Chris Matthews: Newt Gingrich 'Nasty'

On Wednesday's Hardball, Chris Matthews of MSNBC, Mike Scherer of Time, and Howard Fineman of The Huffington Post and formerly of Newsweek, were remarkably shallow and silly, as well as shockingly brutal, in their attacks on Newt Gingrich.

This was not serious political analysis. It was so over the top that it was just plain weird. Their comments were really inexcusable. It was a Gingrich bash-fest, lacking substance.

Their main focus was on Gingrich's looks.

Here's video.



Transcript, partially from NewsBusters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why does a guy with a diabolic grin, and I'm being completely objective here, a guy who doesn't look like a presidential candidate, looks too nasty for one, why is the nasty guy doing the best of all the candidates right now, the one who's so obviously nasty?

MIKE SCHERER: I think there's a couple things going on here, too. Newt is not carrying his own baggage. Everybody knows right now why they don't like Mitt Romney. People don't know yet why they don't like Newt Gingrich, and that's all gonna come out in the next couple weeks. Democrats are gonna turn on him. Romney's gonna go much tougher on him. The other candidates - Bachmann, Perry - are probably gonna start hitting him in Iowa. And so, there will be a turn. But the other interesting thing is if you look at these polls numbers, something that's already showing up, woman are far less likely to be supportive of Newt than men.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why?

MIKE SCHERER: He's got that, and I think that's part of that, that, you know, he just kinda looks, looks a little funny to me, plus his history with several marriages.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah. Well, let me go to Howard now on character discussion here. It looks to me like if you're looking to cast a villain, someone to go after the marshal, who's President Obama, you're looking with a guy with some notches on his belt and Newt's got them. Look at Jim Wright and the rest of them back then and with some scars on his face, a guy that does look nasty. I'm not being- attacking Newt right now on that basis. I'm just pointing out his appeal to the right-wing haters. They want somebody who looks nasty like a Jack Palance, you know, from Shane. Some nasty guy that the dogs walk away when they see him. You know what I'm talking about.

HOWARD FINEMAN: I know what you're talking about, Chris. And I wrote about it the other week when Newt was really started to rocket to the top, because I've covered him from the beginning, and I've always said and I wrote in this piece, that Newt's main appeal and his main skill is as a guy who knows exactly where to put the explosive device to blow up the bridge. He did it- he did it the to the Democratic establishment in the House which it had controlled the House of Representatives for 40 years.

Newt basically invented a new style of semi-intellectual attack politics that was made to appeal to the rising generation of Republicans, baby boomers, who had read Barry Goldwater, who had read the National Review, who wanted an intellectual gloss for the all-out kneecapping they were about to commit against the Democratic Party.

That's Newt's background. The older generation of Republican voters, likely Republican voters, remember that Newt. They forgotten some of the bad stuff like the shutdown of the government, et cetera, et cetera. They forgot Newt the cry baby on Air Force One. They remember Newt the attack dog. They remember Newt, the guy who blew up a seemingly, you know, entrenched Democratic establishment.

Good grief.

This discussion is just awful. They all to seem to be channeling their inner Joan Rivers, picking apart a celebrity on the Red Carpet.

Matthews won't stop calling Gingrich "nasty." He berates him for looking like a villain. In addition, Matthews slams "right-wing haters" for wanting a villainous, scarface, Jack Palance type of candidate. Talk about odd!

Scherer chimes in that Gingrich is funny looking.

Fineman compares Gingrich to someone who would know how to bomb a bridge. He also insults conservatives, using violent imagery, saying we really just want an "all-out kneecapping" of the Democrats. Fineman says Gingrich's "semi-intellectual" style appeals to the thuggish conservatives.

What a load! They really are embarrassing themselves.

I'd like these three to give their takes on Abraham Lincoln's appearance. Would Matthews call him "nasty"?

This trashing of Gingrich is so extreme. They should listen to themselves attack him. It's very lowbrow stuff.

This was far from MSNBC's finest hour.