It's no secret that Chris Matthews is a hack for this administration, but I was surprised to see the lengths that he will go to to provide cover for Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina.
On the March 2nd "Hardball," Matthews had
this exchange with Trent Duffy, White House Deputy Press Secretary:
DUFFY: You have Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin asking on August 29th what is the status of the levees? And as of noon on the 29th, Governor Blanco is saying, we don`t have any confirmation that the levees have been breached. What the president said in the aftermath of the storm was he was reflecting the collective judgment and wisdom and sentiment of just about everybody on the morning of August 30th, when New Orleans had in fact--had dodged somewhat of a bullet in the fact that the storm had gone 15 miles to the east.
MATTHEWS: So he was talking about that moment of relief we all shared the morning of, that we had missed a bullet.
DUFFY: That`s exactly right.
MATTHEWS: He was not saying, just to clarify the record, he was not saying that none of the experts thought that the levees might be breached.
DUFFY: He did not mean to portray that, that`s exactly right.
MATTHEWS: See how much we get done when you come over here?
DUFFY: Yes, absolutely.
MATTHEWS: Isn`t this great?
Yes, isn't this great? Isn't it great to provide cover for an administration that is so incomprehensibly irresponsible? Isn't it great to demonstrate that you are an extension of the White House PR spin machine instead of an ethical journalist?