Chris Matthews on Wednesday said a federal judge's ruling that struck down much of Arizona's new immigration law would be a killer politically for the Democrats in November and a huge windfall for the Right.
This surprisingly occurred in the same "Hardball" program that Matthews claimed deporting illegal immigrants would be the equivalent of the American government orchestrating a pogrom.
For whatever reason, in his final "Let Me Finish" segment, the perilously liberal host was seeing this judge's decision as being very bad for the Party he loves and shamelessly shills for on a daily basis under the guise of "journalist" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me finish tonight with this federal injunction against the new Arizona immigration law.
First of all, it is a killer issue politically for the Democrats this fall and a huge windfall for the Right. It will anger even those people who believe the Arizona law went too far. It will dramatize the main case raised by the Tea Party people, that the federal government in Washington has become too powerful, that the rights of states have been terribly abridged. That is the political consequence and it will be felt mightily this November.
I say this realizing a critical problem with the Arizona law. The policeman who stops a suspected illegal immigrant would under the new Arizona law be required to check out that person`s immigration status. Standing next to that stopped car, he would be at a horribly unfair disadvantage. He might suspect the person of being in the country illegally. The immigrants would certainly know it and might well decide to fight it out rather than face deportation and separation from his or her family.
It is not hard to imagine the desperate moral calculation this would trigger. But the plain fact that most Americans recognize to their distress is that the federal government has not been serious about enforcing the immigration laws. Arizona, whatever you may think of its law, is at least attempting to deal with that situation. That, too, is a fact -- cruel as it might come across.
Shocking, yes?
Of course, after that, Matthews hoped for a bipartisan resolution on this issue that was one part amnesty with a healthy splash of preventing the hiring of illegal immigrants.
But let's not hold that against him. Let's instead revel in his brief moment of clarity.
After all, it happens so infrequently.
