MSNBC's Chris Matthews turned a September 16 Politico story about three ne'er-do-well Republican congressmen who are likely to get reelected into an excuse for a Hardball segment to hand-wring about why voters this November are likely to return them handily to Congress.
Nowhere in the story, however, did any perpetually ethically-challenged Democratic incumbent get held up as a counterpoint.
"They're being called the bad boys of Congress. They're all facing legal or ethical issues or both, and they're all poised to win re-election this November. Why are voters so soft, so willing to give these guys a pass?" Matthews asked rhetorically in a teaser 16 minutes into his Tuesday, September 16 program.
"Several members of Congress, who once appeared doomed this fall because of scandal, have turned their prospects around," Matthews noted as he introduced the segment 34 minutes later, adding:
As Politico reports today under the headline, "Good election year for bad boys of Congress," "By any traditional standard of acceptable behavior for politicians, they should be dead men walking, but they're not.
Matthews then rattled off the offenders, all Republicans, and their transgressions, real and/or alleged before introducing his guests and discussing why indeed voters in their districts are likely to overlook their transgressions and send them back to Washington.
To be fair, Matthews was essentially cribbing from Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt's work, but that's no excuse for him not mentioning any Democratic counter-examples from this election cycle or others in recent memory. In fact, as Matthews confessed, he "took out one Democrat [from Isenstadt's story] because his charge was totally vague and didn't even look like a charge."
"Oh, yeah," Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman snarked, laughing at Matthews's convenient omission.
That Democrat is Florida's Rep. Joe Garcia who, Isenstadt noted, "remains locked in a competitive reelection race, even as federal officials intensify an investigation into his 2010 campaign."
Of course, the liberal media are often transfixed by campaign finance stories, even when there's no there there to them. Just ask Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), a likely 2016 presidential aspirant.
There is, however, no reason Matthews couldn't point out incorrigible tax-dodger Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who won a squeaker of a Democratic primary this June and is all but assured a cake-walk to reelection in November.
Instead, the segment amounted to getting a few yuks in at the expense of ethically-challenged Republican pols and the constituents who enable them.
