I don't really write many diaries often, and frankly I don't know what possesed me to do this one, but as I was watching Hardball last night, and specifically a segment featuring Philly based right-wing radio host Michael Smerconish (who often subs for the always irritable Joe "Stoopid" Scarborough) and with the Reverend Al Sharpton (and I will admit he is not one my favorite people in the world, but last night he was spectacular), I was just shocked with how both Chris Matthews and Sharpton made Smerconish look like a fool. For the first time in a long time Matthews was actually serious and hitting the right-wing talking point that Plamegate is a third rate scandal, among others.
So I'm going to provide some of text from the transcript and maybe somebody out there can find video from this segment and let me know so I can link to it...but again, I'm doing this diary because it was a really incredible TV moment!
So Matthews starts off asking Smerconish why the White House didn't just come clean from the beginning and saying that this wouldn't have blown up if they had and Smerconish had this to say:
[T]his is a total Beltway story. It is so damn confusing, I don`t think it`s going to have any net effect with voters whatsoever unless we learn that the president himself decided to out Valerie Plame in order to embarrass Joe Wilson.
This is in the category of Whitewater, which was some confusing land transaction, and not in the category of Watergate which was a burglary that we Americans out here beyond the Beltway can all appreciate and understand.
Then Chrissy lays the smackdown:
MATTHEWS: Well, let me help you as you speak for the entire world beyond this city.
SMERCONISH: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Let me tell you what I know and I know audiences are damn interested in this because I do check on occasion how many people are watching and ever since we began covering this story, there`s been increased interest because of this reason, Michael.
It doesn`t have a damn thing to do with what you just talked about. It has to do with why we went to war with Iraq and the case made was we faced a nuclear threat from Iraq, not only a nuclear weapon that was going to be in the hands of this guy Saddam Hussein, but he had a weapon to deliver that vehicle. That was a real threat.
It wasn`t going to be a smoking gun, it was going to be a mushroom cloud. We heard that from the president, the secretary of state, we heard it from the secretary--we heard it from the National Security Council and everybody. We heard it from all the people at the Defense Department. That was the case that won with the middle of the road voter in this country, beyond the Beltway, and those were the people that went along with the war.
We subsequently found out that there wasn`t a real case for nuclear weapons in the hands of Saddam Hussein, that, in fact, one guy, Joe Wilson, went over there and was asked to check out this story and found out it wasn`t there. He reported back, and somehow the president continued to make the argument that there was a nuclear threat in his State of the Union Address and elsewhere, continued to make the threat against the evidence that had been accumulated by the CIA.
When I talked to George Tenet, he says to me--I asked him why didn`t the vice president get a report back on a trip that his question had triggered about whether it was a nuclear deal with Africa. And he said "ask the vice president." Ask him.
So there is a big mystery here, how we got into that war and whether the case being made for that war was continued after the war and as part of that was to try to destroy the whistleblower, Joe Wilson.
This is serious damn stuff, Michael, and if people don`t get all the facts, you ought to help them get it, instead of just laughing at the story.
SMERCONISH: Wait a minute. I`m not laughing at the story.
MATTHEWS: This is serious business.
Chris made this wingnut look like a damn fool. This story is important, and the American people are paying attention and idiots like Mr. Smerconish only wish that this was like the GOP-invented Whitewater.
It. doesn't. Come. Even. Close.
More...
SHARPTON: [T]his is clearly not some simple laughable situation and I think a lot of voters want to say "Wait a minute. Even if I think you made an honest mistake, how do you honestly leak information like a CIA agent and it happens to be married to someone who discredited your premise for war?"
I hope that all of the Republicans are like Michael and laugh because they`ll be whistling through the cemetery in November.
SMERCONISH: Hey Reverend, I`m not laughing about this story. I`m just saying that as compared to incidents in the past like Watergate or Whitewater, it`s more in the Whitewater category.
And gentlemen, I think you need to remind viewers that Scooter Libby has been indicted for lying to a grand jury and not for outing Valerie Plame. No one has been indicted in connection with that outing at this stage.
SHARPTON: But why would he lie? Why would he lie and what happens, Michael, if in fact we find Karl Rove indicted? And others indicted? This story may not be over.
And I think that it is very hard to act like one, the story has ended with the indictment, and that his indictment of lying to the grand jury isn`t because he was trying to hide other possible criminal acts.
SMERCONISH: If Fitzgerald could have indicted him for more than lying to a grand jury, believe me he would have done so by now.
SHARPTON: And if he could have protected himself without lying, he probably wouldn`t have lied. People lie because they feel the truth might hurt them.
You should have seen this segment, it was probably the best one. After Shartpon smacked around Smerconish with that last statement, completely shutting him up, there was a 3 second silence before Chris Matthews finally jumped in and slightly changed the subject. It was beautiful to see!
It was really one of the best Hardball shows I have seen in a long time, and although I have major beef with Sharpton, I think he was beyond superb and I will gladly give credit to Matthews for recognizing that this is a serious issue and shutting up the wingut aswell.
Check out the transcript for the entire segment, and if anyone can find video of just this particular segment please post it, it is REALLY worth it!