Scintillating Lawrence O'DONNELL, and Tweety's blowing our way for now

[UTUSN]

I've waited two days for this transcript. I was going to praise Tweety for once since the '90s, but he's not saying what we here haven't always known. It was just the shock of his criticizing his Mc5PLANEs and finally seeming to speak TRUTH with apparent sincerity. Well, as the saying goes, if you can fake sincerity...

But O'DONNELL ran circles around the 3rd dude in the segment, who barely noticed he was pwned.


**********QUOTE********
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31407887/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/

MATTHEWS: That's Senator John McCain criticizing President Obama for not speaking out stronger against the crisis in Iran. ....

You know, McCain just gets further and further into Lieberman country, further and further into that far-right mentality about everything is simple and manechian. All you have to do is push that idiot button now. I don't know why he's doing it. Ryan, why is he talking like that, when he knows it's complicated. The worst thing we could do is get involved over there. ....

MATTHEWS: That is the point of view that would have bombed Cuba in 1962. I'm talking about McCain. ....

O'DONNELL: And John McCain does actually know that. What you're seeing here is the difference between a senator's position and a president's position. If McCain was president, I am absolutely convinced he would take the presidential position on this kind of thing. .... Which has always been consistent, always. You know, we don't go into this kind of condemnation, from the presidential perspective, ever in these situations. The president always keeps his head, whether it's Democrat or Republican, in these situations. Senators always shoot off their mouths in these situations. It's classic. ....

MATTHEWS: .... I think there's become this new idiot button on the right, where you have to punch this button in order to be considered a real conservative now. Obama's a socialist on health care. He's a socialist. All his fiscal programs are insanely socialistic.

You have to punch that button. Then you got to say this election was bogus. You got to punch that button. If you don't talk in that right wing idiot talk, you're not considered a conservative anymore. The idea of being a thoughtful person is wrong now politically on that side of the aisle. That's where I think it's going.

O'DONNELL: I completely agree with you. What I'm saying is John McCain is actually more thoughtful than his public statements.

MATTHEWS: Ha! Ha ha! Boy, there's a presumption of innocence that I haven't heard in a while.

********UNQUOTE********

[xchrom]

1. while i'm not a tweety fan -- i have to rec this.

and he's been skating around with this idea about the right for a few shows -- and i like it.

[marylanddem]

2. O'Donnell must have been stoned...

Defending McCain? Guess these guys need to keep the party circuit going...

[Myrina]

3. Look at it in the bigger scope ...

... he's basically saying that McCain believes one thing, but is doing another, for party approval or to please the leadership or the wingnuts or whomever.

He's backhandedly saying that McCain is a spineless old coot who doesn't stand up for what he TRULY believes.

[UTUSN]

4. Beautifully put.

I was going to say that Mc5PLANEs wasn't the point. Neither was his "defending" (not) Shrub. As I said, this LIZZA dude never saw the punches.



**********QUOTE********

LIZZA: I disagree.

MATTHEWS: I think McCain's ticked off.

LIZZA: I think McCain is representing a certain view on the right-- I know this is a loaded term now, but the neo-conservative right used to mean something. And Lawrence, if that was the view, we would have thought that George Bush never would have listened to the folks in his administration who say, you go in and take out Saddam Hussein.

O'DONNELL: No, but the comparable event was what you do when China takes down one of your planes. What did George Bush do? He didn't do any saber rattling. He just did a very careful, slow, presidential-exactly what a Democratic president would have done. A presidential treatment of the situation.

You see Democrats do it with trade. They always say, we're going to reopen NAFTA. No, they're not. Not when they become president, they're not. They shut up about it.

********UNQUOTE********

[KittyWampus]

5. Mc5Planes... yes, he deserves that. And O'Donnell almost always gives a useful perspective

[emulatorloo]

6. rec -- IDIOT BUTTON! about as plainspoken a description of the right's tactics I have seen

When Tweety cuts through the bullshit, he can be a damn good analyst.

[UTUSN]

7. Cuts *through* the b.s. AND when he cuts THE (his own) b.s. n/t