Chris Matthews Does Not Trust Women

Chris Matthews openly disdains the female majority in this country. From Media Matters (watch the video):

On the September 5 broadcast of NBC's Today, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, discussing the November elections with host Matt Lauer, asserted that "the stakes" in the midterms would include "whether we want [House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi [CA] to be the first woman speaker of the House or not." Matthews predicted that, in the event that Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in the November elections, "that iconic fact of that woman sitting behind the president during a State of the Union address is an enormous change in our culture," referring to Pelosi.

Memo to: Chris Matthews
Mr. Matthews, you say you are convinced (in "my own view") that having a woman sitting behind the President during a State of the Union address would be "an enormous change in our culture." I am wondering, how would you feel about having a woman as your physician? Having a woman as your boss? Having a woman as a colleague, or even... as a friend?

Mr. Matthews, there have already been enormous changes in our country's culture. Some of them happened many decades ago. For example, have you heard about the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? It became the law of the land on Thursday, June 5, 1919. Apparently you were not paying attention during civics class.

Late bulletin to Matthews: Women are able to vote and to hold office in this country! Evidently you have been living somewhere else, in some bizarre America of your own imagining.

For a national broadcaster such as yourself to imply that women cannot provide leadership, nor even sit in a chair of honor during a speech, is beneath contempt. Your statement is buffoonery in its most pathetic and disgraceful form, a blatant appeal to the worst instincts in your fellow human beings. You owe us all --- women and men alike --- a prompt apology.

•  re

  Chris is a) a d#$ bag and b) worthless and c) CLEARLY between this on his Hillary obscession a problem with powerful women.

  Prob. didn't get laid enough in college.

  by cookiesandmilk on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:08:19 PM PDT

•  I'm no fan of Matthews

  but how does that statement mean he "doesn't trust women", or even has anything against women?  Yes, women have been able to vote and hold office for quite awhile, but that doesn't mean they have done so in large numbers or held such high positions before, which is exactly how I interpreted that statement.

  by tryptamine on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:17:33 PM PDT

  •  Um, he doesn't want a woman onscreen during SOTU

    Matthews did not say that some people would find it a cultural shift; he said that he would. If simply seeing a woman sitting behind the President during a State of the Union speech constitutes a "cultural shift" to Matthews, how will he feel about an actual woman holding substantive power? Based on his own statement, I cannot imagine he would be comfortable, and I call that an obvious lack of trust.

    by dratman on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:33:07 PM PDT

    •  I think you're reading too much into it.

      It is a huge shift in culture that we are now, finally, seeing women sitting behind the President (and hopefully the next step is that woman being the President).  In my own short lifetime, there has been a big shift; I don't recall having any women with that much political power in the '80s.  Yet just stating that apparently means to you that I don't trust women?

      by tryptamine on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:53:40 PM PDT

    •  I should add,

      I haven't watched the video.

      by tryptamine on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:54:12 PM PDT

  •  What an incredible comment.

    There is no excuse for what Matthews said.  And did you really mean to suggest that women don't vote in large numbers, or is that just poor sentence construction?

    by Boston Boomer on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:45:35 PM PDT

    •  Poor sentence construction.

      And I'm not 'making excuses'.  I didn't interpret it the way the diarist did.

      by tryptamine on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:49:37 PM PDT

•  Two Words....

  ...Nora O'Donnell.  Why would he have that half-wit sub for him?

  Is he so threatened that he only wants a dolt subbing for him?  And if that dolt is a woman?

  I think he is full of crap (as usual).  Giving him ANY credence is "an enormous change to our culture."

  by InquisitiveRaven on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:32:52 PM PDT

  •  And have you noticed

    her loud, horsey laugh?
    It is obnoxious beyond belief.  I used to think she was attractive when she started appearing on the tube, but now she has become a plague.

    by Radiowalla on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 07:32:27 PM PDT

    •  I Do a PERFECT Imitation!

      It cracks my husband up...It's that "Ha-ha-ha-ha" delivered with totally flat a's with the same intensity on each syllable and uniform spacing.

      Try it!  Anyone can do it!

      by InquisitiveRaven on Wed Sep 06, 2006 at 06:05:26 PM PDT

•  aw geez.....

  Chris is leery of a female woman person sitting behind the president.  on tv, yet.  Hey, Chris, would it be OK if she wore a chador?

  by bodiddley on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:45:15 PM PDT

  •  In Matthews' world,

    the woman should be kneeling in front of Bush--servicing him.

    by Boston Boomer on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:48:52 PM PDT

    •  Well...

      ....she'd have to fight Tweety for the right to do so.

      by metal prophet on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 07:17:15 PM PDT

•  Matthews Shoots Off Mouth Without Thinking...

  In other news, Dog Bites Man.

  by Gutterboy on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 07:26:55 PM PDT