Matthews: John Boehner Wants to Treat the Earth Like His Ashtray

Chris Matthews, on Thursday's Hardball, assailed Republican Congressman John Boehner for, in his view, trashing the planet because the soon-to-be Speaker of the House announced the slashing of the House committee on global warming. Making fun of his smoking habit the MSNBC host derisively theorized that Boehner was going to treat the "whole planet" like he does his "ashtray."

The following Matthews outburst was aired during the Sideshow segment on the December 2 edition of Hardball:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Don't expect much House debate next year over climate change. Republicans just announced that they're eliminating, altogether, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. John Boehner put out a statement saying, the move was part of his pledge of quote, 'reducing waste and duplication in Congress.' Well let's just treat the whole planet, why not, like John Boehner does his ashtray?

-Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here