For all the criticism of Tweety on this site, he sure made Congressman John Boehner look like an embarrassed Sylvester last night. Check it out.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
His tone was pugilistic - he is Chris Matthews, of course - and this was an aggressive, controlled grilling.
He started with the failed legislation on immigration, he moved onto Social Security, raising the specter of doom if a Republican Congress is re-elected.
More below:
MATTHEWS: Should people vote for the Republican Party if they want personal accounts?
BOEHNER: If they want to have real Social Security reform, they ought to vote for Republicans.
MATTHEWS: If they want personal accounts, should they vote Republican?
BOEHNER: Well, they`re certainly never going to get them with Democrats.
MATTHEWS: But they might get them with Republicans?
In context of course, they MIGHT get personal accounts with rethugs takes on a nice, ominous tone.
But he was at his best on the war, first on Congressional oversight and the number of retired generals criticizing the war.
MATTHEWS: But I read day after day--and day after day we see that we`re having a hard keeping control of events over there. It`s becoming a civil war ...
BOEHNER: But let`s let the generals on the ground make that decision.
MATTHEWS: Are they free to speak? How come every time a general retires he starts trashing the president`s war policy, but doesn`t say a word until he retires? In other words, do we have to wait for retirement to hear what these guys think?
And then on what good it's done for America
MATTHEWS: Should Congress have authorized this war in Iraq?
BOEHNER: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: Why? What good has it done us?
BOEHNER: Based on everything that we knew...
MATTHEWS: No, what good has it done us since then? What good has this war done America, in Iraq? Why is it good for America? I don`t get it.
And, since the majority leader in Congress clearly doesn't know the role of the legistlative branch, Tweety decided to explain it to him:
MATTHEWS: I just don`t understand, based upon your experience--you`re an experienced political leader, you`ve been chosen by your party to lead you. You`ve got a vice president who has said there weapons of mass destruction, there were nuclear weapons, the mushroom cloud, Condi Rice said that.
He said we would be greeted as liberators. He said there was a connection to 9/11. He`s always wrong. And yet you say we owe him the support, he and the president, of commander in chief. We should always believe what they say.
Do you believe that?
BOEHNER: He`s the commander in chief.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe he`s right all the time?
BOEHNER: Listen, none of us are right all the time. The last guy that was right all the time, they hung on a cross.
MATTHEWS: First of all, Congress`s job is to--the role of Congress is to check the power of the executive.
On Saddam's role in 9/11
MATTHEWS: Do you believe he had a role in 9/11?
BOEHNER: Not a direct role, a supportive role.
MATTHEWS: What was the support?
BOEHNER: Training terrorists, training camps in Iraq...
MATTHEWS: For 9/11?
This last bit said with great incredulity but Boehner had to keep going.
BOEHNER: For terrorists. There is no question that he supported their activities. He supported the training camps up in northeastern Iraq. There is no question about it.
MATTHEWS: So Saddam Hussein was in league with the al Qaeda group?
BOEHNER: He was providing cover for them, yes.
MATTHEWS: I keep trying to find that evidence, Congressman, and I can`t find it. Nobody has come up with that. The vice president was asked about it, the president was about that, they both admitted recently that he had no role in 9/11.
There's more too but I have to get back to work, uh oh. Hope you enjoy.