Well, That Didn't Take Long

Earlier today, Chris Hayes — or at least whoever programs his Chyron declared that George Wallace was a Republican. Chris Matthews compounds the mislabeling: “Sleazy Matthews: Ted Cruz, Bill O’Reilly Are the Same as Nazi Sympathizer Father Coughlin, Huey Long,” as spotted by Scott Whitlock of Newsbusters:

Chris Matthews on Wednesday took his smearing of conservatives to a new level, comparing Ted Cruz to the Nazi-sympathizing, World War II-era Father Charles Coughlin. After playing a montage of the Republican senator, Matthews sneered, “I think [Cruz] fits in the tradition of Father Coughlin and McCarthy and, of course, maybe to a lesser extent, Pat Buchanan and, of course, [Bill] O’Reilly.” [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Lumping all these men together, the Hardball anchor generalized, “These guys are hard right-wing guys. They look a lot alike. They have what we call the black Irish look to them.” According to Urban Dictionary, black Irish is someone with “dark hair and olive skin.” The liberal Matthews is quite sensitive on issues of race, so how is such talk acceptable?

Later, he continued: “Is a demagogue a good career plan? I mean, it worked for Huey Long for a while. It worked for a lot of guys like Coughlin for a while and certainly McCarthy.”

Chris’s racialism reminds me of the 1930s in another country, to coin a Matthews-approved Godwinism. But beyond that: Umm, Chris — Father Coughlin and Huey Long were on your side of the aisle.

It looks like June could be quite a long month for Matthews; it was just last week that he was busted for proclaiming on air that “We don’t have any African Americans in the United States Senate, which I think is a disgrace:”

After finishing that rant, Matthews quickly backtracked and noted that South Carolina Republican Tim Scott is black. He was further corrected moments later by one of his guests, weekend MSNBC host Steve Kornacki, who also noted that William “Mo” Cowan of Massachusetts is black.

MSNBC: We never let facts get in the way of a good Two-Minute Hate.

Or our ratings.