For much of the past week, MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson have been in high dudgeon over former Sen. Bob Kerrey's recent reference to Barack Obama's middle name.

Two birds, one stone

For much of the past week, MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson have been in high dudgeon over former Sen. Bob Kerrey's recent reference to Barack Obama's middle name.

Kerrey said during an event announcing his endorsement of Hillary Clinton that “I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal.” Kerrey added that Obama has “a whale of a lot more intellectual talent than I've got as well.”

Kerrey's comments were interpreted by many -- with Matthews and Carlson leading the charge -- as a subtle and sneaky way of planting doubt about Obama among voters. (Maybe it was, or maybe it was completely innocent. Either way, I'm not sure it matters: Like Jeff Greenfield's “joke” about Obama dressing like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kerrey's comments were ill-considered no matter what his intent. Indeed, Kerrey subsequently apologized to Obama.)

The day after Kerrey's comments, Chris Matthews asked, “What the hell is Bob Kerrey doing?” Then, after reading Kerrey's comments, he suggested that Kerrey might have been “simply poisoning the well” against Obama. Matthews referenced Kerrey's remarks again later in the show.

The next day, Carlson referred to Kerrey's “apparent attack on Obama,” which he described as “unbelievably sleazy” and “divisive and nasty and frankly kind of repulsive.” The day after that, Carlson said that if it were not for the fact that Kerrey is “liked by reporters ... [h]e would have been drummed out of America” for what he said about Obama.

It's fascinating to see Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson so angry about Kerrey's comments, because as far as I can tell, Chris Matthews was the very first person to introduce Barack Obama's middle name into the national political discussion -- and Tucker Carlson was right behind him.

Almost exactly a year ago, as Barack Obama's middle name was being thrown around regularly in the media -- by NBC's Mike Viqueira and by Fox News' Carl Cameron, among many others. The popular theory was that the use of the name originated with Republican strategist Ed Rogers. Matthews himself attributed it to Rogers during a December 13, 2006, interview with Rogers, saying that Rogers had “made some news” by using the name and pressing Rogers about it: “Why did you invoke the middle name of Barack Obama out of nowhere? What are you up to, sir? ... Well, Hussein is his middle name. Do you believe that invoking that name, that it will hurt him?”

But, as I explained at the time, Matthews was blaming Rogers for something Matthews himself had started:

The first mention of the name as a political matter that we can find in the Nexis database comes from MSNBC's Chris Matthews. On the November 7 [2006] edition of Hardball -- three full weeks before Rogers' comment -- Matthews said: “You know, it's interesting that Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein. That will be interesting down the road, won't it?” Media Matters noted Matthews' comments the next day.

Did Matthews come up with that on his own, or did he hear it on one of the right-wing radio shows he favors? Or did he read it on a far-right website, or have it whispered in his ear by a Republican operative? We don't know. But we do know that attributing the suggestion that Obama's middle name may have negative political consequences to Rogers lets Matthews off the hook for his role in popularizing the notion. Maybe that's why Matthews himself does it.

A few weeks after Matthews' reference to Obama's middle name -- and a day before Rogers first used it -- Tucker Carlson used his MSNBC television program to call guest Bill Press “a true member of the Barack Hussein Obama fan club.”

Notice anything about the way Matthews and Carlson used Obama's middle name? It was completely gratuitous. Bob Kerrey (ostensibly, at least) used Obama's middle name in suggesting that his background might be an asset; Matthews and Carlson were doing nothing of the kind. They were just throwing it out there.

And now, they are livid -- absolutely livid -- when Bob Kerrey uses it.

But that isn't all they're angry about. Matthews and Carlson (along with countless other journalists) keep yelling about Clinton strategist Mark Penn using the word “cocaine” on Hardball last week. They claim that Penn was trying to subtly bring up Obama's long-ago drug use. Well, again: Maybe he was, but the facts are that during the interview in question, Matthews himself repeatedly brought it up; the entire segment was about the topic before Penn even spoke; and Penn's first response to the first question Matthews asked him (“It was never a part of this campaign. It was unacceptable.”) seemed to be an obvious attempt to end a discussion that was not playing out in his candidate's favor.

But to hear Matthews and Carlson and others tell it, Penn initiated the conversation and was doing everything he could to prolong it. That simply isn't what happened.

Still: Tucker Carlson is angry.

On the December 17, he claimed the Clinton campaign was portraying Obama as “a crack dealer,” which he called “the politics of personal destruction.” (I could find no reference anywhere to anyone with any connection to Clinton ever using the words “crack” and “Obama” in the same sentence.) On December 14, Carlson said it was “sleazy” of Penn to use the word “cocaine” in talking about Obama, adding that he was “outraged about it.” Carlson used the word “cocaine” seven times during that broadcast, even as he said it was “sleazy” for Penn to use the word “in the same sentence” as Obama. On December 12, Carlson said “Billy Shaheen, the husband of the governor of New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen, who is running for Senate in this next season, just told reporters that he's very concerned that if Barack Obama gets the nomination, his admitted drug use, his use of cocaine and marijuana, will be fodder for the Republican dirty tricks machine. Basically going after Obama for admitting he got high when he was a kid.”

Shaheen's comments came in an interview with The Washington Post -- but the Post didn't actually quote him using the word “cocaine.” And Penn hadn't yet used the word, either. Once he did, Carlson, Matthews, and others assigned great significance to the use of that specific word. But it seems that Tucker Carlson himself used it before a Clinton official did, on the December 12 edition of his television show.

In fact, Carlson used it a year ago. On the December 11, 2006, edition of Tucker, he said to guest A.B. Stoddard: “Well, we know that he has done cocaine, because he said so, A.B., in his book. We know he smokes cigarettes. We know his middle name is Hussein. What else is there to know about Barack Obama that is going to be shocking?" And again on January 3: “Speaking of what the American public wants, I'm sure you all have read Barack Obama's first book, in which he admits smoking a lot of pot, doing a fair amount of cocaine, is that, you know -- someone who has the finger on the pulse of America, is this a problem going into the presidential election? Have we reached a point where voters no longer care, or do they care?”

What's happening here isn't really very subtle at all. Tucker Carlson and Chris Matthews have, going back more than a year, gone out of their way to bring up Obama's middle name and his long-ago drug use. After they (and their colleagues) played a key role in bringing these matters into the national dialogue, they brutally attacked Clinton when people connected with her campaign made reference to the very things Carlson and Matthews have been talking about all along.

For Carlson (a staunch conservative who regularly bashes Democrats) and Matthews (who says John McCain “deserves” to be president), it's a pretty neat trick: They spend a year doing something that they themselves describe as a sleazy effort to plant doubts about Obama -- then they pretend it all came from Clinton and trash her for being vicious. And, in doing so, they use the very words they say are inappropriate to use in describing Obama dozens of times.

Matthews himself offered a perfect description of what he and Carlson are doing on last night's Hardball -- though, of course, he thought he was describing Clinton:

MATTHEWS: Let me go to the question of tactics here. She is using things like having AFSCME, the union, the state and county employees, put out a letter that looked like it came from John Edwards, apparently, attacking Obama, so that she gets the knife into Obama without her fingerprints on it.

That's exactly what has been happening on Hardball and Tucker for the past year. Matthews and Carlson have been making both Clinton and Obama look bad, while largely avoiding responsibility for their own actions.

Matthews and Carlson first invoked Obama's middle name -- and now they yell nightly about a Clinton supporter doing it.

Carlson brought up Obama's long-ago drug use more than a year ago; Matthews did everything he could to force Mark Penn to discuss it last week -- and now they yell nightly about how “sleazy” it is for people connected to Clinton to discuss the topic.

And it isn't merely that Matthews and Carlson are blasting Clinton for things they did first; they're blasting Clinton for things they continue to do every night. Mark Penn used the word “cocaine” twice, a week ago -- in response to Matthews' prodding. Tucker Carlson has used it on his show nine times since then; Matthews has used it 12 times on Hardball. And the two have used the name “Hussein” in connection with Obama 11 times this week.

Tonight, Matthews and Carlson will most likely again yell about how vicious and sleazy the Clinton campaign is for bringing up Obama's middle name, or his past drug use. They'll tell us that the only possible reason to make mention of either thing is to undermine him. And in doing so, they may well mention these things far more often in two hours than the Clinton campaign has in a year.

It's a hell of a scam Matthews and Carlson have going -- undermining both candidates, while getting their campaigns and their supporters angry at one another.

***

During the December 20 edition of Hardball, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough explained that “the difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama is man enough to stand up in a debate and say 'Hillary, you are not being consistent.' ”

***

Last week, I noted that in October, Washington Post reporter Anne Kornblut telegraphed the coming media assault on Clinton during an appearance on Tucker. Here's what she said at the time:

KORNBLUT: I have to say we in the media are spoiling for a fight. Usually we are biased in favor of a good tussle at about this point. ... I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere between now and January 3, now that we know that's when the Iowa caucuses are going to be, to see some kind of reverse, some kind of Obama surge or an Edwards surge. Something that is going to knock Hillary down a few pegs. Whether it's a media creation, or something that actually happens on the ground. I would be shocked if there were nothing like that.

This week, Kornblut participated in an online discussion with Post readers, during which she was asked about that quote. Here's how she responded:

KORNBLUT: I wish we were that powerful! Bottom line is, we're not. I can assure you -- what is happening on the ground in Iowa, where I've spent a lot of time the last few months, is happening at the level of average voters here, who pay extraordinary attention and make up their own minds (albeit with the help of paid advertising). All I meant then, and still believe, is that Democratic voters do not like easy coronations and never would have just decided Clinton is the nominee without casting a single ballot. Most races tighten at the end, as this one is. And pretty soon, we'll know how it turns out.

That is pretty clearly not what Kornblut said in October.

Jamison Foser is Executive Vice President at Media Matters for America.