Matthews on Gergen's reference to Boehner tobacco check incident: "Wow. ... Everybody else ... forgives and forgets, but not Gergen."
On Hardball, Chris Matthews reacted in apparent surprise to former presidential adviser David Gergen's reference to a widely reported incident from newly elected House Majority Leader John Boehner's past -- which MSNBC had reported earlier that day. Boehner drew criticism in 1995 for distributing checks from a tobacco political action committee on the House floor before a key vote on a tobacco issue.
On the February 2 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews reacted in apparent surprise to former presidential adviser David Gergen's reference to a widely reported incident from newly elected House Majority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) past -- which MSNBC had reported earlier that day. When Gergen stated that Boehner "is the guy who ... was giving out tobacco checks at one point, in the 1990s, on the floor of the House of Representatives," Matthews responded: "Wow." He then added, "I like the way Gergen operates. He puts that shiv in really good. I like that. Everybody else ... forgives and forgets, but not Gergen."
As The Hill reported on July 25, 2003, Boehner drew criticism in 1995 for "distribut[ing] checks from a tobacco political action committee on the House floor before a key vote on a tobacco issue."
But Gergen was not the only one to point out the tobacco checks incident, in the wake of Boehner's election to the majority leader position. Matthews's own cable channel had reported on it earlier on February 2. As Media Matters for America previously noted, during MSNBC's 3 p.m. ET hour coverage of Boehner's election, reporter Mike Viqueira stated:
VIQUEIRA: It's really a question of how much of a reform candidate Boehner really is. That's how he was portrayed in early days here in Congress. He was seen as a reformer. Then he did get into some problems, passing out checks from lobbyists on the House floor. He since apologized for that.
Additionally, a Media Matters search* of the Lexis-Nexis database revealed February 2 news articles describing the incident on MSNBC parent company NBC's Nightly News, on CBS' Evening News, and on NPR's All Things Considered. The same search, unrestricted by date, returned a total of 183 hits, beginning May 10, 1996.
Gergen made his comments in response to Matthews's assertion that Boehner "has no connection to the history of the [Republican] leadership." Gergen described Boehner as "a [former Speaker of the House] Newt Gingrich [R-GA] ally" who "really did well ... during the Newt Gingrich years." A February 3 Washington Post article by Dana Milbank described Boehner as "a fallen Newt Gingrich lieutenant" who "lost his position as chairman of the House Republican Conference as his patron, Gingrich, fell from the speakership" in 1998. The same article also reported: "Though long a Gingrich acolyte, Boehner was suspected of having a role in the failed 1997 GOP coup against him."
* boehner w/20 tobacco w/20 checks w/20 house and date(geq (2/2/06) and leq (2/2/06))
From the February 2 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, which also featured Chuck Todd, editor-in-chief of The Hotline, National Journal's weblog:
MATTHEWS: David, what do you make of the decapitation, the coup d'état on Capitol Hill today, that Republicans having gotten rid of [former House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay [R-TX], now got rid of his guy, [former acting House Majority Leader] Roy Blunt [R-MO]? They've got a new man out there, John Boehner, who has no connection -- who has no connection to the history of the leadership?
GERGEN: Well, he does not, Chris, but I don't think it solves their reform image problem. They clearly -- they clearly dropped Blunt because they thought he was too close to DeLay, and they're looking ahead to the elections, and as Chuck will tell you, you know, this is going to be a big issue in the fall for the Democrats.
So, they wanted to get away from it, but they didn't go all the way to a reformer. In John Boehner, they got another Republican, a Newt Gingrich ally. You know, Boehner really did well with Newt Gingrich -- during the Newt Gingrich years, he fell from grace, and now, he's back.
He's well-liked on Capitol Hill. He's also has a reputation of being a little too close to the lobbyists, even though he was against earmarks, he is the guy who -- he's apologized for it now -- but he's the guy who was giving out tobacco checks at one point, in the 1990s, on the floor of the House of Representatives.
MATTHEWS: Wow.
TODD: Yes, no, he's - David's right. He's --
MATTHEWS: I like the way Gergen operates. He puts that shiv in really good. I like that. Everybody else forgets -- forgives and forgets, but not Gergen.
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Although he has worked for administrations for both parties, he is really a moderate conservative, but I've found him to be honest and straightforward about 90% of the time in interviews. But my question is quite simple for Matthews - "since when did the Republicans ever forgive or forget anything??"
When did the Republicans ever forgive and forget? Many times!! How about:
Forgiving Clinton for the "I did not have sex with that woman" thing. Oh no, wait a sec...
Well, how about forgiving Hillary for pushing her health care ideas in Bill's first term? Oops, not then either...
Hmmm... well surely they've forgiven Ted Kennedy for whatever happened at Chappaquiddick 40 years ago! Or... maybe not...
Okay - the real answer to your question is: never!
Matthews, If everyone "forgives and forgets" you'd be out of a show. Heck, the the entire pundit industry is based on people not forgiving and not forgetting.
a lot of the thing the Cons have run the Democrats down for are simple human faults. The Cons, hopefully to be real cons soon, have sold the government and country at every turn. Do not forgive or forget, ever.
if it was a democrat being discussed, matthews would not refer to honesty as putting in "the shiv". what boehner did was sell votes for money on the house floor, and matthews asks us to "forget".
After gushing over Boehner, he seems to take it personally that Gergen states some facts. He immediately accuses Gergen of having some type of vendetta.
Since the Republicans are seeped in scandal, now they're in the sympathy business. "Forgive and forget" is probably their campaign slogan for the 2006 midterms, especially the forget part. Forget how terrible the economy is for REAL people, not rich corporations who make 36.1 billion net yet won't pay 5 billion they owe from a VERY legitimate 1994 judgment. Forget how high the deficit is. Forget the Islamic republic we have paid for at the cost of over 2250 lives. Forget the cronyism, the corruption, the incompetence. Forget, forget, forget...everything but 9-11, 9-11, 9-11, terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, and, oh, gay marriage.
Wake up, America! It's time to vote these boobs into oblivion or suffer the same fate ourselves.
Republican Aristocrats simply can't be expected to become ordinary working stiffs, spending 8 hours a day in a cramped cubicle. The mind recoils at the very idea!
No, no, no. They aren't like us, you see. They must fly with the eagles, not mingle with the turkeys.
To quote Matthews, "Wow." It's amazing that he was stunned by Gergen simply pointing out Boehner's actions on the floor of Congress. It's like those "power of cheese" ads: Behold the power of simple truth. He seems to have been so overcome with the vapors that he resorted to prison lingo hyperbole. I hope Gergen refuses to appear on the show again.
This is how Matthews responds to truth, but he has the nerve to appear in ads for his show where he portrays himself as the seeker of truth, the surrogate for the average citizen. Amazing.
Yeah, Gergen is one of the Republicans Blue Gal loves. There is an old style of conservative, one whose opinions while disagreeing with the left, still attempt to argue on the basis of fact. We have had such a pollution of that conservatism with Fox News that very few people remember what "true" conservatives look like. They are not all lying sacks of horse manure. More's the pity that the Hannity's, O'Reillys, and their ilk have taken over, because this country would certainly benefit from having a strong left and a strong right that were both interested in integrity first.
I'm a liberal and I like David Gergen. I remember when he said that he supported affirmative action because he never would have had the chance, being from North Carolina, to go to an Ivy League school unless someone had taken a chance on him. As for Chris Matthews, well, he sold his soul to the Conservative movement years ago. And boy, I wish I knew what Hillary said to him because he simply hates her.
He hated Bill Clinton just as much, in fact the cons seem to hate the both of them equally and have merged them into one hated entity I'll call Billiary. Matthews also hated Gore, he bitched about him that whole campaign season and then ran right out and voted for GW.
Oh... that pretty much sums it up.