As his MSNBC bosses pressured for apology, Chris Matthews "dug in his heels"

WP: Chris Matthews Backs Off 'Nasty' Remark on Clinton
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 18, 2008; Page C01

Under pressure from feminist groups and his own bosses at MSNBC, Chris Matthews apologized yesterday for remarks about Hillary Clinton that he now admits sounded "nasty." For 10 days, the "Hardball" host had doggedly insisted he was just reciting a bit of history when he said on the air that "the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around." But protests against those and other remarks by Matthews reached a peak yesterday when the presidents of such groups as the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority and National Women's Political Caucus sent a joint letter of complaint to NBC News President Steve Capus.

On last night's program, Matthews defended the substance of his remarks that Clinton's political career in New York was launched because of public sympathy stemming from her husband's much-investigated affair with Monica Lewinsky. But, he said, "was it fair to imply that Hillary's whole career depended on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No. And that's what it sounded like I was saying."...

Kim Gandy, NOW's president, said last night that "Chris Matthews is a repeat offender when it comes to sexist attitudes toward women politicians. . . . I wasn't really looking for an apology. I was looking for a behavior change, and for him to treat female politicians the same way as male politicians." In the joint letter, also signed by author Gloria Steinem, the women cited other examples in which Matthews referred to Clinton as a "stripteaser" and called her "witchy." When Nancy Pelosi was in line to become House speaker, the letter noted, Matthews asked a guest if Pelosi was "going to castrate Steny Hoyer" if the Maryland congressman was elected majority leader.

About 30 people affiliated with the National Women's Political Caucus picketed NBC's Nebraska Avenue NW bureau yesterday afternoon as a protest against Matthews's remarks. "This is a victory for all women. We are pleased that Chris Matthews has shown remorse," the caucus said in a statement last night....

As criticism from liberal bloggers and others mounted over the past week, top MSNBC officials urged Matthews to apologize, according to network officials who would not be identified discussing internal deliberations. But Matthews dug in his heels, deciding to deliver the mea culpa only after he had returned from a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by the network in Las Vegas....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702828.html

you are a pathetic little twerp who needs to retire and live in the obscurity you so richly deserve.

"Me! Me! Do you love me? I think you love me! I have a good heart! Me! Me! Me! Me!"

or his love of politics have to do with this? And what an egomaniac -- he does seem convinced that viewers watch every day, and like him, no matter what he does.

Tweety is pond scum! (I don't think pond scum has feelings) :hi:

MSNBC is showing their bias, again.

Tucker has said many times that when he sees "Mrs Clinton" (rather than Senator Clinton)

that he crosses his legs(fear of castration)

This morning Scarborough showed a clip of Tweets apology and He was angry that Tweets

"was made to apologize" citing "freedom of speech" His side kick Mika said that women would probably be mad at her but she agreed with Joe:eyes:


The 3 stooges need to go

Tweety's got one of the biggest egos in television and for him to go on the air to even appear to try to explain himself means that he must have been dressed down quite a bit by his bosses.

Many women including myself respected the way she handled herself and it did increase her popularity. Clearly she was already accomplished but she had some high negatives before that making it difficult to get elected to the senate.

that one statement, but I don't think the uproar was ever about any one statement. It was about years of sexism, some of it aimed at Hillary, much of it not. Then he reached a new low in the week leading up to NH. I think when it was thought maybe he'd learned a lesson (some think leading a charge that lost NH for Obama), he came out with the "victim" statement. But it was about a lot more than that, and I hope he knows that, even if he didn't acknowledge it in his statement.

and I was APPALLED!

It's inconceivable to me that anyone could state they 'didn't think it inappropriate.

Well, no matter what, Matthews has been put on notice, right? What he does after this is his choice, but he surely knows there will be big consequences. Maybe he's not truly repentant because he knows the program writers and his program director are also to blame, and they managed to stay under cover.

He knew she might win the election and his and NBC could suffer the consequences if he didn't get with the program. He knew in his heart and soul that he was an ass and was WRONG and UNFAIR. He thought she would lose and he could stomp on her, and women, with both feet. He got a rude awaking.

Media Matters, unnamed in this article, put together a little greatest hits compendium of Tweety's misogynist comments, and they aren't limited to Hillary Clinton. Tweety tried to pass off his insult as just a heat-of-the-moment verbal shortcut, but the Media Matters list shows that rather than an aberration, the Clinton remarks were just the latest in a long line of shit spewing from Tweety's pie hole. This mealy-mouthed "sorry if you were offended, you touchy chicks" apology might satisfy his overlords at NBC, but actual human beings should pull the plug on this cretin.

Best post on the Matthews business yet.

Chris Matthews is an asshole, but might be a grain of truth to in his mountain of shit.
If Hillary's last name were Smith, can we be so sure she would be in the US Senate?
We all know her success is not "entirely" tied to being Bill Clinton's scorned woman. She has her own record. And her election to the US Senate was not "entirely" due to sympathy.
(Remember, if being mistreated by Bill Clinton were the only qualification for office, there would be more women in the US Senate! -ba dum ching)
She has her own merits, but I do think the Clinton name and "the history" helps her get media attention and some people's support.

Hillary benefits (and is hindered) by having the last name Clinton.
Some folks like her because they like her.
Some folks her because they liked him.
And yes, some folks do feel bad for her after all the crap she has had to put up with.
Crap from Bill. Crap from the Right wing hate machine which has pretty much called her every name in the book, from lesbian commie to murderer of Vince Foster.
(Yes, there are some troglodytes that really do believe that shit. But they think you and I are evil too, so relax.)
Also, A Fat Drug addict radio guy even attacked her young daughter's looks on national tv. WTF?
Can any other candidate say the same?
While I'm not a Hillary voter, even I admit she has taken a lot of personal abuse that has been completely outrageous.
Hillary also takes a lot of crap from retarded guys who don't want to let a woman into their little boys club. Let's be honest, there are those assholes out there.
Not many, but like I always say, it just takes a few klansmen showing up to ruin the county bar-b-que.

I'm not trying to piss folks off, I just wish people were a little more honest.
Chris Matthews was over the line in suggesting that her "entire career" is based on Bill Clinton's getting a blowjob.
But as for sympathy playing a factor in some people's support for her, there might be a grain a truth in that mountain of shit he spews. My grandmother feels sorry for her and is glad she is in the Senate. To be fair, my cranky grandmother thinks Hillary should have "divorced his ass" and taken every penny he had.
But my granny is a hopeless romantic.

And to be completely honest and fair, the same goes for Obama. Being a black guy running for president has it's own plusses or minuses. Some folks will never vote for the black guy.
(We usually refer to them as republicans -ba dum ching)
But some folks will vote for the black guy, simply because he's black. And that's how it is.
And using the same analogy that I used on Hillary, if Barack Obama were Barry O'Neil, a one term senator from Illinois, I seriously doubt he'd receive as much media attention.
And I like Obama, but I am trying to talk about this stuff honestly.

Finally, if we are completely honest, we would have to admit that John Edwards really does exist.

as he says, he could have said it differently. I think this one statement has been seized on by Tweety, who did not address his years of sexist behavior, some of it aimed at Hillary, much of it not.

and how they treat men.
And some of Matthews shit would have been low class even in 1954.
One I saw with him had him basically hitting on a female guest. It was one of the most distrubing things I've seen, outside of the Bush Administration. He was saying crap like "You're soo cute. You're soo sexy".
I mean WTF? Complete disrespect for her, her intellect, and basically turning this woman into a sex object to look at on national tv. She tried to handle it politely, but it was uncomfortable. As a guy, I was thinking, now, this is someone's daughter. Someone's daughter who has busted her ass to get through school, learn her shit, get a Ph.D. and be somebody you can take seriously.
And here this rich jackass is just oogling her tits.
I know it's technically 2008, but for some folks 1954 never ended.

So he could leer at her. Disgusting.

This problem isn't only about what he said about Hillary the other day. Yeah, what he said was true in a way even though the way he said it was nasty. The way he explained it in his apology was OK. Why couldn't he have said it that way at first? It's because he's a sexist. That's the way he thinks, so that's what comes out of his mouth.

This is about years of this crap from him... and folks finally got sick of it. Sick enough to send a bunch of letters and e-mails about it.

He only mentioned that one incident in his apology. But this was about a whole lot more than that, and both he and his bosses know it. Heck I'm not even supporting Hillary, but I've gotten sick of the way he's spoken about her. And Hillary isn't the only woman he talks about in this manner.

This shit has been going on for years. He is a nasty drooling letch

I was trying to address something about voter sympathy, then realized in the end it would mean defending Chris Matthews at least a smidgen. Now, I've done a lot of scandalous shit in my life, but even I can't defend Matthews.

bill helped her get where she got. nobody ever points out that hillary has worked with (for?) bill her whole life; she's not getting any free ride off of bill's coattails. now THAT'S a sexist idea, for christ's sake.

Um, do you really believe Hillary Smith would have won a Senate election in New York in 2000?
Hillary Smith from Illinois. A lawyer. A damn good lawyer, but a lawyer from out of state with no prior elected experience running for the US Senate in New York.
And then winning that election?

And you can drop the "sexism" rant, it's not sexist to acknowledge that a family members benefit politically from being related to the President of the United States.

Case in point on your spurious sexism charge, Bobby Kennedy. I admired RFK, but the same could be said for him. A lawyer from Virginia running for US Senate in New York. At least in his case he had previous experience as Attorney General and had lived in the state before. But still, the Kennedy name counted for a lot. Now, he didn't have a "co-presidency" with his late brother, and he never claimed as much. If he did he would have sounded pathetic. So ran for Senate on what he could do for New York, not what JFK did for America. Same with his presidential run. He benefited from the name, used it when appropriate, but tried to run on his own merits.

A final case in point is George friggin Bush. Can anyone honestly say George W. Smith would have beat Al Gore in 2000? (Well, George W. Bush didn't either, but that's besides the point)
And would George W. Smith, the failed business man, town drunk and village idiot have even been elected Governor of Texas in the first place. I think not. Names and connections matter.

I'll grant you that Hillary had a major role in creating the Clinton "brand", developing policy, like Health Care Reform (ouch!). But to suggest that Hillary Clinton was "Co-President in the 1990s" is, um, a bit of a stretch. But I'd like to see some evidence of it.

For example, do we have notes of when Hillary signed the Defense of Marriage Act.
Or when she approved Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Or when she bombed the Balkans
(and a medicine factory in Sudan)
How about when she promised Americans Health Care, and then screwed it up so bad it disappeared from the national agenda for the last 15 years.
(So let's give her another shot to piss away health care reform for another decade?)
Maybe there's speech memo from when she signed NAFTA into law.
(That's done wonders for labor in America.)
How about when she signed the Iraq Liberation Act.
(I didn't know she was Pro-Iraq War way back in 1998!)
Or how about the day she signed the Welfare Reform Act.
(Yeah, Hillary, Fuck the Poor! That'll Show 'Em)

See, if you want to run on "The Clinton Duo" for a 3rd term instead of "Elect Hillary Clinton on her own merits", then she needs to take on all of the shit that entails, and not just cherry pick the good things from the 1990s.

I could go on, but it's pretty clear, there is a lot of good from the Clinton Era, but a lot of crap too.
And it is gross hypocrisy to just use the good stuff and claim to be the "Co-President" on the good days and ignore the bad crap the "partner" did as if it never happened.

Anyhow, why not just run as Hillary Clinton, US Senator?
She would probably be stronger as the solid senator from New York, and not Bill Clinton's Co-President.

But she would have been there.

Except for a couple of things. First, Hillary Clinton was a successful lawyer for many years before she became the First Lady. Certainly being married to the governor of Arkansas helped that along, but if she didn't have some talents of her own, she never would have been a partner in a high-powered firm.

Second, I'd go along with the argument if it were applied in any way, shape or form to other politicians, notably male politicians. Would Mitt Romney have won the Michigan primary if he didn't happen to share the last name (and half his gene pool) of a former Michigan governor? Would George W. Bush have ever become anything more than a real-life Goober Pyle, being a pump jockey at a filling station somewhere in east Texas if he didn't have a famous daddy? And those are just two examples. But have you heard any political pundit, commentator, show host, or moderator making that argument? I submit that you have not.

I'm hoping John Edwards makes it to the Oregon primary, but even so, I can recognize the squealing of a male chauvinist pig like he's stuck under a mud fence when I hear Tweety's self-serving attempt at a mea culpa.

on men. George Bush is a perfect example. And in another post I mention Bobby Kennedy. I could have mentioned Teddy as well. And think we agree with the "last name thing" and a double standard when it comes to men and Hillary.

I'd even go so far as to say that Hillary was more important to Bill's success than even he realizes. She's literally saved his ass on several of Bill's attempts at ending his career.
And I'd also acknowledge that Hillary might have created her own independent political life, outside of being married to Bill, had she tried. It's quite possible that she might have been elected to congress or the Senate on her own, had she had the courage to stand in the arena.
If Barack Obama can get elected to the senate from Illinois, Hillary Rodham could have! Hillary Rodham could have won in 1992. (Although I would still prefer Barbara Boxer from the Senate class of '92. She's far more progressive than Hillary will ever be)
Ahh, but we will never know.

I hope that next time Hillary has the misfortune to encounter him she knees him in his tiny little balls.

Drop dead, Tweety!!!!!!!


:mad:

when, in truth, he was busted for a long string of sexist comments about Hillary Clinton and other women?

...and MSNBC keeps cutting him a paycheck, so anyone who isn't emailing MSNBC accepts that.

(YES, I've emailed MSNBC on MORE than one occasion).

comments he made not just about Clinton but other women as well, what a tool.

Matthews is an embarrassment. Apparently his ratings justify keeping him on, just as CNN retains Glenn Beck and The View welcomed Elizabeth Hasselbeck back from her maternity leave.