MSNBC's Chris Matthews: 'Torture Advocate' Dick Cheney Should Waterboard Karl Rove

Scott Whitlock

May 9, 2011 - 6:33pm

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday continued to obsess over Dick Cheney, deriding the former Vice President as a "torture advocate" who should waterboard Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby.

The Hardball anchor attacked Cheney for complaining that Barack Obama has ended Bush-era war on terror polices. Matthews offered this aside: "...But Cheney being Cheney- doesn't that sound like a good torture advocate name, by the way- he couldn't help but stick it to the President on this very issue."

He then played a clip of Cheney and, rather than address the ex-VP's statements, mocked, "Why don't we have Cheney try that waterboarding thingamajig of his on Karl Rove and Scooter to really find out who said what in that CIA leak case? I think they're fair game, to use a phrase." [MP3 audio here [1].]

Only six days ago, on May 06, 2011 [2], Matthews lashed out at Cheney as a "sadist."

Oddly, Matthews concluded his show on Monday with a stirring call for patriotism and non-partisanship. Apparently, this doesn't include lobbying to waterboard Republicans.

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 5:30pm EDT on May 09, follows:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: As we showed you earlier, Dick Cheney was generally complimentary of how President Obama handled the bin Laden mission. That was nice, but Cheney being Cheney- doesn't that sound like a good torture advocate name, by the way- he couldn't help but stick it to the President on this very issue.
DICK CHENEY: I still am concerned about the fact that a lot of the techniques that we had used to keep the country safe for more than seven years are no longer available, that they've sort of been taken off the table, if you will. It's not clear to me today if we still have an interrogation program we could put somebody through, should we capture a high value detainee.
MATTHEWS: Where would we be without this fellow? Anyway, he says high value detainee the way that some people say, "I want waffles." Anyway, I have got an interesting thought: Why don't we have Cheney try that waterboarding thingamajig of his on Karl Rove and Scooter to really find out who said what in that CIA leak case? I think they're fair game, to use a phrase.

- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [3] to follow him on Twitter.