Tim Cuprisin's Take on Chris Matthews

I think Tim Cuprisin is guilty of the sin of omission in his Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about Chris Matthews.

"Matthews' 'Hardball' style is clear-cut; his views remain anything but" is a joke.

Gee, Tim, didn't you know that Matthews spent YEARS working for Democrats?

Matthews spent 15 years in politics and government, working in the White House for four years under President Jimmy Carter as a Presidential speechwriter and on the President’s Reorganization Project, in the U.S. Senate for five years on the staffs of Senator Frank Moss (Utah) and Senator Edmund Muskie (Maine), and as the top aide to Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. for six years.

That information comes from Matthews' MSNBC official bio.

It's not rumor. No Right-wing conspiracy. It's Matthews' résumé.

How can Cuprisin claim to be uncertain as to Matthews' political leanings?

Cuprisin writes:

Matthews himself is criticized by Republicans for supposedly pro-Democratic views and by Democrats for being pro-Republican.

He says viewers don't really know his politics.

WHAT?

That's ridiculous!

Matthews is a Dem hack.

Cuprisin should know that. It's his job to write about radio and TV for the Journal Sentinel.

Can he really claim to be clueless about Matthews' background?

Apparently, TV guy Cuprisin must have missed Chris Matthews' July 18 appearance on the Tonight Show.

Matthews railed on President Bush. His segment was a non-stop anti-Bush rant.

Check out Matthews' comments. Do you have any doubt where the guy stands politically?

MATTHEWS: If [Bush] was gonna play Joan of Arc, we wouldn't have elected him. Getting whispers from heaven is scary business. I mean, the guys we're fighting say that, too.

The people that attacked us at the World Trade Center believe that God led them into the World Trade towers. I think we need a little more humility...

I think if President Bush had said this when he was running for office in 2000, he wouldn't have got anywhere near the White House.

People would say, 'This is messianic. This is scary. God's talkin' to me telling me that the world needs to be democratized.'

MATTHEWS: The idea that we're on some Napoleonic crusade to spread Democracy in a part of the world where they may, if you let them vote, say they would choose to have their version of God rule their country.... I'm not sure what they would do, but one thing I know is it's not working. And we're stuck over there and they're shooting us....

Misinformation...the indoctrination that's going on....

The latest I heard this weekend was if the surge doesn't work, Bush is gonna want more troops.

He has snookered us again.

MATTHEWS: So I think we in journalism have got to stop being so scared of being unobjective and start focusing on our job which is to question, question, question. String 'em out.

MATTHEWS: We got to stop treating politicians who get elected, and this crowd wasn't even exactly elected, stop treating them like dispensers of the truth. That's our biggest mistake....

MATTHEWS: I think we gotta be damn skeptical about this crowd because on WMD, on the connection to 9/11, on this surge, every step of the way, on the torture, on every step of the way we've been given misinformation.

How did we get all this misinformation? From the top. Unfortunately. Sad thing.

It's absurd for Cuprisin to suggest that Matthews keeps his audience guessing about his political views.

Absolutely absurd.

I say this with all due respect: Cuprisin is either remarkably ignorant or unashamedly deceptive.

Either way, it's bad.