With the convention's first evening canceled, we needed some fireworks, and we all knew MSNBC would provide that, wouldn't it?
Chris Matthews -- looking surprisingly haggard for the first morning of convention week -- just decided to tear into RNC chair Reince Priebus Monday morning.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews lashed out at Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Monday, attacking Republican campaign rhetoric and accusing presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney of playing the race card.
Referring to Mitt Romney's reference last week to his own birth certificate, Matthews said, "That cheap shot about 'I don't have a problem with my birth certificate' was awful. You are playing that little ethnic card there. You can play your games and giggle about it, but the fact is your side is playing that card."
Priebus' response while speaking to reporters a few hours later:
"We shook hands, but I will tell ya that someone from MSNBC, I don't know if it's a producer or somebody, has been trying to call us all day -- I'm sure it's to make amends, but there's nothing to make amends [about]. When somebody wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room . . . I mean, he made the case for us. This is the Barack Obama surrogate of 2012. This is what they're all about. They're going to be about division, they're going to be about distraction. And I've got to tell you, the brand of Barack Obama, hope and change and bringing us all together, it's completely broken. When people come to realize that you're not real anymore, you're not who you said you were, that's a big problem for Barack Obama."
Asked if he would go on MSNBC again, he said, "I'm happy to go on MSNBC. Joe and Mika, they weren't too happy about it. The feeling in the room was clearly there was a lot of unhappiness directed at Chris. I don't really care. If more than 10 people actually watched his show, I would actually care, but they don't, so, whatever."
I chatted with Priebus about the potential issues if Isaac hits the Gulf Coast badly while the convention is going on, and the issue of Mike Huckabee speaking Wednesday night. This was shortly after he spoke with Guy Benson outside; if you want to see Benson and Priebus try to act like everything's normal on camera as a torrential downpour begins, click here.
Allahpundit watched Newt Gingrich appear on Hardball, where he suggested that Matthews has his own knee-jerk associations of African-Americans with welfare and food stamps, and asks what the point is:
You'll enjoy watching Matthews being given a taste of his own medicine but this clip is more useful as a demonstration of why it's pointless for the two sides to talk to each other. The problem isn't that Tingles is willing to presume racism; the problem is that his presumption is irrebuttable, with subconscious racism the inevitable fallback presumption in cases like these when the accused protests vehemently enough. You're guilty, even if you don't know it. What possible good can a conversation with those parameters do except to provide a lazy blogger like me with easy content on a slow news night? It'd be more dignified for both of them if Gingrich just got up and left. Cede the airtime to some liberal guest who can come on and tell Matthews what he wants to hear. That's not a useful conversation either, but at least both participants would respect the other's good faith and sincerity. I'd prefer that to Dog-Whistle Theater.
Sure, "you're racist" arguments are wastes of time, full of bad faith, frustrating to listen to, and infuriating to take part in . . . but with the Left being what it is, and with the reelection of the first African-American president on the line, everything can and will be interpreted as a sign of hidden racism by the Left. It's why "that's racist!" is a punch-line on the right. It's a shame, because there is actual, genuine racism in this country, and in a better world, the concept of racism would not be adopted as this all-purpose slander to demonize political opponents. With each passing year, I think that the charge of racism carries less and less weight, because it's so overused, so implausible, so transparent in the partisan axe-grinding of its accusers, and so on. We all remember The Daily Show depicting that "the race card has been overdrawn" back in 2010.
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