answer the question, please? Where are the spending cuts?"
Walsh: "Look, you moron, there are $111 billion in cuts outlined in the bill! Your president may send thrills up your leg with his rhetoric, but I take issue with the indisputable, reprehensible lie he has told the American people in efforts to scare them into accepting his spendthrift agenda!  80% of America supports a balanced budget amendment. Most states have to live with one, and all households do.  It's something the American people understand, why can't you?"
Matthews:  "Yeah, yeah, Congressman.  But lemme ask you this.  Where are the cuts?"

They say you can't fix stupid.  And if that's true, Chris Matthews is truly FUBAR.

William Sullivan

Inconvenient Logic...

Who's the Maximalist Here, Jay?

Last week, when asked if the president would embrace Senator McConnell’s invitation to Capitol Hill to discuss the budget impasse, White House spokesman Jay Carney was direct in giving his opinion of the Senator’s offer. “What the Senator invited the President to do was to hear Senate Republicans restate their maximalist position. We know what that position is. And he also invited him to hear… what would not pass. That's not a conversation worth having. What we need to have is a conversation about what will pass. ”

His use of the word “maximalist” immediately creates a glaring “pot and kettle” moment for the White House spokesman. Three more times during this interview, Carney applied the term “maximalist” to describe Republican opposition to the president. The suggestion of this redundant reminder, of course, is that while the president is willing to make concessions and compromise, Republicans are bullheadedly “drawing lines in the sand.” Yet what is our gracious president actually offering his opposition? He demands that Republicans defy their constituents and be willing to embrace tax hikes and trillions of dollars in new debt over the coming decade- and if they do not, he won’t even talk to them. He’ll just plug his ears, and run off to Pennsylvania to attend a fundraiser like he did last week.

It's hard to think of a more "maximalist" position than that. So the implication that the president’s position is conducive to compromise while Republicans are just stubborn as mules must be the result of a deceptive political campaign to vilify opposition.

And as we’ve come to expect of the Obama administration, that’s exactly what it is.

William Sullivan