February Blockhead Award

In the “Chris Matthews is an idiot” department are two out of his three “Hardball Award” grants, those to Roland Burris and to Judd Gregg. I found both of these to be objectionable at the time he made them, and the former has proven to be an even greater piece of nonsense as time has revealed more on the matter for which Matthews expressed such admiration.

On the Burris matter Matthews expressed admiration for Burris being willing to “fight for what was rightfully his,” namely the Senate seat representing the State of Illinois. Actually the seat belonged not to him but to the people of Illinois and his acceptance of it was an embarrassment to his party, his President, and himself. The manner of his pursuit of it was self-serving and certainly not worthy of an award.

Now it turns out that, in an effort to keep his name clear and to assure that the Senate would accept him, he lied about his conversations with the Governor of Illinois and that he seems to have gone to the extent of perjuring himself. Way to go Chris.

On the Gregg matter Matthews admires him for standing up for individualism but makes no mention of the question of why, given that individualistic bent, he accepted the nomination in the first place. It does not serve the nation’s interest to embarrass the nation’s government, and it ill behooves Chris Matthews to applaud and provide awards to those who do so.

I give this month’s Blockhead Award to Chris Matthews.