Chris Matthews Pokes Fun At Pat Buchanan: "You And Ann Coulter Can Sell Anything"

Wrapping up a fairly emotional segment remembering NBC News' Tim Russert, Chris Matthews lightened the mood by poking fun at panelist Pat Buchanan's latest book, "Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World."

After Matthews jokingly referred to the book as "World War II Was Wrong" Buchanan corrected him on the book's title. Matthews then joked, "You and Ann Coulter can sell anything."

Watch the exchange below:

Comments

[Kitty40]

Pat Buchanan is a racist!

[agandia]

Those who do not believe he is a racist... check this out:

http://trainwreckpolitics.com/2008/03/24/pat-buchanan-rev-wright-should-get-down-on-his-knees-and-thank-god-for-slavery/

[morbie5]

A lot of people agree with what Buchanan wrote. He still has a column and is still on TV right?

[roncraw]

I'm a Dem. Buchanan is a breath of fresh air,he tells it like it is. At least he is objective,­Matthews,O­lbrerman,C­afferty and to many others acted as if they were on Obama's election comm.

[HWNA]

If you think Buchanan has it right I would suggest your reconsider your party affiliation.

[libcharisma]

Now I understand the reasoning behind the conservative platform. WWII was unnecessary even though the Allied forces saved the ENTIRE world. Iraq however was necessary because Saddam "probably" had WMD.

*Epiphany*

[1099]

Buchanan, being a true conservative and not a neo-con, was against the Iraq war from the beginning.

[neocon666]

I have a suggestion for Pat's next book:
"Bush, Cheney, and the Unecessary War: How America lost it's empire and its standing in the world"

[rasthedestroyer]

When is someone going to ask Pat what the hell "EXOTIC" means in regards to Sen. O. He seems to use that term alot when speaking about him.

[pinkyboo]

Black

[liz]

Not Irish Catholic white male, i.e., not us -- them!

[drizzt396]

I think you mean WASP--White Anglo Saxon Protestant. If the nation was overwhelmingly ICWM, JFK (and Al Smith) never would have faced the 'Catholic' question. Not that those Irish Catholics don't get annoying, they just aren't the WASP majority.

[neocon666]

Just another form of conservative code, just like the people who seem to have come out of the woodwork to call in to talk shows to say that Barack Obama "scares" them without being able to say exactly how -but we all know what they're talking about.

[longislandlol]

Buchanan is a rare bird as a conservative-- he will not be comfy with McCain as the candidate- and may just fit in as some kind of senior, senior advisor to Barack...

[ChewyToy22]

I hope not; I can't stand him.

[drizzt396]

Never. Ever.

[SouthpawSass]

While I disagree with Buchanan on most social issues, he is consistent in his ideology. He doesn't flip flop which makes for a good, healthy debate, plus, he's not a stupid man. I'd read his book to see another side of that war we seem to praise so much...

"WW two, the good war" We'll see.

[liz]

I don't mind the content of what he says. He is more intelligent and thoughtful in some ways than most of the right wingers on TV. BUT, he screams and yells all the time and I cannot stand it for more than 30 seconds, even when I'm interested in what he has to say.

[nonofyabusiness]

MSNBC can't seem to understand how many people chnage the channel when Pat's on....

[SatinPanties]

"...he is consistent in his ideology"

So was Hitler.

[NTO08]

...and you, Matthews, can't...yo­u are as laughable as any right wing loon...how­'s that tingling feeling when you see Barack? Or the rise you get when you smelled Fred Thompson's cologne?

[MalloMel]

Happy now?

[gevan]

The West couldn't very well lose what they didn't really own, could they? Will have to check my Kipling. Perhaps Buchanan was thinking of the "white man's burden"? As our soldiers used to sing back in 1902, "Underneath the starry flag, civilize them with a Krag [the then current rifle]". Poor Pat. He han't digested the dialecticle imperatives of history yet. Still recovering from passage of the XIVth and XVth Amendments no doubt.

[mymatrix]

I couldn't believe Matthews was being so derisive of his longstanding colleague. Buchanans book is a provocative exploration of the stupidity of war. He makes one of the most compelling anti-war arguments I've ever heard.

[Boris]

Well, yeah, you might be right if you ignore the fact that his facts are wrong or that he draws conclusions that fly in the face of reality. But then again, he lives in ConWorld, where reality is just a few marinis away.

[DilemaFl]

you gotta love the guys on MSNBC, all of them just make a lot fun to watch...

[yoli647]

I am so tired of Pat Buchanan that everytime he is on MSNBC I change the channel. He is arrogant, racist, and with the silly laugh he turns my stomach. Joe Scarborough and Mika are also on my "can't stand list." Joe with his bitty eyes and Mika with her silly laugh, they both add nothing to the news.

[Yuma]

I change the channel too.

[dawlishgal]

I don't even bother to tune in anymore. Scarborough pretended to be a moderate, but his true nutcase conservative credentials have come blasting through of late. In a lot of ways he is worse than Imus was because Imus didn't pretend to be anything else. I tuned in a week or so ago just to see what was happening, but Scarborough was temporarily gone, and the show still stank.

[rtnd22]

Yeah what we need is Maddow in the Morning...­.Joe be on in the 9 oclock hour and Rach in the Morning

[VSamuels]

While I fall into that group who enjoys Rachel's honesty and openess, it is the advertisers whose opinions matters more equally. The cable news format is inherently conservative; built on purpose to appeal to a well polled and researched group of white Americans who fit into certain 'rock solid' demographics. The final product in which we see daily is but a reflection of what the MSM reflects back out is who they are and how they think.

[1099]

We need Maddow with a muzzle.

[VSamuels]

Good point, in regards to Mika. There definitely is a strategy that the executives 'use' to push the acceptance of the status quo; which is that white men's opinions are what matters. Mika fits perfectly.

She is attractive. She is not too serious. [Initially, she was very serious and asked serious questions.­] She brings levity and silly interjections. And, now she seems to be bending to a more conservative slant.

None of this is by accident; we must always be mindful that MSNBC is selling a product, not simply reporting the news as it lies. They are specifically targeting an audience which wants their information slanted to their particular view. It is a great business strategy, but it simply impales the integrity of the news product.

It is the same reason why blacks, Asians, Hispanics and other groups are so glaringly absent from most of the broadcasts.

[maribelle1963]

"It is the same reason why blacks, Asians, Hispanics.­..are absent"

Have you been watching lately? There are more minorities than ever on the news, on all stations including even Fox.*

Eugene Robinson, Michelle Bernard, Gwen Ifills, Ray Suarez, Michelle Malkin and countless guest commentators and guest analysists. I have been really impressed this election season by the rainbow coalition of news personnel we've seen. Things are improving.

(*On Fox, they usually throw their fellows to the wolves, but that's Fox's MO).

[ChewyToy22]

I totally agree with you. Gregory, too.

I don't mind Chris Matthews but when he's going over the same topics day after day, I'm not watching him, either. Frankly, I'd rather stick with The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. I've never puked while I'm laughing.

[westreal]

Chris is hilarious.

[Melissa]

Chris is an idiot!

[NTO08]

...in the sense that he is a laughable fool.

[Nonamnesiac]

Only Matthews and Colbert tagged Nazi Buchanan for his love of Hitler-style Naziism, altrhough they did so subtly. Nazi Buchanan's past 2 books about WWII argued the US fought on the wrong side during WWII and that Hitler was forced into WWII by the evil Churchill. Nazi Buchanan minmizes the holocaust and has never come across a Nazi war criminal he hasn't defended.

He is used as some kind of a mainstream pundit by almost all of the NBC pundits, even Olbermann, and with the exception of Matthews and Colbert he is encouraged to spew his racist Nazi ideology -- pushing hard to use his broadcast postion to shape the more racist instincts of White workers into hard core Nazi and racist views.

When Nazi Buchanan gets together with Moron Joe Scarborough and stupid, useless Tucker Carlson it sounds like a chorus of "Deutchland Uber Alles" played as another stanza of "Dixie" (Oh, I wish I were in the land of cotton, Lynchin' there ain't been forgotten, look away, look away, look away Dixieland.­)

Time for NBC to dump Nazi Buchanan, Moron Joe and Tucker.

[sistermoon]

Amen!!!

[fortune5]

Thank you for this post. You made my day. Everything you said is true and hopefully it is the sentiment of the majority otherwise, there is little hope for change because I really think the media is a powerful force in this country. We do value free speech and therefore everything we see on TV must be true right? The media's role in this country is like any in a third world country where the dictator controls the media. Why in this great country of ours do we allow the media to be controlled by special interests. I guess MSNBC is just balancing the playing field because FOX is way far to the right.

I refuse to listen to 'expert' opinions of buchanan, scarborough, and tucker. It is all about the bottom line; the networks put these 'experts' on the air because they instigate anger and controversy and therefore leads to more audience.

[VSamuels]

I agree with most of what you write; yet, I do take exception with your point that the Buchanans, Scarborough and Tuckers leads to 'more audience.' These cable execs are weasels and opportunists; meaning while they may not harbor inert racial baggage themselves, they are more than willing to make a living creating a news product which appeals to those who make up their viewership. These guys don't create the 'hate' and 'anger' in the audience, they cultivate it and make them comfortable in feeling and believing that it is still O.K. to be a closet or open bigot.

And, in the absence of any legitimate white leaders standing up before white Americans and cutting through the fog of 'self denial' and stating openly their objections to racial panderings that has been done so often it is accepted as 'something' normal, things aren't likely to change anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the world and some of its other peoples will choose to move ahead, regardless of the status quo ignorance that peppers the American populace like lice.

[columbiagal]

So true. MSNBC also puts these people on to give a pretense of "fair and balanced;" otherwise
they'd be labeled "too liberal" by Faux News, Bill Kristol and the like. So they get to go on and spew their right wing ideology and BS. Tucker said the other day that Obama should have kept Jim Johnson as VP vetter because he needs experienced people due to having "the thinnest resume of anyone who ever ran for President.­" My history is a little vague, but I'm sure that's not true - just another Repub talking point. Every time I see Tucker's smirk I want to slap the TV. I feel the same way about Pat B. Why do all those right wing women and guys smirk so much?

[jennbeez]

"Why do all those right wing women and guys smirk so much?" I know a LOT of neocons here in NC, so I know the answer: The blandly superior smirk is all they have.

[1099]

Because they usually end up being proved right.....­.....(smir­k).

[HermioneGranger]

Morally, you might argue differently, but strateglcally it made no sense for the U.S. to help Stalin win WW II which is in effect what they did.

It would have been a lot smarter to let the Soviet Union crumble in 1942.

[Nonamnesiac]

Respectfully I disagree with you strategically. The Red Army is what defeated Nazi Germany. Two thirds of the German Army was lost on the Eastern front. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the Nazis already controlled the European continent, except for the Soviet Union. We exercised no choice here -- we were attacked by one of the Axis powers. Had we somehow allowed the Nazis to finish off the Soviet Union, they would have forced us to make a peace with Japan against our own interests and we would have been alone against the rest of a fascist world.

Strategically, morally and from the standpoint of our self-interests the US had no choice but to assist those still fighting Nazi Germany. The most militarily potent of those was the Soviet Union.

Buchanan is simply spewing Nazi propaganda in his books. His books are presented as serious academic works, crammed with end notes, original sources, etc. They are actually novels propounding a Nazi point of view -- works of fiction -- masquerading as serious academia. Matthews and Colbert were the only ones who understood that and called him out on it.

[drizzt396]

I'd argue that facism is worse than dictatorial communism, but it's basically the same thing.

What you forget though, is the difference between Stalinist communist philosophy and the facists--the facists wanted the whole world immediately, while Stalin wanted to solidify communism's hold over the region then look at global domination. Considering that it is better that we went after the facists first, then the Stalinists.

[pithy]

I think maybe Pat Buchanan is homeless and now lives in the boiler room at MSNBC, sleeping on a cot and eating peanut butter sandwiches because he wouldn't dare go out for a bite - he might be called to the stage for some high-pitched commentary at the drop of a hat.

The man is on from early morning until last call at night - drives me bonkers!!!! And that voice . . .