What to do about Chris Matthews? Matalin told Libby, "Call Tim....He hates Chris."

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Libby trial shows an insular, backbiting Washington
By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
February 1, 2007

WASHINGTON — With the Bush administration taking a pounding over erroneous prewar claims about Iraq in the summer of 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff consulted his office's top communications advisor on how to strike back.

As they talked by phone, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby scribbled down a series of Machiavellian suggestions from Cheney's then-communications guru, Mary Matalin: What to do about MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews and his steady barrage of Iraq war criticism? "Call Tim," Libby wrote, referring to Tim Russert of NBC News. "He hates Chris."

What to make of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had emerged that summer to challenge the veracity of one of the administration's most alarming claims about Saddam Hussein's regime? "Wilson is a snake," Libby transcribed.

And how best to use the power of the White House to beat back the attacks? The president "should wave his wand," Matalin advised, and quickly declassify portions of intelligence reports that backed up the White House case for war.

Libby is the defendant in the case that brought this page of notes to light Wednesday — a case that centers on whether he lied to federal investigators looking into the leak of an undercover CIA operative's name.

But in many respects, it is the ugly mutual exploitation that goes on every day in Washington between powerful government officials and influential members of the media that is on trial in U.S. District Court in Washington....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-color1feb01,0,3733635.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

[bridgit]

1. Mary Matalin, with that $300 bob of hers, the neo-Ming The Merciless clothing she wears...

and those odd words spewing from that skewed face is one of the strangest figures in small 'a' america today...the woman does truly believe as do her enablers, that america is one big popcorn eating rube when sat before a well timed slide show stuffed with propaganda

her snide & cynicism are stunning

[Robbien]

2. While the press plays games, bombs are dropped on families.

To the DC press this is all a power trip.

On a side note: The stomach turning duo fleecing the unwary:
James Carville and Mary Matalin Return on Crystal Cruises in 2007

Carville and Matalin's lecture series, "A Walk Through the Races ... Where they're Going ... What to Make of This Historic Time," is sure to ignite spirited discussions on all sides of the political spectrum. James Carville is a well-known member of Hillary Clinton's inner circle, and Mary Matalin is planning to announce her Republican candidate of choice by the time of this cruise.

[bridgit]

3. disgusting, i wouldn't pay to see them if they were the headliners at a dog fight...

[Tatiana]

4. Remember how Chris was against the war in Iraq before he was for it?

February 14, 2003 | Chris Matthews barreled into American living rooms during the Clinton impeachment saga, when his CNBC show "Hardball" became the official cable clubhouse for Clinton haters -- and must-viewing for Clinton defenders with a masochistic streak. Nobody who watched Matthews' shouting, spittle-spewing performance art night after night could question his sincerity: Here was a one-time Peace Corps volunteer from a blue-collar family -- and a lifelong Democrat who had worked for House Speaker Tip O'Neill -- and he clearly loathed Clinton for bringing shame to his office and his party. But it was also true that Matthews saw the rightward drift in cable's audience, and he knew there were ratings in his rants against a liberal president. "Hardball" moved to MSNBC and became its top-rated show, and Fox News czar Roger Ailes (who launched Matthews' program when he was at CNBC) would build his primetime schedule around faux-Matthews scold Bill O'Reilly, another Irish-Catholic heckler who knows that the culture war matters as much as politics does to cable TV's angry, (largely) white male audience.

"Hardball" lost some of its edge in the early days of the Bush administration. Matthews needs an enemy, or at least a cause, to keep him charged. But the show has become must-viewing again for anyone tuned into the nation's latest political drama (one that cable news poohbahs also hope will boost ratings): Who wants to bury a dictator? This time around, though, Matthews is bucking the right. He's the only mainstream cable host who's openly opposing the administration's rush to war, and almost every night he battles bloodthirsty Iraq hawks and rails against spineless Democrats who won't muster the power to stop them.

<snip>

Salon: You like to say that the missing element in the war debate is a debate. Why do you think that is?

It's so tricky to give an honest answer to this. Motives are so hard to get to. There are people opposed to this war who are trying to stop it, and there are people who are just posing as critics. For example, if the Democrats wanted to stop a court appointment because it was essential to NARAL, or Norman Lear's group, People for the American Way, they'd do everything they could: They might filibuster, you know they'd campaign hard against the person, they'd really try to win. From Bork to Thomas to Estrada, they go in, they try to win. And back during the Vietnam War, that was a real opposition, where you use all the power in your hands to stop something that's wrong for the country. You had Morse, you had Church -- they went after the money. I don't see that in this debate at all. I see people who are just posturing.

Salon: Well, Ted Kennedy wants the president to come back to Congress for approval before we invade.

But they voted for the resolution before the election. And I can't explain that -- I can't explain Dianne Feinstein's vote. I can't explain John Kerry's vote. I can't explain Chuck Schumer's vote. This was a blank check for war

Salon: Though some of them tried to spin it differently.

This was worse than the Gulf of Tonkin. It was, "Whenever you get around to it, here's your hall pass, Mr. President." The Democrats just don't have a foreign policy that they're willing to defend, that they're willing to use to take down the president's. We're dealing with the power of suggestion here. Once it was suggested that Saddam Hussein might give his weaponry to terrorists, or might use weapons himself in the region, then it became hard for the Democrats to say, "Well, that can't happen." They were unable to stand up and say: "Here's our policy. It's 'Unite the world against terrorism.'"

Unity is the most important thing on the road to stamping out terror. You need global rules of law and order, and they have to be enforced. Start with that principle. Certain arms agreements have to be enforced. There has to be respect for multilateral action. Then you use all that force to stop certain things from happening.

You don't say, like the Bush crowd, "I got this guy over here and I don't like him and I'm gonna get him, whether you back me or not." That's like what's-his-name, the guy who shot the kids in the subway

(more of this fascinating look at what Tweety used to think before Cheney & co. got to him....)

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/02/14/chrismatthews/index.html

[sam sarrha]

5. i particularlly enjoyed the page that implicated Bu$h as the leaker of Plame's identy

a 2fer is called for and a double hanging for Treason... i hope someone has a cell phone..

[Tatiana]

6. K&R n/t