“…which I suppose would include myself.”

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Alright, I’m sure you’ve seen some version of the below video where Chris Matthews asks sausage-brain to explain what appeasement means and protruding-forehead does his best imitation of Lenny from Mice and Men, “The rabbits, George. I want to pet the rabbits.”

But I’d like you to skip past “screaming-dude-who’s-greatest-college-experience-included-a-beer-bong-and-a-copy-of-Juggs” (I know its hard) in favor of a later moment… starting at 4:07 and going to the end… where Chris Matthews bemoans the denotative meaning of phrases like “appeaser” and “cut-and-run” and “WMD” and “patriotism”.

The quote from Matthews:

The whole mindset of the last several years… since 2000… has been to shut up critics. If you don’t like a war policy you get branded with a name. You’re unpatriotic. You’re a cut-and-runner. You’re an appeaser. You can’t argue politics in America. You can’t question power, because if you question it you’re going tobet drummed out of acceptable society. You’re going to called an appeaser. These magic words are used for one purpose… to shut you up… so they can continue with a policy.”

And then later:

Arguing over policy… arguing over our place in the world shouldn’t be seen as unpatriotic. In most cases it should be the essence of patriotism… We didn’t have (a real debate) when we went to war in Iraq. To some its the media’s fault. To some its just that people are intimidated to challenge this President.

And if you keep going:

The shutting up of opposition is critical to running a country in an undemocratic way. Let’s put it that way.

See, I watch the above and suddenly I’m that cartoon character who does a triple-take… eyes and lips in several places at once due to my face moving so fast… because while I applaud every word Chris Matthews is saying, please, correct me… HE IS NOT A NEW PUNDI, IS HE?

Hardball was on the air in 2001 and 2002 and 2003 and 2004 and 2005 and 2006 and 2007 and earlier this year and during that Mr. Matthews sat across the desk from an endless picnic-line of pundits who did JUST EXACTLY WHAT HE IS NOW DECRYING.

And Chris Matthews… said exactly FUCK-ALL-OF-NOTHING.

At one point in the above video, Matthews shakes his head and explains how he “hates” the phrase “WMD” because it links a myriad of different weapons under one banner of fear.

But you wanna bet I could go through the transcripts in early 2002 and find Andrea Mitchell or Judith Miller or Christopher Hitchens or any number of a thousand people spouting about those very same WMD while Chris Mathews does little more than nod and look concerned?

I suppose the new rule-of-thumb should be that if you’re standing in the line of political thought and you find yourself BEHIND Chris Matthews… you can be pretty sure there will be no concert tickets left.

Look, I’m not a grudge holder and I’m tempted to say nothing and enjoy the conversion of the talking heads who see the crumble and decay of the Republican Party agenda and scramble to be on the side of “right”, but a vindictive part of me can’t do so without wanting to pound my fists on the table and scream.

To some its the media’s fault.

YOU, you huge-headed-prattling-cheedar-face, ARE the media and the missing words you are looking for are, “…which I suppose would include myself”.

To some its the media’s fault… which I suppose would include myself.

At that point… I suppose we’re all good.