Matthews mind-bender: "How did [Giuliani] get that pee smell out of the subway?"
Previewing a segment on Rudy Giuliani's declaration of candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential race on the February 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked: "Could America's mayor beat maverick [Sen. John] McCain [R-AZ] in the primaries?" Matthews also touted Giuliani's performance as mayor, saying "he did clean up that atmosphere in New York," and asking, "How did he get the pee smell out of the subway?"
Media Matters for America has noted (here, here, here, here, here, and here) instances of the media repeating the characterization of Giuliani as "America's Mayor" despite the numerous controversies surrounding his tenure as mayor of New York City. Media Matters has also noted numerous instances in which media figures have characterized McCain as a maverick without noting his frequent adherence to Republican Party doctrine and support of President Bush.
Earlier in the day, on MSNBC Live, Matthews had told anchor Chris Jansing, "You don't [sic] smell the urine in the subways when he was mayor."
On that program, Matthews also praised Giuliani's 2004 Republican Convention speech, which he called "the great speech that everybody remembered." Matthews echoed that claim later on Hardball, saying that Giuliani "actually knows how to give a great speech" and that "[w]e've seen it at the Republican Convention." As Media Matters noted, that speech falsely suggested a connection between Iraq and 9-11.
From the February 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball:
MATTHEWS: And Rudy Giuliani moves closer to running. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani files his statement of candidacy today in the presidential race. Could America's mayor beat maverick McCain in the primaries? Could we see a "subway series" between Hillary and Rudy in 2008?
[...]
MATTHEWS: How did he get the pee smell out of that subway?
FORMER REP. SUSAN MOLINARI (R-NY): He stopped -- they -- all of a sudden -- how did he stop the squeegee people from --
MATTHEWS: Well, he got the pee smell out of the phone booths up there. Even phone booths in New York that aren't booths, they're just a place to make a phone call, had that smell around them before -- I think -- having gone to New York enough times, he did clean up that atmosphere in New York.
[...]
MATTHEWS: Well, I'll tell you, three things going for him. He acts and talks like a president.
MOLINARI: Yes.
MATTHEWS: He actually knows how to give a great speech. We've seen it at the Republican Convention. At the time the country was most afraid, he seemed to be the strongest.
MOLINARI: Correct.
MATTHEWS: So he rises to the occasion. Third thing is, I think -- I think there's something about an ethnic -- I hate the word because we're all ethnic in one form -- their time has come. We had presidents named Ford, Carter, Bush, you know what I mean? Reagan. It's about time we had someone with a name with an "I" at the end of it.
MOLINARI: Doesn't bother me.
as a conservative, i would rather have giuliani than mccain. both are weak on immigration and conservative issues but at least giuliani doesnt look like hes clinging to dear life just to make it to the `08 elections.
btw before i get attacked i am voting hillary in 2008 because i figure if youre going to elect a liberal pick the one who is honest about it. giuliani will lie and move to the right but at least hillary will show her feminist liberal colors once she is elected. plus itll be fun to see how much power bill gets:)
I just wish we could get the Chris Matthews Smell off NBC and MSNBC.
Sometimes though I like his Commentary, but Only 10% of the time. For example, I like when he defends the anti-Surge position on supporting the troops. Watch Videos:
[link to www.msnbc.msn.com]
Roy?
If you vote for Hillary, your going to lose all your Republican't friends!
But that's OK because you might gain some Democratic and Independents like myself. If you see this post and have some time will you explain why you would want Hillary over all the Conservatives you could vote for?
Thanks...
hey look haggard has gone back in the closet [link to www.denverpost.com] thought once you came out you couldn't really go back in.
Yes I read that too. Hagard is "back in the closet." (at least until he can score some meth or runs into another male prostitute).
HEY WAIT A SECOND...
I like this!
Did Chris really point this out, about rudy successfully crusading against the stinky urine smell that is inevitably left behind by NYC's street bums?
That's just what we need in D.C.!
A guy who can mask (or otherwise distract you from) the smell of urine!
...and feces too!
HILARIOUS!
I only just now clicked the video, to see truly in what context this was said...
Chris seemed absolutely serious in his observation of this point!
Of course the jerk susan just followed along... perhaps the serious tone was meant to bait and expose her as an idiot... she chimed in something about "squeegee people".
You bet susan, that's exactly what's plaguing America right now... "squeegee people"!
Too funny!
"He did clean up that atmosphere in NY!"
As I mentioned, I think that truly Chris may have made this "rudy cleaned up the urine smell" comment, as a way of drawing that jerk susan into the absurdity of agreeing...
...into exposing just how far that jerk susan will go, in order to hack away for that joke rudy... and she did, she took the bait seriously, and went to giving that joke rudy's credentials on the all-important "squeegee people" issue.
I think Chris did that on purpose.
And also:
MMFA ran an item on Monday, titled...
Matthews gushed over giuliani's "street cred" on fighting terrorism
...this item above could have been titled:
Matthews gushed over giuliani's fighting of "street crud"
...and the jerk susan gushed right along with him.
MATTHEWS: How did he get the pee smell out of that subway?
Simple, Tweety. He made it a crime to be homeless. Which is a really efficient policy - if you don't care about, say, human dignity - except for the fact that it costs $91,000 a year to lock somebody up, compared to $20,000 a year for a shelter bed or $12,000 a year for supervised apartment housing.
Like you take the subway, Tweet. Give me a break.
Problem solved, Val.
Fortunately the cops and prison unions got a little more juice than them dirty shelter unions.
Vql,
Climb down from your ivory tower please.
Unless any of you fools know what NYC was like under the Criminal Dinkins than please hush.
You could not walk down ANY street without being hassled. Piss is the subway is a major understatement, people all over the ground sleeping , drug pushers shouting on every corner offering their products proudly.
Trash flying around like confetti.
Rudy pulled that Whole city out of the gutter, sorry moron but being homeless was not criminalized but the bums did have to register and follow rules.
what's wrong with that?
They were no longer allowed to "touch" others. What's wrong with that?
Unless any of you experienced the cesspool as it was then you have no backround to compare.
Hey MORON, do you happen to have some evidence Dinkins is a criminal? Or did you pull that directly out of your ASS since your brain apparantly doesnt work at all?
hey SoLame,
"His integrity came under fire, as well as his efficacy. Answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes, Salon magazine later reported, Dinkins reasoned, "I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
would you please stop obsessing about my ass, thanks!
I will decide what I respond to. So then the answer is NO he isnt criminal as NO ONE IS until they are convicted of a crime
How many years in jail did Salon magazine sentence Dinkins to?
Crimal, no. Ineffective, YES! Since you like ad hominem attacks, Salon, in the condition NYC was in, you would had to have been an ignorant fool to support Dinkins over Giuliani in '93.
I dont live in New York so I dont care about the relative merits of Dinkins vs Guiliani. I do wonder why you are so offended by MY ad hominem attack but dont seem to worry about HIS calling us fools and the poster he responded to as a moron? Since you like ONLY conservatives ad hominem attacks I say you just dont have any credibility on the issue
Solon,
As a rule I prefer White hominy over yellow, just to settle that.
Solon asking for a fair shake is pretty funny though.
has he been to new york in August?????
Matthews honestly doesn't care about the subway smell. He just wants to have Giuliani's baby. I hope Giuliani and McCain makes a strong effort against each other. It'll be brutal and ugly and take a lot of McCain's money, because McCain's Swift Boaters will have a field day with Giuliani in the primaries.Giuliani? Seriously? I fail to see how covering urine smell in the subway equates to tackling foriegn policies.
why did media matters leave out the "fascist" comment by matthews when they posted this video. I saw the whole exchange and i swear he mentioned "fascist".
Somebody splain please
If Giuliani can eliminate the stench of cat urine from carpets and find a cure for the stink of wet dog he MIGHT get more voters than you think ;-)
Look Matthews is a political junkie, like some of us here are [or at least some here are borderline junkies] Yeah he goes off on occasion with inane blather such as pee smell in the subways...but at least he doesn't cover Paris Hilton, Cheerleaders gone wild, or Missing White Girls. Sure he isn't above chattering on about D.C tabloid, but that's 100% better than Hollywood tabloid.
His show runs here from 7pm to 8pm, and it's an hour I look forward to.
Matthews loves Rudy, and still has a bit of a crush on McCain. No biggie in my opinion. I'd personally question his judgment, but he's entitled to gush. He a host of a political show, he's not a hard news journalist.
As far as his remark: "It's about time we had someone with a name with an "I" at the end of it."
Well why not? IF the media can make such a HUGE deal about Richardson being Hispanic/Latino, then what's the problem about pointing out that it would be great to see other Ethnic groups in the hunt for the White House as well?
Other than JFK, our Presidents have been a long line of W.A.S.P.'s.
Once again Matthews addressing the tough issues. And phone booths, do they still have those?
ATTENTION Media Matters, as someone pointed out in these comments, you COMPLETELY left out the portion where Matthews asks his guest Susan Molinari if Rudy is a FASCIST!
Please correct the transcript - NEWSBUSTERS has even called you on the omission, in both video and the transcript reprint on this site.
I must say this shocks me, and I hope it was just a human error and not deliberate mistake that MM made - I know Matthews interrupted Susan Molinari to ask this out of line question, but MM should've picked up on it after watching it a few times.
This is completely out of character for Media Matters and I hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon.
He asked if Rudy was a fascist about cleaning up the smells in NYC, genius.
Hey DORIS, you "genius," you should realize that it's not like Media Matters to selectively quote newsmakers.
Here's how the transcript really went:
Matthews: "He got the pee smell out of the phone booths in New York. Even phone booths that aren't booths, they're just a place to make a phone call, had that smell about them before. I think I've been to New York enough times -- he did clean up that atmosphere in New York."Molinari: "You bet he did. He stopped making excuses for people. . . "Matthews, interrupting: "Was he a little bit of a Fascist or what?"
That doesn't bother you? Well, today Matthews said the F-BOMB on IMUS, then MM reported Chris saying of Giuliani: " I think he did a great job. I'm sorry. And I think the country wants a boss like that. You know, a little bit of fascism there. Just a little bit. Just a pinch of it. "
Can't you guys see the inconsistency here on Media Matters' part? And how out-of-line Matthews is for using that term when you know damn well that if any other influential media person or politician (like JOE BIDEN) used the "fascist" word to praise a high level politician, it would be all over the news.
But I guess because it's a blowhard like Chris Matthews who said it, Media Matters must've decided that's nothing compared to other crap he spouts out of his mouth every day.
All I'm saying is that it is beneath MM to purposely leave out controversial remarks in their reports. I expect better of this site.
We all should because it exposes wrongdoings by our government and media better than anyone else on the planet.
This item is funny, and of value for that reason alone I think (to me anyway).
Agreed: The degree of "selectivity" being presently exercised by MMFA and the writers of it's items, is at least stupid and bizarre even, at one end of the scale... and misleading and dishonest at the other.
I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes of this website... and as it goes on, I'm beginning to care less for whatever might be causing it, and less for the website itself.
As to the all-important matter of sanitation in NYC, specifically the unpleasant smells of the subways and the public telephones:
Finally we have a truly important qualification to the presidency of the United States.
Who cares what the guy thinks about Iraq, or Congress, or the Federal budget, or the security of our borders, or our trade with Asia, or energy and oil and oil imports and emissions...
Who cares about that kind of emissions, when we have the other, more important kind:
RUDY (or Chris or susan, on his behalf): "I cleaned up the smells of urine in NYC's subways and public telephones! And I'd have gotten around to the smell of body odor and sweat in those same subways, had not the attacks on the WTC distracted me from accomplishing that de-odorizing task."
Me, I'd have thought NYC's sanitation workers and street cleaners and such, and those who perform those tasks for the Transit Authority, to be responsible for de-odorizing NYC's subways and public telephones...
...and if anybody (like Chris or susan) should say, but yeah, it was rudy who directed that de-odorization and commanded those workers...
...then I'd say back, but the president of the U.S. doesn't oversee any subway system or the sanitization of public telephones...
...either in the manner of a fascist or otherwise.
Whenever Chris Matthews is absent from his show, I wonder whether he's in rehab! Is this a conversation by sane, sober adults? It's amazing how much one man contributes to lowering the level of political discourse! He guffawed at Howard Fineman's suggestion that Al Gore use Ultra-Slim-Fast. Guffawed so hard, in fact, that I thought he was going to pee in his pants! (Wonder what the NBC studios smell like.)
As for Susan Molinari, Staten Island's family values vixen, it must be fun to go from being a sycophant for one thrice-married hypocrite (Newt Gingrich), to flacking for another (Rudy Giuliani). Oh, well, I guess that's why her congressional career was as shallow as her short-lived tenure as a CBS host.
Thomas Chacko
hey SoLame,
"His integrity came under fire, as well as his efficacy. Answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes, Salon magazine later reported, Dinkins reasoned, "I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
would you please stop obsessing about my ass, thanks!
oops, my reply was supposed to be to RUSTY SCHACKLEFORD, not DORIS (I saw that latter name somewhere on this site and absentmindedly typed it by accident. oh well.) I'm done with this topic - off to other things like the LIBBY trial and TIMMEH RUSSERT's testimony.