NBC's Reid returned to “cut-and-run” characterization of Democrats, echoed attacks on liberals as “angry” and “crazy”

Written by Joe Brown

Published

NBC's Chip Reid contrasted the position of Democrats “who think we ought to get the troops out now” with the position of those “who think we ought to have a very carefully thought-out plan for getting them out down the road, but not cutting and running.” Reid added that “it is amazing how angry” the “liberal anti-war wing of the Democratic Party” gets at Sen. Joseph Lieberman for defending President Bush.


During the 5 p.m. ET hour of the July 24 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC News correspondent Chip Reid returned to his previous characterization of plans for immediate withdrawal from Iraq as “cutting and running.” Discussing Democrats' opinions on when and how to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, Reid contrasted the position of those “who think we ought to get the troops out now” with the position of those “who think we ought to have a very carefully thought-out plan for getting them out down the road, but not cutting and running.” Reid added that unlike those Democrats who favor an immediate withdrawal, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) “does not want to get [the troops] out immediately,” but instead wants “a plan for victory.”

As Media Matters for America noted, Reid previously reported that "[s]ome Democrats" are “very concerned” about being “portrayed as the cut-and-run party” in the 2006 Congressional elections.

Reid also said “it is amazing how angry” the “liberal anti-war wing of the Democratic Party” gets at Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) for defending President Bush. Echoing others in the media who have characterized liberals as “angry,” “crazy,” or "[m]ean[]" while ignoring hateful -- and even threatening -- comments made by conservatives, Reid stated that Lieberman's “stalwart ... defense” of Bush “really makes [liberal Democrats] mad” because they “absolutely can't stand the sight of [Bush], and when they hear Joe Lieberman saying nice things about him and about his war plan in Iraq, they just go crazy.”

From the 5 p.m. ET hour of the July 24 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Chip, why can the -- why can the former president, probably the most popular man in the Democratic Party, say the war issue isn't important to Democrats when it's the number one issue, the ace they're going to play in November?

REID: I don't think he's going to say that. Obviously, it's a very difficult argument for him to make, but what he's going to say is that you can't have unanimous agreement on this issue, and you don't need unanimous agreement in the Democratic Party. There are a lot of people who think we ought to get the troops out now, and there are a lot of people who think we ought to have a very carefully thought-out plan for getting them out down the road, but not cutting and running, very much like Mrs. Clinton wants. She does not want to get them out immediately. She wants a plan for victory and, presumably, so does her husband.

Joe Lieberman -- I think what has people so angry towards Joe Lieberman here is not just that his position is different -- there are a lot of Democrats who don't want to pull the troops out right away, there clearly is a split in the Democratic Party. What really makes them mad is that he has been so stalwart in his defense of President Bush himself. And people on the liberal anti-war wing of the Democratic Party absolutely can't stand the sight of the man, and when they hear Joe Lieberman saying nice things about him and about his war plan in Iraq, they just go crazy. It is amazing how angry they get about this.