The Fall of Chris Matthews

If Joe Biden is like a favorite uncle, then his fellow seventy-something Irish homey Chris Matthews comes across as a friendly uncle who isn't your favorite.  He proved that again on MSNBC this past Saturday night, and despite Matthews' penchant for saying stupid things over the years, this time he went too far.  Even farther than expressing gratitude for Hurricane Sandy occurring just before the 2012 election.

When it became obvious that Bernie Sanders was not only going to win the Nevada caucuses but win big - with at least 47 percent of the vote - Matthews expressed a fear that the Republicans would destroy Sanders with negative ads based on his record and past statements about socialism should he become the Democratic presidential nominee.   That was a legitimate observation, and Matthews should have stopped there, but he went on to say that it was "too late" for Biden or Bloomberg or anyone else to stop him and compared Sanders' Nevada victory over to Hitler's invasion of France.

"I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940," Matthews said, "and the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, 'It's over.' And Churchill says, 'How can that be? You've got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?' He said, 'It's over.'"

So, Matthews not only rendered the Sanders campaign as being morally equivalent to the Third Reich, he equated Sanders - who has relatives who perished in the Holocaust - to Hitler.

It seems that the part of Matthews' brain that was affected by the bout of malaria he got when he was in the Peace Corps has finally atrophied completely. While I would expect similar comments from Chuck Todd, who's never been the sharpest tack in the toolbox (and he made such a comment, referring to Sanders supporters as "brown-shirts"), Matthews, a learned political expert, should have known better.  

But then, maybe he shouldn't have.  Mathews likes to talk up his Philadelphia roots and his middle-class background as proof that he has his ear to the realities of politics, but in fact he's a Washington insider who's been in his bubble so long that he can't breathe when he steps out of it.  Oh yeah, one other thing I can't resist mentioning - Matthews was reporting live from Las Vegas during the Nevada caucus coverage on an outdoor set  when a sudden thundershower drenched him. He was all wet.  And not just literally.

Matthews, as an Irish Catholic, has made a reputation out of lamenting and being embarrassed by conservative politicians of Irish descent for their idiocy.  As a descendant of the Philadelphia Irish, I am embarrassed by and am lamenting Chris Matthews.  Yeah, he apologized, but he's done that so much it hardly means anything anymore.

Matthews is 74.  It's time for him to retire.  Too bad Chuck Todd, at 47, still has many years ahead of him.