MSNBC's Matthews pushed Santorum to label Sen. Clinton a "socialist"

[inthebrain]

If you've ever wondered why Dems lose to extremeits candidates look no further than the media. Centrist Hillary, the DLC darling, is NOT a socialist by any stretch of the imagination!!!

It's not enough that Republicans go unchallenged when the utter nonsensical talking points. Now we have the pundits helping them along.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200507280002




MSNBC's Matthews pushed Santorum to label Sen. Clinton a "socialist"

MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked guest Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is a "big-government socialist." When Santorum responded vaguely to the question, Matthews pressed him on the issue. "Well, what's your answer?" he asked. Santorum responded, "The answer is yes," but added, "Socialist may be a little hard." Matthews again asked whether Santorum agreed with the label, to which Santorum answered, "I would not use the term socialist."

From the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Well, the great thing about you, senator, is that you're clear. You're a conservative. Hillary's a liberal. What makes the difference really between you in your heart and her in her heart? What's the big difference?

SANTORUM: I'd say it is top-down versus bottom-up. She sees, I think, the role of America going forward with the experts from on high trying to sort of guide the country in the direction --

MATTHEWS: And she's on top.

SANTORUM: And she's on top. I believe that it's bottom-up, that we need to have strong families, strong community organizations, and that America's a great country and will be a great country if we rebuild the family and strengthen the family to lead America.

MATTHEWS: Is she a big-government socialist?

SANTORUM: Look at her voting record. The answer to that is pretty clear. She has -

MATTHEWS: Well, what's your answer?

SANTORUM: The answer is yes.

MATTHEWS: She's a big-government socialist?

SANTORUM: Well, socialist may be a little hard. But she -

MATTHEWS: Well, it was my word. Is it yours?

SANTORUM: I would not use the term socialist.

MATTHEWS: OK, what would you call her? Big government?

SANTORUM: She's a liberal. And she's someone who believes in big government. And she's someone who believes in government by the experts, by the elite.

Posted to the web on Thursday July 28, 2005 at 12:24 PM EST

[soleft]

1. Matthew's hates Hillary

Still pissed he didn't get Dee Dee Myers job

[lancdem]

4. That's right

Good point.

[Skarbrowe]

13. I'm finally realizing just how much hate Tweety is running on.

I have this love/hate thing going for Tweety, but last night I felt like spitting in his face. He had on a woman from a conservative radio group that had gone to Iraq and a young Iraq veteran from OperationTruthout, I believe, sorry if I have that wrong. He let the woman go on and on and on and when he did let the ACTUAL WAR VET who had been in Irag fighting, talk, he let him say a few sentences and he talked through most of that. Maybe there was some reason he was so rude to the Iraq war vet. Maybe something off camera, but Tweety made me sick.

This woman and her group spent ten whole days over there and she thought she knew what all the Iraqi people wanted. Actually, what I got from it was that if the set-up hadn't been so confrontational the two of them, the woman and the vet, might have agreed at least a little bit. We are so obviously at war in our own country. A constant war of words with no give or take on either side.

It's most likely just the shows I'm watching. ya think? (sarcasm)

[Goldmund]

2. I dunno

An equally valid argument could be made that he was trying to get Santorum to say something outrageous.

Knowing Tweety, though, you're probably right.

[inthebrain]

8. Hardball is "right wing talking points central"

I would think that a real journalist or media member would challenge a statement like that. Mathews went out of his way to air it.

It's not the first time.

I'm a little shocked that there are people that just allow this to role off their backs though. I think everyone should get on the stick and give Mathews some shit for deceiving people into thinking he's a non partisan talking head.

He's now pushing a talking point that a centrist represents that far left. He's doing their work for them.

[jojo54]

3. I hardly ever watch him anymore.

Ever since he took the beaten path of the freeps during the RNC, I've ignored him for the most part.

Fly away little birdy, fly away.

[AlGore-08.com]

5. "Now we have pundits helping them along"?

The media has been using GOP spin points as CW since at least 1992...

I'm just sayin'...

[HockeyMom]

6. Hillary is going a lot further than Santorum

She will at the very least being reelected to her Senate seat - no question. Can Santorum say the same? Where will HE be then?

Oh, maybe Bush can APPOINT him to a newly created Cabinet spot as Secretary of Faith Based Program Initiatives.

[AlGore-08.com]

11. To be fair, HRC is the Senator from a safe state, Santorum is not

It's next to impossible for Clinton to lose her reelection bid, unless the GOP find some Arnold-like celebrity to take a run at her. Even then, it wouldn't be easy to beat her or any other Dem. FYI, that's one of the main reasons Arnold didn't run for Governor during a regular election, but jumped in during the recall election - - because it would be almost impossible to win as a Republican out here.

Santorum is the Senator from a swing state. That in and of itself makes him more vulnerable than HRC could ever be.

[louis-t]

7. I can't help reading Tweety's quotes real fast

like he talks.

[David Zephyr]

9. Funny & Curious: Santorum Advocates "Bottoms Up"

Ha!

[jenmito]

10. So whose opinion should we listen to-

Santorum, who believes Hillary is a liberal, or Karl Rove, who, when he made his ignorant comment about liberals wanting to offer the 9/11 terrorists therapy and understanding, claimed he was NOT talking about people like Hillary, who he said is NOT a liberal?

[inthebrain]

12. None of them

What you can do is fire back and let him know that your not as stupid as he and MSNBC suspect.

Hardball/ chris mathews
[e-mail]

MSNBC
[e-mail]

Let em know that you know the score.

[jenmito]

15. Oh, I know that...

I should've asked who the Repub. party line agrees with-Santorum or Rove. They can't have it both ways. And I already complained to MSNBC about Matthews. I wrote to them for the first time when Matthews interviewed Condoleezza Rice about the DSM, and gave her an "out" by asking if by "fixed" (the facts) she thinks they meant "gathered." Of course she agreed.

[inthebrain]

16. I try to go a little further than that

I try to spend at least twenty minutes a day reeling off two or three emails to these morons. I keep it short and simple, about two to three paragraghs.

Staying on them like flys on shit helps.

The reality is fighting the lies isnt the point. The point of these lies is to instill doubt into the public. Even though many of them arent true, they create an atmosphere where reasonable people still believe the dirt to some extent. It's the "balance" arguments goal.

Often times, the smear isnt about anything important. The reality is that hillary is already finished as these guys have started the smear campaign three years beforehand.

I can often tell who they are looking to smear before the smear hits. Peruse Free Republic every once in a while. YOu can tell what they are up to long before the smear gets out.

The cariciture of Dean began long before the scream. I saw that coming six months before they got to him.

The swift boat ads were soemthing that was planned long befire Kerry got the nomination. Nothing those idiots ever said was relative to an issue that effected anyones real lives.

Watch the Hillary attacks and you'll see the simialarities between the two. It's all preconceived BS. The funny thing is that they're so stupid, they do it all out in the open.

[bvar22]

14. The genius behind this smear,

It not only hurts Hillary, but marginalizes anyone to the Left of Hillary (most of the Democratic Party).

[Beaverhausen]

17. Santorum wants to tell us all how to live our lives, yet he calls her

a socialist? He wants government to make laws telling people what families are and yet he is for "smaller government"

up is down.

black is white.

[McCamy Taylor]

18. I think Tweetie made Santorum look like a right wing nut job, myself.

Santorum is a way easier target than Hillary, and GE/NBC wants the price of oil to go down. What better way to do that than to help the Senate flip to Democratic in 2006?

Everyone "knows" Hillary is a stealth Republican after the DLC meeting, right?

[inthebrain]

19. I thought tweety let him get away with a lot

Like Santorum claiming he was a fiscal hawk and that he voted for bush's medicare reform bill. The same bill that doesnt allow medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.

That allows people to walk away from the interview thiking that Hillary is a big spender and Santorum is out to balance the budget.

[Disturbed]

21. Tweety is a schizoid

He was slobbering all over Gropenator even before that steroid, mushbrain announced. I can barely watch Tweety anymore. His rude interuptions are more frequent than even before. The NG actually won the debate and Tweety did say that many of Military are cheerleaders for the Bush Regime on air but say the opposite off air. I was flipping channels when I caught this debate.

[auburngrad82]

20. I've got to say, after 10 years of the amateurs fucking our govt up

I'll take an expert any day.

"SANTORUM: She's a liberal. And she's someone who believes in big government. And she's someone who believes in government by the experts, by the elite."

[Zero Division]

22. I can just see the huge endorsement in the Socialist Worker!

"ISO enthusiastically endorses Hillary Rodham Clinton!!!" :sarcasm: :rofl:

[inthebrain]

23. lol