MSNBC’s Matthews Blasts Cheney, calls Iraq rationale "nonsense"

[TheWebHead]

Matthews said the Bush administration's rationale for going to war in Iraq was "nonsense" and totally dishonest. He laid most of the blame at the door of Vice President Richard Cheney.

"Cheney is behind it all," the former newspaper reporter and columnist said. "The whole neo-conservative power vortex, it all goes through his office. He has become the chief executive. He's not the chief operating officer, he's running the place. It's scary."

..."The ideologues started circling around the president," Matthews said, warming to his topic. "They saw a man who never read any books, who didn't think too deeply and they gave him something to think about for the first time in his life. This thing called pre-emption, the Bush Doctrine. They put it in his head and said 'Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.'"

more.. including how he likes Dean:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10419899&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=478996&rfi=8

meanwhile, a White House spokesman told The New York Daily News Matthews' analysis is "disrespectful, totally false and irresponsible. Mr. Matthews has lost touch with reality. The President made the decision to go to war using the same facts as the previous administration and the United Nations, which judged Saddam Hussein as a threat to the region."

[Richardo]

1. Yeah - half a decade ago.

The President made the decision to go to war using the same facts as the previous administration and the United Nations, which judged Saddam Hussein as a threat to the region."

Talk about irresponsible. :grr:

[jbfam4]

3. This always bugged me too

Like Time stopped and information doesn't change.......they really think we are stupid.

[Brotherjohn]

15. Ooooh, it burns me up when they continue to say that!

They are completely separated from reality!

"The President made the decision to go to war using the same facts as the previous administration and the United Nations, which judged Saddam Hussein as a threat to the region."

LIKE HELL!!! Clinton, and even the U.N., at some point since the Gulf War, may have thought that Iraq was reconsituting WMDs. But neither KNEW or had FACTS, much less ones that were strong enough to convince them to go to war. They did not know because U.N. inspectors were no longer on the ground in Iraq to make such a judgement. Clinton suggested U.N. Inspectors leave in 1998 (Saddam did not kick them out) because he felt that Iraq was not being forthright enough and may have been hiding elements of WMD programs. He ordered limited military action because he felt inspections were not working at that point.

With the return of weapons inspectors in 2002, we were able to get a much clearer picture of what the state of Iraq's weapons programs were, and what level of threat they were. Because of the return of inspectors, Bush had MORE FACTS than the previous administration to judge whether Iraq was a threat, and, yes, at that point, the same evidence that the U.N. had. Trouble is, Bush chose to ignore most of this evidence and rely on his own. Cheney even said point blank that the U.N. was flat out wrong, and the White House presented much "evidence" of its own. Most of Bush's evidence and claims contradicted the U.N.'s conclusions, which were basically that Iraq had NOT re-constituted nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs.

The U.N. passing Resolution 1441 in no way meant that the U.N. had drawn the same conclusions about the threat Iraq posed. It merely put pressure on Iraq (yes, along with U.S. military presence), to allow inspectors back in so that we could determine the true extent of any possible banned weapons programs. Res. 1441 did NOT authorize any use of force (it was only passed unanimously specifically because there was no "automaticity", or trigger for use of force). It allowed us, in fact, to gather evidence which we needed to find out WHETHER Iraq was a threat or not. The U.N. concluded that inspections were working and that there was no new development of WMDs. Ignoring most of this evidence and manufacturing their own, the Bush administration concluded that Iraq WAS a dire threat and had, in fact, reconstituted nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. This is a VERY different conclusion than the U.N.'s, and the evidence the Bush administration used to justify its war was VERY different from what the U.N. testified to, as far as the threat Iraq posed. Most of Bush's evidence was openly questioned at the time by the U.N. and many others, and most of it has since been proven false.

It is the Bush administration that has been shown to be flat out wrong.

[Richardo]

18. Great write-up, brotherjohn....

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[el_gato]

2. did he say this on the air?

[KoKo]

11. No, it was at one of his "college" appearances, where he was blabbing. He

wouldn't say on the air that he supports Dean. And, I bet he doesn't. Must have been a liberal college and he was afraid they might stone him if he didn't trash shrub. He had his pollster in there before hand, sampling the views of the students. Matthews brings out the worst of my cynical side, because he does this kind of thing all the time.

[NewJeffCT]

13. It was at Brown...

Ivy League is considered liberal by most outside the Northeast...

[tishaLA]

23. Tweety Jr. is at Brown

probably trying to get some pressure off the poor kid, who has a future as a big-headed blabbermouth.

[Champion Jack]

4. Unbelievable

[carolinayellowdog]

5. He'll be groveling again soon enough

Tweety opposed the Iraq war in advance, then publicly announced "I was wrong" last spring for no apparent reason. Expect more of the same.

[Tatiana]

6. Well, well, well...

Now we get to see what he really thinks. Too bad he lies his a$$ off when he's on MSRNC.

[thebigidea]

7. which Tweety is this?

the "Good" Tweety without an eyepatch that appears when his ratings are going down?

Or the "BAD" Tweety with a peg leg and a hotline to Karl Rove?

[KoKo]

8. Typical Tweety: at the end he says Bush is King Arthur who pulled Sword

out of Stone!" He also goes on to praise shrub for standing on the rubble of the WTC with his "Bullhorn."
And, that Bush is the favorite coming into the election.

More Tweety with his "finger in the wind"...sensing that Shrubby has a spot of trouble the last few weeks.

[soupkitchen]

Well, then why did Matthews vote for his ticket?

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Har-har-har. Chris Matthew is now realizing he got sucker-punched.

There seems to be a lot of that lately.

"..."The ideologues started circling around the president," Matthews said, warming to his topic. "They saw a man who never read any books, who didn't think too deeply and they gave him something to think about for the first time in his life. This thing called pre-emption, the Bush Doctrine. They put it in his head and said 'Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.'""

Oh, if we could go back and find Chris Matthew's optimistic reviews about why voting for the village idiot was a good idea.

[Jacobin]

10. Schizophrenia in action

Today he speaks the truth with a vengeance. Good on him.

Tomorrow, he will have a hard on and be panting over a re-play of the Mission Accomplished photo op.

[Wickerman]

12. Part of the dump Cheney in '04 plan

cut Cheney, cut losses and baggage that Bush* has managed to accumulate despite free press ride. Cheney is a part of the plan as much as No Facts Novak is. Neither of them can be as stoopid as they have appeared of late - right?

[Mandate My Ass]

35. Exactly

It's as plain as day that his man crush on Bush* is still in full bloom. Blame Cheney for everything and paint Chimpy as a moral straight shooter who was hoodwinked by idealogues who took advantage of his trusting nature. The rest of us know both of their records well enough to know this is hogwash, but I bet it plays well in Peoria.

[edzontar]

14. Tweety has absolutely NO core values or beliefs

He is a complete cynic without a trace of conscience or human empathy.

He says what he thinks whoever he is "serving" at that moment wants to hear.

In this sense, he is the ultimate Washington DC sycophant, a kneeling, sucking Media Whore with his mouth permanently wrapped around the Member of whoever's power is ascendant at that particular moment.

That is why his best friends are similarly soulless and amoral whores like Fineman and Barnicle, and why he tends to regard anyone with a pasionate viewpoint, Left or Right, as a kind of freak.

He doesn't understand why anypone would care about anything but self-promotion through oral service to the forces of power.

He is, in short, the worst of them all.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. He's Kathy Lee Gifford when it comes to Republicans, but

Joan Rivers when he's talking about Democrats.

[The Magistrate]

20. You Are Correct, Mr. Zontar

Matthews is a contemptible piece of work.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[edzontar]

22. He's a truly wretched sign of our National decline....

nt

[thebigidea]

30. Tweety was one of the first to be implanted with an injectopod

[rocktivity]

16. If it's Thursday, he must be anti-Bush Regime

but tomorrow is another day, and Tweety's viewpoint will most likely swing in the opposite direction.



rocknation

[Skittles]

19. oh so it SCARES you now, Tweetie, YOU F***ING WHORE

:puke:

[KoKo]

33. He's driven you over the edge Skittles!

:D I had to stop watching him! Why did I read this post and thread! WHY! arghhhhhhhhhh!!!

[DrBB]

21. Ah, I see we're back to Rove's Plan "B"

Namely, blame Cheney for all the bad stuff and kick him off in order to propell the Flying Chimp back toward the center. After all, he's old, has a dickie heart (pun intended) and all that. At the convention, Condi gets the nod for Veep and Dickie goes off to spend more time with family. Always assuming he doesn't have to take the fall prematurely for outing Plame.

[janekat]

24. I think he has Multiple Personality Disorder - (like Sybil)

Maybe he has names for each of them...

[Snellius]

25. More of Tweety's schizo rationalizations for Bush

"They put it in his head and said 'Iraq, Iraq, Iraq."

Tweety still refuses to admit that Bush himself is responsible for the Bush Doctrine. This is how he reconciles his oppostion to the Iraq war and his devotion to Bush. It's all Cheney's fault.

[9119495]

26. His comments lately have been disgusting

Regarding the upcoming Reagan movie, he had on 3 pro-Reagan biographers and acted as though they were the only three who ever wrote a book about Reagan, saying "so they didn't contact you? That seems strange that the producers didn't contact one expert."

Then, he had Bill Bennet on "one-on-one to find out the truth about Reagan." Screw Matthews, I'm done with him.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

27. I was 100% convinced that this was satire.

It reads like something from the Onion with the WH defending its lies with even more lies which are obvious. I was very surprised to see that the link is a genuine news article.

[emulatorloo]

28. Take a look at the reader responses at the bottom; Bizarre!

Much right wing hatred of "liberal" Tweety, and a lot of "Up is really Down" type assertions like this one:

Name: Al Resch

Date: Oct, 28 2003

For those who study the craft of politics, the Master, Machiavelli said " The first impression that one gets of a ruler and of his brains is from seeing the men he has about him" Correct conclusion: Bush is very smart and Clinton was truly amoral and stupid-why he cannot tell the truth. Only those who have similar faults or traits of these two men will side with truth or darkness, which ever fulfills their own self-interest.


Do people really believe this?

[amish_enforcer]

32. yes, they are a .....

real treat to read, I added one myself, they still haven't posted it yet.....maybe this is one of the safe-havens from the all powerful liberal media :)

[stewert]

29. Tweety is a Two-Faced Media Whore !

In may he said this:

5-1-03 --

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: I’m Chris Matthews, in my home town of Philadelphia, let’s play
HARDBALL. The big story, President Bush is aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and two hour
away from declaring an toned major combat operations in Iraq.

And more on the commander-in-chief, for more of that and his stewardship of the
war in Iraq, we’re joined by Mitch McConnell. He is a Republican and we’ve known that for years
from Kentucky. Senator McConnell, let me ask about today. What’s the importance of the
president’s amazing display of leadership tonight?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL ®, KENTUCKY: Well, I think it was time to say to the American
people, the hostilities in Iraq have ended but the war on terrorism is not over, and there’s much
left to be done. I think this is the perfect place to do it. Surrounded by the young men and women
who had enormous success. In this case, not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan.

MATTHEWS: What do you make of the actual visual that’s people will see on TV and probably,
as you know, as well as I, will remember a lot longer than words spoken tonight? And that’s the
president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot.
Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the
American people, a guy who can actually get into a super sonic plane, and actually fly in an
unpressurized cabin, like an actual jet pilot?

<snip>

MATTHEWS: I think you’re right. Thank you very much, Senator Mitch McConnell, Kentucky.
Former Congressman Bob Dornan is a Republican from California, now a radio talk show host,
nothing wrong with that. And Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC’s senior political analyst. I want to
ask Lawrence the Democrat aboard, at least the former Democrat aboard to answer the question.
Was this over the top for the president today to do the top gun routine or was it appropriate for
the winner of a war?

And the guests for this show were, B-1 Bob Dornan, Mitch McConnell, Ann Coulter, Lawrence
O’Donnel, and Pat Caddell. Three republicans and two former democrats who agree with republicans
half the time or more.

MATTHEWS: And so does Bob Dornan. Bob, your joining us. I can’t think of a better guy off the
on the panel, a man who has flown those jet fighter. Tell me about what you feel when you see
your commander-in-chief in the uniform and equipped to fly a plane like the F-18.

<snip>

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Bob Dornan, you were a congressman all those years. Here’s a
president who’s really non-verbal. He’s like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He
looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes west. I remember him standing at that
fence with Colin Powell. Was the best picture in the 2000 campaign.

<snip>

MATTHEWS: We’re back with the buzz. Time for the political buzz. Pat Caddell’s a former
Democratic pollster and a man active in Hollywood circles, and Ann Coulter is the author of the
forthcoming book-wow- “Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on
Terrorism,” she warns darkly. Ann Coulter, you’re the first to speak tonight on the buzz. The
president’s performance tonight, redolent of the best of Reagan-what do you think?

ANN COULTER, AUTHOR, “TREASON”: It’s stunning. It’s amazing. I think it’s huge. I mean,
he’s landing on a boat at 150 miles per hour. It’s tremendous. It’s hard to imagine any Democrat
being able to do that. And it doesn’t matter if Democrats try to ridicule it. It’s stunning, and it
speaks for itself.

MATTHEWS: Pad Caddell, the president’s performance tonight on television, his arrival on ship?

PAT CADDELL, FORMER DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Well, first of all, Chris, the-I think
that-you know, I was-when I first heard about it, I was kind of annoyed. It sounded like the kind
of PR stunt that Bill Clinton would pull. But and then I saw it. And you know, there’s a real - ”
there’s a real affection between him and the troops. It’s-you know, when you see Bill Clinton with
troops, it used to be like watching people going to the dentist...

(LAUGHTER)

CADDELL: ... like seeing Dukakis in a tank. But no, the genuineness...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, let’s talk about authenticity, Pat.

CADDELL: ... watching that was really...

MATTHEWS: You’re an expert...

CADDELL: ... really, really authentic.

MATTHEWS: The president there-look at this guy! We’re watching him. He looks like he flew the
plane. He only flew it as a passenger, but he’s flown...

CADDELL: He looks like a fighter pilot.

MATTHEWS: He looks for real. What is about it the commander-in-chief role, the hat that he
does wear, that makes him-I mean, he seems like-he didn’t fight in a war, but he looks like he
does.

Read the rest of this crap here:

http://www.oreilly-sucks.freewebsitehosting.com/transcripts/hardball.htm

[Clark Can WIN]

31. On Dean he also said

"The problem for Dean, the former aide to House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts, Matthews said, is the American people have to decide, "do you put a lefty in at a time of crisis?"

This is why Dean would get shattered in the GE. Weakness in foreign policy. He can't get around it and he can't make it up and saying he'll have good advisors just wont get it for Dean the way it did for Bush because

#1 Bush was a republican, already perceived as strong on defense
#2 9/11

period

[aldian159]

37. your right

Dean would get beat down in November. Kerry or Clark, that'll be fun to watch.

[KoKo]

34. In honor of Halloween, we "villagers" should light torches and seek him

out like they did with Frankenstein! Down with Tweety!

[blm]

36. Sounds like he's setting Bush up for a NEW VP for 2004.

Luntz, Fineman and Rove are giving him material, no doubt.