Castrato

Some people I respect, politically concerned people like you who watch this show so faithfully every night, people who care about this country think I've been disrespectful for Hillary Clinton, not as a candidate, but as a woman. They point to something I said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the morning after the New Hampshire primary, that her election to the U.S. Senate and all that's come since was a result of her toughness, but also the sympathy for her because, her husband embarrassed her by the conduct that led to his impeachment because he, in the words I used "messed around."
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Was it fair to say that Hillary Clinton, like any great politician took advantage of a crisis to prove herself? Was her conduct in 1998 a key to starting her independent electoral career the following year? Yes. Was it fair to imply that Hillary's whole career depending on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No. And that's what it sounded like I was saying. And it hurt people I'd like to think normally like what I say, in fact, normally like me.

As I said, I rely on my heart to guide me in the heated, fast-paced talk we have here on "Hardball." If my heart has not always controlled my words, on those occasions when I have not taken the time to say things right or have simply said the inappropriate thing, I'll try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, the full equality and respect for their ambitions. So I get it.

On the particular point, if I'd said it the only reason John McCain has come so far is that he got shot down over North Vietnamese, North Vietnam and captured by the enemy, I'd be brutally ignoring the courage and guts he showed in bearing up under his captivity. Saying that Senator Clinton got where she got, simply because her husband did what he did to her is just as callous, and I can see now it comes across just as nasty, worse yet, just as dismissive.

-- Chris Mathews, on Thursday night's "Hardball"

The truth of the matter is Mathews caved to pressure from liberal bloggers who are displeased with his dead-on analysis of Hillary's modus operandi when she is in a tight spot: play the victim and the gender card. Media Matters has singled Mathews out in a particularly vicious way:

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."

Had enough? Contact MSNBC to tell them what you think.

Well, it seems that Mathews has become the newest member of the Hillary Clinton Eunuch Chorus. He has emasculated himself under pressure from leftwing nutroots. By the way, why aren't the leftwing bloggers giving Mathews the Imus treatment? Just asking.

It was absolutely fair of Mathews and every other pundit who said so to imply that when the going gets tough, Hillary plays Damsel in Distress and milks sympathy in order to catch a breather and slither out of political and personal trouble. Here are Mathews' statements that started it all and here is his pathetic apology. I wonder if Tom Russert is next.

Mathews claims that from now on he will "try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, the full equality and respect for their ambitions" and that his heart "bears only goodwill toward people trying to make it out there, especially those who haven't before. Unless, of course, he is talking about Republicans.