Deluded Matthews: 'People Don't' Compare Conservatives to Dictators...Except on MSNBC
Apparently Hardball anchor Chris Matthews doesn't watch his own network. On Wednesday, the liberal cable host piously proclaimed that liberals would never compare a conservative to a dictator such as Joseph Stalin: "...People don't do that," he sputtered. However, on February 14, 2012,
MSNBC host Martin Bashir outrageously linked Rick Santorum to genocidal
murderer Joseph Stalin. [See MP3 audio here.]
After highlighting a critic who insisted the Republican was straight
out of the 13th century, Bashir smeared, "If you listen carefully to
Rick Santorum, he sounds more like Stalin than Pope Innocent III."
Yet, according to Matthews on April 18th, "But if you were to say that to a conservative...you're really on a slippery slope to extreme rightism...you're basically over there with Mussolini and Hitler- But people don't do that." Maybe just MSNBC hosts do such things?
Matthews's comments came out of a discussion of Congressman Allen West's
claim that there are "communists" within the congressional Democratic
delegation.
The anchor complained about "This charge that if you are a
liberal...then you're just a slippery slope away from Joe Stalin and the
detention camps and the gulag and everything else."
Yes, because comparing a political leader would be out of bounce...unless you're a MSNBC host sliming a Republican.
A transcript of the April 18 exchange, which aired at 5:08pm EDT, follows:
CHRIS
MATTHEWS: What's so interesting is how the right has done this. This
charge that if you are a liberal- in other words, you believe in a role
for government, mixed capitalism, some government, some private
enterprise- then you're just a slippery slope away from Joe Stalin and
the detention camps and the gulag and everything else. But if you were
to say that to a conservative- in other words, if you're a moderate
conservative, then you're really on a slippery slope to extreme rightism
and you're over there -- you're basically over there with Mussolini and
Hitler. But people don't do that.
