On Monday night's "Hardball," Chris Matthews feared Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, in her nomination fight to head HHS, would be a target of "the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people." Then perhaps realizing he called all pro-lifers terrorists, Matthews feebly attempted to amend the statement, as he tried to clarify, "I mean verbal terrorism."
The following exchange was aired during the March 2, edition of "Hardball":
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let's talk about, let's get to something really tough.
JONATHAN MARTIN, POLITICO: Sure.
MATTHEWS: Kathleen Sebelius, very likeable, very impressive. I think of the woman who becomes the governor in Mr. Holland's Opus, remember the one who comes back?
LOIS
MATTHEWS: Who becomes the governor, the woman governor. She looks like
her, in fact. Is she gonna get through the, the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people?
ROMANO: Yeah I think she's gonna do that and I think they've got a clear shot.
MATTHEWS: I mean verbal terrorism.
ROMANO: Yeah they're, she'll get through that.
MARTIN: I think she will, for one important reason. Sam Brownback, her home state senator, an ardent Catholic pro-lifer, Chris, has said kind things about her, signaling that he will not stand in her way. So if that's any, sort of indication I think that bodes well for Sebelius.
<?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />MATTHEWS: But are we gonna have days and days of hearings about what she did about this guy who was a late-term abortion doctor?
MARTIN: I'm sure it'll come up.
Geoff Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.