How do you tone down violent and hateful rhetoric? By using even more violent and hateful rhetoric! It’s like that phrase “Two wrongs make a right”. Wait, that’s not how the saying goes? Tell that to Chris Matthews.
“So now the new civil tone,” Glenn said. “Here is Chris Matthews. Listen carefully to what he says about just being allowed to do things.”
“This kind of talk from Michele Bachmann, I don't know why she's allowed to be an extremist and everybody's coaxing on the right, Republicans saying the president should move to the center and be reasonable and moderate, where she's allowed to be out there as a screamer. And in many cases pretty close to a nut case. This kind of talk, she's standing on the floor of the House. Her job is to enact legislation and yet there she is standing there saying her goal in life is to eliminate a presidency. That's how she talks.”
So Chris Matthews gets to call an elected official an “extremist” and a “nut case” while at the same time calling for an end to heated rhetoric? That doesn’t quite add up.
Glenn called out Matthew’s for his hypocrisy. “It's just not even worth arguing. Just, it's laughable. It is really funny. It's funny the way they are -- you know, I thought we were going to stop all of this partisan language. I mean, she's an extremist? And really quite frankly a nut job? Why can't we stop this extreme language?”
“Come on, man, really? Are your viewers this stupid?” Glenn added.
Who are some of the other hypocrites out there? How about Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee.
Cohen said on the House floor, “They say it's a government takeover of healthcare, a big lie just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie and eventually people believe it. Like blood libel. That's the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it, and you have the Holocaust.”
What did Cohen say that night on Anderson Cooper?
Anderson Cooper asked Cohen, “You wrote -- and I quote – ‘Reckless and hateful speech often has a terrible human cost. If the horrific events in Arizona are not enough to modulate our public discourse, it is likely there will be more violence and more deaths.’”
“Do you really think your comments advance civility in the public discourse?” Cooper added.
Cohen’s response? He seems to give a half-hearted retraction before doubling down on his rhetoric.
“I guess they don't advance civility, per se, but I think telling lies is uncivil, and I think somebody needs to stand up to the lies that are being told. And the fact is, they were similar to what Goebbels said: Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it over and over, and people will believe it. And that's what they have done,” Cohen said.
Knowing that Media Matters and other liberal bloggers were standing by with a list of Glenn’s questionable rhetoric, Glenn promised to give a response to Cohen’s hypocrisy later in the show.
