Matthews: Southern Haters Have to Choose Between 'Cultists' Romney and Santorum

Chris Matthews doesn't think much of southerners. The Hardball anchor appeared on MSNBC's primary night coverage, Tuesday, and mocked the supposed thought process of the Republican voters: "They've got three RCs, or two RCs -- two Roman Catholics -- running and a Mormon, so three cultists running, and they gotta pick one of the three cultists, as they see them."

The host sneered, "...But it is ridiculous to pick a guy they think is really the other, the heretic, the Muslim. What a strange stew of religious prejudice is at work here."

Trying to explain the mind set of conservative primary voters, he added, "They are willing to outsource [defeating the President] to a Mormon...It's almost like calling up India or somewhere in the third world to get your computer fixed. You don't care who's fixing it, just fix the damn computer." [MP3 audio here [1].]

Matthews, who himself is Catholic, has previously attacked Catholicism. At a February 20, 2012 [2] Ford's Theater event, Matthews derided, "If you're really anti-gay, you become a Catholic now."
 
A transcript of the March 13 exchange can be found below:

8:06 EDT

CHRIS MATTHEWS (talking about southern voters on MSNBC's The Ed Show, March 13): They're not going to vote for President Obama. So, who are they going to get to beat him? That's what seems to be on their minds down there. Not, who do they like. They are willing to outsource it to a Mormon. It seems to me, if they can win- I said, it's almost like calling up India or somewhere in the third world to get your computer fixed. You don't care who's fixing it, just fix the damn computer.

They want to get rid of Obama. So they're willing to vote for a guy they don't like and probably wouldn't trust his religion. But they have no choice. They've got three RCs, or two RCs -- two Roman Catholics -- running and a Mormon, so three cultists running, and they gotta pick one of the three cultists, as they see them. This isn't as funny as I'm making it, but it is ridiculous to pick a guy they think is really the other, the heretic, the Muslim. What a strange stew of religious prejudice is at work here, when they pick the guy they don't like, to pick [beat] a guy they hate worse.

-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [3] to follow him on Twitter. [4]