Chris Matthews and the "Bush Regime"

There is very little more satisfying than to catch the faux outrage of the Left and throw it back in their teeth.

It begins thus:

On Friday, I asked Rush Limbaugh for his response to President Obama's description of him as "troublesome" and of his program as "vitriol." Limbaugh told me he does not believe Obama is trying to do what is best for the country and added, "Never in my life have I seen a regime like this, governing against the will of the people, purposely."

By using the word "regime," Limbaugh was doing something he does all the time: throwing the language of the opposition back in their faces. In the Bush years, we often heard the phrase "Bush regime" from some quarters of the left. So Limbaugh applied it to Obama.

Apparently some people didn't get it. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews appeared deeply troubled by the word. "I've never seen language like this in the American press," he said, "referring to an elected representative government, elected in a totally fair, democratic, American election -- we will have another one in November, we'll have another one for president in a couple years -- fair, free, and wonderful democracy we have in this country…. We know that word, 'regime.' It was used by George Bush, 'regime change.' You go to war with regimes. Regimes are tyrannies. They're juntas. They're military coups. The use of the word 'regime' in American political parlance is unacceptable, and someone should tell the walrus [Limbaugh] to stop using it."

Matthews didn't stop there. "I never heard the word 'regime,' before, have you?" he said to NBC's Chuck Todd. "I don't even think Joe McCarthy ever called this government a 'regime.'"

And after citing many examples, it ends this way:

Finally -- you knew this was coming -- on June 14, 2002, Chris Matthews himself introduced a panel discussion about a letter signed by many prominent leftists condemning the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror. "Let's go to the Reverend Al Sharpton," Matthews said. "Reverend Sharpton, what do you make of this letter and this panoply of the left condemning the Bush regime?"

Oops. Perhaps Joe McCarthy never called the U.S. government a regime, but Chris Matthews did. And a lot of other people did, too. So now we are supposed to believe him when he expresses disgust at Rush Limbaugh doing the same?

Chris Matthews and tools like him still don't understand that the Internet will not allow them to rewrite history like they once did, by sending inconvenient truths down the "memory hole." It may be an age thing (although I think I'm older than Matthews) or it may be an intelligence thing (Matthews is a fast, loud but not particularly smart talker). Or it may be a Liberal Hive thing. Perhaps Matthews believes that the truth is compartmentalized; that the "virtual" truth that inhabits his world will never intersect with reality.

Or it may just be that Matthews' audience is so small that it's like that San Francisco gathering of billionaires where Obama referred to the "bitter clingers" and figures that only the true believers now watch him. I have a feeling that "Hardball" is turning into one of those small conspiracy cells where, out of 10 "conspirators" nine are FBI informants. In Matthews case, the few viewers he has left are looking for fodder for Byron York and NewsBusters.

In the latest ratings, Matthews does not even appear, being edged out by Behar and Cooper.

CABLE NEWS RACE
THURS., APRIL 1, 2010

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,981,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,256,000
FOXNEWS PALIN 2,073,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,014,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 1,877,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,658,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 989,000
MSNBC MADDOW 950,000
CNN KING 839,000
CNN COOPER 820,000
CNNHN BEHAR 641,000

But to make a point of this use of "Regime" is stupid ... and par for the course.