| Thursday, July 27, 2006 |
| The Chris Matthews "kiss kiss, bang bang" |
I don't always dig Chris Matthews -- in fact, I find him infuriating at times, particularly when he gets on his anti-Clinton soap box. But I think today I finally understand Matthews' style, and why it works so well for him (and for MSNBC).
What Matthews does with his guests is that he softens them up with extreme flattery -- particularly the women, whom he gushes over, never leaving out a comment about their looks. Then, he goes in for the kill (when he's ready. Other times, as with Tom Delay and Rudy Giuliani, once in the lap, he stays in the lap and snuggles up.)
Matthews just used the tactic brilliantly on Ann Coulter -- a woman he recently described as someone he did not think, and that no one on his panel found, attractive. Yet, during her appearance tonight (which I originally intended not to watch, though now I'm glad I did...) Matthews shellacked the skinny off Coulter, flattered her as a "brilliant" writer, and then very expertly exposed the absurdity of her use of smears and insults to make statements about things she knows nothing about (the state of the marriages of the 9/11 widows.) He got at her for her harping on the "swarthiness" of Mike Dukakis and her digs at his Greek heritage. He even made her dopey supporters in his live audience look like idiots by having them actually read aloud from her ridiuclous new book, Godless.
Why anyone is still putting this harpie on television is beyond me. But at least tonight, the show was worth the free price of admission.
Tags: Ann Coulter |
posted by JReid @ 5:19 PM   |
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