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h/t Media Matters

The Politico's Mike Allen seems to think that if you're a comedian, you can't stop yourself from making a fool of yourself in public. I get so tired of this sort of rhetoric about Franken because it completely ignores the rest of Franken's biography. Al Franken is a comedian, but he has accomplished a lot of other things during his life as well which I'm sure the likes of Mike Allen are aware of, but do their best to ignore, and instead decide to belittle him as Allen did here.

The other thing that bears noting is that most successful comedians are also wicked smart, as is the case with Franken. Those in the beltway bubble would do well not to challenge or mock professional comedians. They'll find themselves on the wrong end of a punch line and regretting it if they do. Personally I'd be happier if the Drudge Report, tabloid reporters from The Politico STFU and quit making asses out of themselves on television rather than our newest Senator Al Franken being quiet.

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Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum joined Chuck Todd, filling in for Chris Matthews on Hardball, to discuss his recent article on Sarah Palin.

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In the wake of the Mark Sanford revelations, Chris Matthews gets Ken Blackwell to concede that the Republican Party is not morally superior to the Democratic Party. It's nice to see the hypocrisy of the "family values" party being called out for once.

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Chris Matthews goes off the rails with Rep. Steve Cohen over the Senate adopting a resolution apologizing for slavery.

Matthews: You're from what state? Tennessee. You're from a Southern state that was part of fighting the Civil War from the other side. What about people from Pennsylvania whose ancestors went down and fought, and fought the Civil War and got killed? We lost 600,000 men in that fight in the Civil War who died at point blank range. These guys were killed fighting the evils of slavery, and now you want them to apologize. It makes no sense to me.

Why should the whole country apologize for what a good half or more of the country got killed opposing, sir.?

Cohen: Well, first of all....

Matthews: I mean you're from Tennessee. Maybe you should apoligize first before you ask the rest of the country to. Why should Pennsylvania apologize for something it fought and died... you're laughing! It's not funny! Why should anybody apologize for your sins!

Cohen proceeds to attempt to give Chris Matthews a little history lesson and explain to him that the sins of slavery in the United States were not limited only to the south.

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Besides the fact that it is down right infuriating to listen to the likes of Saxby Chambliss now feigning concern about fair and free elections anywhere, the Senator also thinks that the Iranian people, if asked, would not remember what the CIA and the United States government did to their democracy back in 1953.

Reza Aslan pointed out that the opposite is true during his recent appearance on Hardball:

ASLAN: You know, he mentioned the CIA coup of 1953, which most Americans don't know anything about, but which, I got to tell you, is like the core event, the ur-event of the 20th century as far as Iranians are concerned. It's their revolutionary war, civil war all wrapped up into a single thing. And to hear a president even mention it, let alone acknowledge it in that way, had a huge effect in the cafes in Iran.

The Republicans continue to use the events in Iran as a game of political football, with little care as to how our actions here, if we're looked at as meddling again in their politics, could make things worse.

Transcript below the fold.

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Reza Aslan takes Chris Matthews to task for fear mongering on Iran. Matthews seemed positively flummoxed when Aslan pointed out to him that our own intelligence agencies have said that Iran is years away from developing a nuclear weapon, and that Iran might actually have a reason to be afraid of Israel. Matthews also seemed to have a lot of trouble understanding why those in power might want to hype the threat of Iranian nukes for political purposes. Imagine that.

MATTHEWS: Reza, what good does speaking the truth do -- and he has spoken it in terms of our relationship with Iran -- do to our relationship with Iran?

ASLAN: You know, he mentioned the CIA coup of 1953, which most Americans don`t know anything about, but which, I got to tell you, is like the core event, the ur-event of the 20th century as far as Iranians are concerned. It`s their revolutionary war, civil war all wrapped up into a single thing. And to hear a president even mention it, let alone acknowledge it in that way, had a huge effect in the cafes in Iran.

Let`s face it, you know, what Iranians want, and this has been proven over and over again -- just yesterday, a poll came out from Terror Free Tomorrow showing 77 percent of Iranians wanting to open up relations with the United States. This is not just about sort of a better international relationship with America, it`s about Iran`s own domestic situation.

As you know, the economy in Iran is on the verge of collapse. You`ve got a 26 percent inflation rate, you know, 13 percent unemployment rate. They need America in a way that they haven`t before, and it seems like for the first time in many, many years, both sides, both Iran and America, are ready. You know, in the `90s, Iran wanted to talk to America. America wasn`t ready. Later on...

MATTHEWS: Reza, You know, I worry about us facing a situation that could be horrendous, which is to have to choose between living with a bomb in the hands of the Iranian mullahs or -- I mean a nuclear bomb -- or going to war with them in a way that causes hatred for another thousand years, not just a decade or two. And that scares me.

ASLAN: Neither of those are likely. Neither of those are likely scenarios.

MATTHEWS: How so?

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Heather: Matthews brings in torture apologist David Rivkin to debate the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer on whether the U.S. should release the photos depicting torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course the CIA is arguing against the release of the documents. Their disclosure would mean that someone at the CIA (or those that gave the orders to torture) is either going to be held criminally liable or at the very least get sued in civil court. The only danger here that Rivkin is crying about is that someone will be held accountable for their actions.

I just want to know when Rivkin is going to let Jesse Ventura waterboard him? Hannity wouldn't do it. I have no doubt Rivkin wouldn't either but he sure loves telling everyone how harmless waterboarding is at every opportunity.

The media rolls this guy out every time they need someone to defend the indefensible. Listening to him and the Cheney's defending torture is becoming something akin to fingers down a chalk board of late.

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I caught this yesterday and just got around to posting it. Apparently Steve Benen had the same reaction to it that I did. Gingrich, a statesman? Are you kidding me?

FINEMAN: I'm just saying as between Newt Gingrich, who was the main speaker at this dinner and Sarah Palin, I'm not sure ideologically, and in terms of scaring moderates that there's that much difference between them. I guess that's my only point.

MATTHEWS: I have to tell you, time does heal all wounds. Aren't you amazed at how Newt Gingrich has come back almost like Lazarus, Howard? The guy was sort of taken out of this town on a rail. He was tarred and feathered. He had all kinds of personal problems we will not go into. He had all the problems you can imagine Clinton had, on top of the fact that he had blown it politically in the Congress. He had lost all credibility. Now, he's back as the Obi Wan Kenobi of the Republican Party.

FINEMAN: Well he's a statesman. He's a....

MATTHEWS: How'd that happen?

FINEMAN: If you hang around long enough, that's part of it.

MARTIN: He's a survivor.

FINEMAN: He's a survivor and he's a thoughtful guy. I mean, there's no question that he's a fascinating guy to listen to.

MATTHEWS: He is fascinating, the guy. He's one of the world's great fire crackers.

Uh....Chris...Howard...that happened because the media has elevated him to that level. Not that he deserves to be there. And why shouldn't you mention just what those problems were? You sure didn't show Bill Clinton the same deference.

What's really astounding is listening to Howard basically say he scares the hell out of everyone almost as much as Palin in one breath and then call him a "statesman" in the next. Good grief.

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Hardball's Big Number: 69% of Americans say they favor allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military. So what's the hold up Mr. President?

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Joan Walsh calls out Pat Buchanan for describing Sonia Sotomayor as an "affirmative action" pick and trying to compare her to Harriet Miers. Why does Matthews think anyone cares what this racist, sexist, relic thinks? I swear I think Buchanan has a cot in the MSNBC studio and just sleeps there they have him on so much. Buchanan backs down a bit after Walsh gets onto him and points out Sotomayor's educational background and the number of years she's served as a judge, but mark my words he'll be right back on Morning Joe repeating the same nonsense with Scarborough or one of their other guests chiming in with him.

Pat still hasn't gotten over Nixon getting run out of office. He's always a sure bet to be out there fighting for the poor, downtrodden white man who just hasn't gotten a fair shake in this country.

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Hardball's Big Number....TX-Gov: $11 mil from stimulus to repair Perry's mansion.

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Charlie Cook tells us how he really feels about the Republicans wonderful idea (which didn't end up being passed) to rename the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party" and how anyone who voted for the ridiculous proposal should be treated. I'd like to know why Chris Matthews thinks the Republican's, rightfully called out by Charlie Cook, childish name calling could ever be considered something along the line of "fun"? It always strikes me as nothing other than downright meanness.

Matthews: Alright. I've known for years we've lived with uh..and it's been kind of fun in a weird sick way, every time you heard a Republican at a Republican convention or at a party event would say "the Democrat party" rather than Democratic party and you know that didn't hurt anybody. It's just a stupid way of saying, like Bob Dole used to do it all the time. Now they want to go further and call it the Socialist, or the Democrat Socialist Party. In fact the Associated Press today got it screwed up and referred to it as, they were going to call them the Nationalist Socialist Democratic Party, the Nazi party. That was a typo I guess.

Cook: You know, this reminds me, I laughed when you use the playground metaphor because that was exactly right. It's like in school when you say "Oh your mother wears combat boots". I mean this is just stupid, sophomoric, towel snapping. And the thing is you know Republicans didn't lose fifty four House seats in two elections, fourteen Senate seats and the Presidency for nothing. I think that people, the American people have effectively put them in a time out chair.

They're not listening to Republicans and they don't really care what they say. The question is do Republicans take this time and use it in an effective way to figure out okay, when we get allowed to rejoin the class, when people start listening to us again, what are they, what are we going to say and maybe what can we say that might be more appealing than what they were saying the last two elections.

Fineman: The RNC has no clout, has no place on the landscape. That RNC has been replaced by another RNC, which is Rush, Newt and Cheney.

Cook: You know Republicans should take a list of everybody that votes for this resolution and say okay here's a list of people we should never listen to again, because these are people that are part of the problem, and look for forward thinking people. People that put the party in a position where people might actually want to vote for them again.

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So which is it Chris Matthews? Are you for the rule of law or do you think it's okay to torture prisoners and violate our international treaties? You cannot call out a guest on your show one day for embracing Cheney's rhetoric and then turn around and embrace it yourself the next without rightfully being called either a complete hypocrite, or just psychotic. Matthews is a master of giving all of us a reason to never take him seriously when he does things like this. The man just has no filter.

He had on the ACLU's Anthony Romero in the previous segment and if anyone thinks him talking over Walsh in the clip I posted was bad he was worse with Romero. If Matthews just wants to hear himself talk I don't know why he bothers with guests at all.

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On Hardball, Harold Ford pulls out the 24 ticking time bomb red herring and says he might have voted for torture after our country was attacked on 9/11. Matthews slams him for veering into "Cheney country" and rightfully so.

With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans? Chris Cillizza isn't much better with more of his talk of polls and how many Americans approve of torture. Apparently Joan Walsh's lecture didn't get through to him.

Matthews: You know it's interesting Congressman it seems like Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are caught trying to do two things at the same time. You see her standing there in front of a million flags sincerely trying to look as nationalistic as the Republicans. I mean patriotic...in other words tough. Anything that goes to the defense of the country we're going to be tough as nails as opposing any enemy of any kind. We're tough as the Republicans are. At the same time trying to express sympathy for prisoners, bad guys. Is that a problem? You seem to be suggesting it is. You can't be both tough as nails and at the same time look like you worry about human rights violations. Is that a problem politically or not?

Ford: No. I think Eric Holder said this best when referring to the Ted Stevens case in the aftermath and when he stepped forward and said we would not, the Justice Department would not move forward. He said the most important thing in the Justice Department is not winning, it's justice. So in this sense I think having the conversation about what happened and whether or not at Guantanamo Bay, and I'm not as outraged as some are about it because as much as I think some of those techniques were enhanced and might have risen to a level of torture you have to remember when this was occurring.

This is 2002, 2003. The country was in a different place, in a different space. And if you were to say to me, as an American, put aside my partisanship, that we have an opportunity to gain information that would prevent the destruction of an American city, to prevent killings in American cities, and we have to use certain techniques, I’m one of those Americans that would have voted a certain way, Chris. And that polling said it might have been torture, but I’m not as outraged.

Matthews: You are veering into Cheney country here. The destruction of an American city. What evidence did you ever have that the enemy had a nuclear weapon that could blow up an American city? Where'd that..that's Cheney talk. That is..that's what he uses to justify torture. We have no evidence that any enemy of ours had a nuclear weapon.