I have a love-hate relationship with Chris Matthews. As everyone knows by now, when Chris is bad — as he often is — he’s unbearably bad, but when he’s good there’s nobody better. Tonight he was good...very, very good.
What Matthews had to say was no different from what most of us have been saying, but he said it with such passion and such conviction that it was a thing of beauty. He needed less than two minutes to lay out a very damning case against McConnell, Gorsuch, and Trump, at the end of which he had me yelling out, “Amen, Chris, amen! You speak for me.” Our Senators must do everything in their power to block Neil Gorsuch. He must not be allowed to sit in Merrick Garland’s seat.
Here, listen to Chris as he lays out the case against Gorsuch, Trump, and McConnell:
Transcript (done by yours truly):
Donald Trump wants the United States Senate to confirm his pick — Donald Trump’s pick — for the US Supreme Court. He wants Democrats to join Republicans and give his pick the 60 votes to override the expected filibuster. Let me suggest a very good reason not to let this happen: It’s not about Trump’s pick, it’s about the President Obama’s pick...the one Mitch McConnell and his bunch decided did not even deserve a vote, did not even deserve a hearing, did not even deserve the respect of someone nominated to this high position.
Just like McConnell decided he was going to destroy the Obama presidency from the get-go. Decided he was going to wait for the next president to do business with. He decided 8 years later that he’d bump Obama’s court pick from the line and wait for a pick by the next president. Well, this brand of bad politics has to stop. Since the Republicans are not going to stop it, the Democrats have to. It’s not being a sap or chump or other any other word you call a person who gets taken and lets himself or herself gets taken again. It’s about starting to fix the system.
A president nominates the Supreme Court Justice, the Senate deliberates on the nomination. We will not get back to such respect if we let Trump exploit the vacancy Mitch McConnell created. We cannot allow these two opportunists to complete, what we call in basketball, the alley-hoop play. One guy throws the ball high up there above the basket and the guy standing there right underneath jams it in. I don’t want to see Donald Trump stuff his nominee throw the hoop. Why? Because it’s not his turn; it’s Merrick Garland’s turn, and everyone knows it.
Vote nay on Gorsuch! Demand the 60 votes and don’t give them to Trump. It’s not this guy’s turn, it’s not his guy's turn and all the charm and dancing and Mr. Nice Guy is not gonna change it. It’s not about Gorsuch or even Trump; it’s about Mitch McConnell and the brand of low-level politics he stands for.
Job well done, Chris. I hope our Senators are listening.