Source: Curtis Houck |
After being away for two weeks that included a vacation to New Zealand, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was in rare form on day two of his return, questioning the dress habits of Republican men on the House Oversight Committee for not being as formally dressed as he’d like and wearing scowls.
Then later in the show, Matthews and liberal celebrity loon Rob Reiner complained about the lack of control news outlets have over the American people compared to the 1970s when there were only three network news outlets.
The bizarre dress code part came in a question to freshman Democratic Congresswoman and frequent cable news guest Katie Hill (watch out, Adam Schiff) (click “expand”):
You’re on Oversight. Explain something about the dress code on your committee. The right-wing Republicans, the Tea Party types show up like they’re working for CNBC in the morning. Why do they show up with the white shirts on? They don’t unbutton their collars. They don’t roll up their sleeves. They wear that sort of dress code of the MBA graduate. What are they — and they had nasty looks on their faces. They were really angry. What’s the story on their sort of sentiments? Why do they hate anybody who criticizes Trump?
Talk about being a hypocrite. Perhaps Matthews should look at himself in the mirror from time-to-time and consider how a member of the Kennedy family (whom he worships) wasn’t exactly all buttoned up (try Ted Kennedy). And unless he’s been living under a rock, having no jacket or tie and wearing plain shirts has been how Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) rolls.
To Hill’s credit on the dress code part, she avoided that and stuck to providing liberal talking points about House Republicans refusing to tighten the screws on the Trump presidency, that pleased Matthews.
In the next block, Matthews was joined by Reiner and The Washington Post’s Robert Costa to cast there less-than-genuine fears about the state of the right. And so, Reiner fretted that, unlike in Watergate, Trump hasn’t had to deal with Democrats running both the House and Senate but instead has had a Republican Congress and “state-run TV” at Fox News.
Again, no word about what he thought about outlets like CBS or MSNBC during the Obama administration.
The Fox-bashing led Matthews to reminisce about how, during Watergate, most Americans got their news from the same show in the Walter Cronkite-hosted CBS Evening News and so there are more outlets to give differing perspectives today (click “expand”):
MATTHEWS: Let’s talk about that because back in those days, you and I are roughly the same age. I think I’m a bit older than you.
REINER: Yeah, little bit.
