Perhaps Tucker's bow tie is his magic Consevative cape? He wasn't wearing it when he sang the praises of Liberalism on Hardball last Thursday.
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for July 27 -
Before we did, Chris, I had the experience in the final five minutes I was in Lebanon, that kind of sums up that country for me. I went into the gift shop at the hotel we were staying in to buy a newspaper, and what for sale on the counter did I find but condoms, prophylactics.
Now why is this significant? I`ll tell you why. It`s an Arab country. Any Arab country in which condoms are sold in the gift shop of your hotel is a very liberal Arab country, and that`s what we want in this world. Democracy, it seems to me, works in some cases.
In other cases, it produces Hamas, but liberalism in the broadest sense, tolerance for pluralism, for genuine general diversity of ideas, that`s the thing the Middle East needs. That`s the one thing Lebanon has. It has a gay bar in downtown Beirut, and that is the thing that is really in peril of being destroyed by the current conflict.
Just so that's clear, Conservative stalwart Tucker is saying that Democracy is not the path to ultimate stability and peace in the world, no, Liberalism is. In fact, he seems to be saying that not much is worse than Democracy without Liberalism.
Alas, my love-hate relationship with Tucker continues. He has a bit of Anne Coulter in him -- he often will take a hard Conservative line for the sake of his TV persona even if he doesn't believe what he's saying. Case in point is his anti-Kerry tirades on Crossfire despite the fact he thought Bush was a coward on 9-11 and unfit to lead. Tucker gets it and can be swayed by reason, but he has a TV character and bow tie to protect. Kind of reminds me of Colbert saying he plays a "character named Stephen Colbert on TV."