Tuesday, November 07, 2006
OCTOBER 27, 2006: Chris Matthews: "Harball" Television Show: MSNBC
(IN a discussion with Charlie Cook, The Cook Report, on the "Harball" Show, Chris Matthews engaged in an interpretative discussion regarding as he called it, "an ethnic ad". Unfortunately, Chris Matthews once again digressed into his incessant demeaning "mafia" slurring insinuations that Mr. Cook would not engage in later in this printed dialogue. To this end, Chris Matthews also begins to create a so called implied ethnic battle between White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and "Ethnic" people by the Tom Kean Jr. campaign. He names former Governors Whitman and Tom Kean Sr. as examples of "Waspy", and as his knowledgeable base of reasoning he credits his youthful vacations at Ocean City, New Jersey as his educational background for making such an asinine statement. Please read the following excerpt provided by Chris Matthew's MSNBC staff on his website.
MATTHEWS: Well, Charlie, where is the Italian Anti-Defamation League on this baby? I know Menendez is Spanish surname guy, but, clearly the “Sopranos” reference is obvious. They may have found a non-Italian actor, but look, the leather jacket, all thaccoutrementnt, the mannerisms of the “Sopranos”.
COOK: This thing is, is that—you know, does New Jersey, like a handful of other states, like my home state, have a reputation for corruption? Heck, yes. Hudson County, where Senator Menendez is from, does it have a reputation within New Jersey for corruption? Absolutely.
Tom Kean needs to be—have this election about corruption, not about Iraq or anything else the administration may or may not have done. He’s got to have it about corruption, and that’s Menendez’s vulnerability. That ad goes to the heart of Menendez’s challenge in this election.
MATTHEWS: Well, maybe because I’ve spent so much of my time in New Jersey during the summer, especially in Ocean City, but you know, I have to tell you, Charlie, it’s an ethnic ad. Whatever else it is, it’s an ethnic ad. It’s about Italians in New Jersey. It’s about the mob, tying Menendez into Torricelli, they’re closing the loop, they’re making their point.
And that has been politics in that state for years, between the Waspy people, like Christie Todd Whitman and the Keans, father and son, running against the ethnic people. They tied it all together, if you’re ethnic, you’re a crook, right? Isn’t that the message? What the hell does Bob Menendez got to do with the “Sopranos”? What’s he got to do with Bob Torricelli?
They’re not Wasps, they’re ethnics.
COOK: Yes.
MATTHEWS: OK. Let me—I don’t want to you to have to join me on all this stuff. I’ll just play hardball and you agree with it, you give me the up side.
Let’s take a look at the next ad. It think what—what do we got next here?
(IN a discussion with Charlie Cook, The Cook Report, on the "Harball" Show, Chris Matthews engaged in an interpretative discussion regarding as he called it, "an ethnic ad". Unfortunately, Chris Matthews once again digressed into his incessant demeaning "mafia" slurring insinuations that Mr. Cook would not engage in later in this printed dialogue. To this end, Chris Matthews also begins to create a so called implied ethnic battle between White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and "Ethnic" people by the Tom Kean Jr. campaign. He names former Governors Whitman and Tom Kean Sr. as examples of "Waspy", and as his knowledgeable base of reasoning he credits his youthful vacations at Ocean City, New Jersey as his educational background for making such an asinine statement. Please read the following excerpt provided by Chris Matthew's MSNBC staff on his website.
MATTHEWS: Well, Charlie, where is the Italian Anti-Defamation League on this baby? I know Menendez is Spanish surname guy, but, clearly the “Sopranos” reference is obvious. They may have found a non-Italian actor, but look, the leather jacket, all thaccoutrementnt, the mannerisms of the “Sopranos”.
COOK: This thing is, is that—you know, does New Jersey, like a handful of other states, like my home state, have a reputation for corruption? Heck, yes. Hudson County, where Senator Menendez is from, does it have a reputation within New Jersey for corruption? Absolutely.
Tom Kean needs to be—have this election about corruption, not about Iraq or anything else the administration may or may not have done. He’s got to have it about corruption, and that’s Menendez’s vulnerability. That ad goes to the heart of Menendez’s challenge in this election.
MATTHEWS: Well, maybe because I’ve spent so much of my time in New Jersey during the summer, especially in Ocean City, but you know, I have to tell you, Charlie, it’s an ethnic ad. Whatever else it is, it’s an ethnic ad. It’s about Italians in New Jersey. It’s about the mob, tying Menendez into Torricelli, they’re closing the loop, they’re making their point.
And that has been politics in that state for years, between the Waspy people, like Christie Todd Whitman and the Keans, father and son, running against the ethnic people. They tied it all together, if you’re ethnic, you’re a crook, right? Isn’t that the message? What the hell does Bob Menendez got to do with the “Sopranos”? What’s he got to do with Bob Torricelli?
They’re not Wasps, they’re ethnics.
COOK: Yes.
MATTHEWS: OK. Let me—I don’t want to you to have to join me on all this stuff. I’ll just play hardball and you agree with it, you give me the up side.
Let’s take a look at the next ad. It think what—what do we got next here?
# posted by Tony DeFiore : 6:07 AM
