According to Chris Matthews, conservatives have gone from wanting to kidnap babies to "killing" them. On October 1 [1], the Hardball anchor insisted that Barack Obama "will not give up his baby" to pro-shutdown conservatives such as Ted Cruz. On Tuesday, still angry over the partial-government closure, the anchor fumed, "Today and in the future, Cruz will be remembered as the one who ignited the fire of government shutdown and general political mayhem."
Matthews added, "He'll go down in history as the Mrs. O'Leary's cow of the 2013 disaster." According to the liberal journalist, the "thug" Republican senator from Texas thinks "we're going to bring down the government if you don't do things our way" and "we're going to kill your baby ObamaCare, unless you give us the government." [MP3 audio here [2].] Perhaps members of the rabidly pro-abortion party shouldn't be throwing around such terms?
Matthews then complained about Cruz's countenance: "His personality, his mien, the way he speaks on television -- I think it's pretty frightening to people because it has that evangelical edge of fire and brimstone."
Again speaking for Cruz, he imagined, "I'll bring down this temple if I have to, but I'm getting my way."
Appearing on the October 1 Today, Matthews berated, "The President was elected – reelected again. He won this fight over health care....the President will not give up his baby."
A partial transcript of the October 22 segment is below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let Me Start tonight with this: I will always tell people that you only get one reputation in life. Someone should have told the Republicans that. Today, their name is mud. Actually, it's worse. It's Ted Cruz. Today and in the future, Cruz will be remembered as the one who ignited the fire of government shutdown and general political mayhem. He'll go down in history as the Mrs. O'Leary's cow of the 2013 disaster, the one guilty of kicking over the ladder that caused all the damage, who single-handedly, or single-footedly turned the Grand Old Party into the "burn down the house" party, leveling it down to the lowest level of public approval in its history. Just got that figure today. Ed Rendell is the former governor of Pennsylvania and an MSNBC -- actually, an NBC political analyst, and Jonathan Capehart is an opinion writer for "The Washington Post" and an MSNBC contributor, as well.
There was more bad news for the Republican Party today, as I said, with new polls showing just how lousily they are viewed after this shutdown. As Dan Balz wrote about it, in the new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll, "There is little in the findings in this poll for the GOP to feel good about." You think? Just 32 percent of the public, about less than a third, has a favorable view of the Republican Party. That's an all-time low in that poll. Fifty-three percent say Republicans in Congress were chiefly responsible for the shutdown.
...
MATTHEWS:. And the person of this political thuggery, I call it, because it really is extortion and, 'we're going to bring down the government if you don't do things our way,' and 'we're going to kill your baby ObamaCare, unless you give us the government, basically. My question is to Ted Cruz. His personality, his mien, the way he speaks on television -- I think it's pretty frightening to people because it has that evangelical edge of fire and brimstone -- 'I'll bring down this temple if I have to, but I'm getting my way.'
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter. [3]