Video: Matthews compares Clinton to “Jesus in the temple”
posted at 5:56 pm on March 1, 2007 by Allahpundit
The Sadr post has five comments as I write this and the next post, about the big Taliban arrest today, won’t do any better, so I guess I’d better make with the outrage quick like. Here, via Newsbusters, is the other guy on MSNBC reaching for an analogy I honestly don’t grasp. He’s praising Clinton’s ability to transcend racial divides and appeal to people’s common humanity — but what incident is he thinking of about Jesus in the temple? Does he mean this? I’ve always understood that passage as a testament to young Jesus’s precocious religious acumen, not his rhetorical skill, but then I’m not the theologian around here.
Anyway, I think it’s safe to say Matthews doesn’t really regard Billy Jeff as Christ’s moral equal. He was simply searching for an analogy to capture the unfathomable depths of the Clenis’s empathetic power and, well, he found Jesus. Look on the bright side: how often do you hear a lefty invoking him favorably?
Check out the look on Kate O’Beirne’s face when Matthews finished speaking.
Blowback
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Allah, you have no one to blame but yourself.
First I’ve been laughing my nuts off at the Star Wars thread.
Second, I’ve been looking into a Second Life thread so I can find Kirsten “Max” Powers and check her out some more.
Mortis on March 1, 2007 at 5:59 PM
*ugh* This worship is like … journalistic fellatio or something.
You should have put up a content warning.
flipflop on March 1, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Wow, Matthews is a dink and a half…
Mortis on March 1, 2007 at 6:02 PM
I’m sure no one else with your level of dismay at his readership gets as many hits or comments as you manage.
Alex K on March 1, 2007 at 6:03 PM
Yeah, but this is my job.
Allahpundit on March 1, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Stop posting Star Wars and we’re good.
How about we talk Dresden or Jericho?
Mortis on March 1, 2007 at 6:08 PM
And your ROCK Allah (pbuh)!!!
Stay strong amigo.
omnipotent on March 1, 2007 at 6:08 PM
Sorry, I wrote Matthews off a long time ago, and I’ve come to the conclusion that our efforts in Iraq will be, at best, a draw. Too bad, we could have won that if we really had the will.
Gotta say though, the Career Builder ads are kind of entertaining, and my click hopefully helps pay the bills.
Scotsman on March 1, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Maybe the point is that the Clenis was the first Jewish president. I mean, he was the first black president, right?
Wineaholic on March 1, 2007 at 6:10 PM
I can’t get the Matthews cut to play (my computer is crap), but I’m guessing he was referring to Jesus kickin’ over the tables of moneychangers and various others profiting off the high hloidays within the very grounds of His Father’s house. Nothing wrong with makin’ a profit, but not in the temple, Mack. Take it outside.
The Apologist on March 1, 2007 at 6:10 PM
The hardballers? I think I rented that last week. Very so-so soft core movie, if I remember right.
lorien1973 on March 1, 2007 at 6:12 PM
Jacka$$
x95b10 on March 1, 2007 at 6:14 PM
I don’t know what Matthews was thinking but that’s how his brain works sometimes, ie not that well. I remember back in the day he’d compare Gore to the Red Baron because of his delusions of grandeur (internet inventor, inspiration for “Love Story”, etc). He meant Snoopy, of course, the Red Baron being the opponent Snoopy imagines himself to be facing. Maybe this is a very extreme version of that.
I liked when they all mixed up which black person made famous the Clinton = black idea. Robinson was thinking of the Chris Rock bit where he explains why he can identify with Clinton: “He’s running out of money, his wife’s a pain, all his friends are going to jail…I know Bill Clinton. I am Bill Clinton.” But Rock did not of course say this made Clinton black. It took Toni Morrison to equate a list of disreputable traits (“tropes”, in her comically pretentious phrasing) with being black. But people are always saying it was Maya Angelou, perhaps because she read a poem at his inaugural. Or perhaps because they’re all just racist.
Alex K on March 1, 2007 at 6:14 PM
Matthews has Clenis envy.
fogw on March 1, 2007 at 6:16 PM
…With a savior like that…
Please send me to hell.
on the bullet train.
no stops.
please.
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on March 1, 2007 at 6:19 PM
Your Iraq posts tend to be pretty thorough and there’s not a lot left to say about them. Maybe if you left them a little more incomplete(?) they would get more comments. I have no idea how you would do that, but that’s why you’re the blogger and i’m the blog readin’ guy.
forged rite on March 1, 2007 at 6:39 PM
Good lord I’m going to barf.
rplat on March 1, 2007 at 6:42 PM
I’m inspired to invoke the Beetles. If Matthews did not cross that line, he strayed very close to it.
CR UVa on March 1, 2007 at 6:54 PM
What’s priceless is Kate O’Beirne’s eyeroll at the tail end of the piece. She has that look of confusion that says “do I feel horror or disgust?”
billy on March 1, 2007 at 7:05 PM
Well, that was roughly what I was going to add. People are doing my work for me.
gekkobear on March 1, 2007 at 7:17 PM
Few thoughts on this.
1. Time of day that posts are posted.
2. Easier to comment on outrage (this has nothing to do with the popularity of posts)
3. Sometimes you come across as a chick who didn’t get a complement on her new outfit. Baby, it doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate it; it’s just that sometimes the words aren’t there.
4. Ya might wanna think about putting up a vote/ratings system thingy job deal.
- The Cat
MirCat on March 1, 2007 at 7:24 PM
Jesus rented out the Peter Bedroom in the Temple? That’s a new one on me.
Analogy inapt. INAPT I SAY!
HerrMorgenholz on March 1, 2007 at 7:27 PM
Matthews. . . Like Eddie Haskel with his own show.
Thats such a nice dress your wearing Mrs Clinton.
Should rename the show ” Leave it to Chrissy “
Texyank on March 1, 2007 at 7:29 PM
To answer your specific question AP, I think Matthews was just making an off-the-cuff statement and not referring to any specific example of Jesus in the Bible. As you described, he was trying to compare the “depth” of Clinton’s personality favorably and the immage of Jesus in his Father’s house teaching and having compassion for the masses was his choice.
As an understatement, I think it is a dumb analogy, but I have to look at who is offering it and who is being compared to Jesus.
Mallard T. Drake on March 1, 2007 at 7:41 PM
At the Chosen Resevoir the female NYT reporter wormed her way in on a medical flight hauling out wounded Marines. She jumped off the c-47 and one of the first Marines she saw had been hit five times. Head, chest, both arms, and a leg.
As he layed there on the stretcher waiting to be evac-ed she asked him this question:
-’What is the hardest thing you have had to do in this war?’
The leatherneck looked at her and replied:
-’Try to get my d*** out of five layers of clothing to take a piss’
We are like that Marine. We are ready to do the ‘hard’ stuff but our political leadership is running around asking stupid questions. Not YOUR question Allah, the nation’s. We here all know our boys hands are tied behind their back when it comes to fighting this war and it is wearing us out.
That’s why Dean and not Mookie get the comments, because the traitors in back of us are worse then the enemy in front of us.
Limerick on March 1, 2007 at 7:54 PM
Clinton is Jesus… I thought you knew
Opinionnation on March 1, 2007 at 8:03 PM
“Carter had it in a differnet way” – which Carter, and if it’s the one he’s wishing about, on which planet?
Entelechy on March 1, 2007 at 8:27 PM
I’m pretty sure Kate O’Beirn looks like that all the time.
SouthernDem on March 1, 2007 at 8:34 PM
He’s lost it…
Zorro on March 1, 2007 at 8:35 PM
Clinton like Jesus in the Temple ? That might be getting pretty close to blasphemy, be careful Chris.
Maxx on March 1, 2007 at 8:36 PM
Is that good or bad? heh
Its not new for these clowns to sing the praises of slick Willie but the rapturous faces were more worshipful than the norm.Blech!
Jesus was sitting in the temple with teachers(scholars)impressing them with His wisdom and understanding.
Willie dazzled em with bovine scatology.
Big difference.
spazzmomma on March 1, 2007 at 8:46 PM
That wan’t an SNL skit????
opusrex on March 1, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Remember Olby giving Bill the check for the Global Initiative or whatever? Olby said when Bill spoke at their rally, it was “transcendent”.
Now Matthews says this.
This is creepy.
JimC on March 1, 2007 at 11:04 PM
Unbelievably creepy. Likening Clenis charisma to the Son of God. This is more than admiration, this is worship.
infidel4life on March 1, 2007 at 11:50 PM
I just got my new shipment in……….
“Get ‘em heeeRRREEEE!” “Vomit BuCKETSSSSS!!!!! Get your Vomit BuCCCKKKKEEETTTTSSSS!!!!!” “HEEEERRRRRREEEEEE!”
I’m thinking the look on Kate O’Beirne’s face is when she the rise in Matthew’s pants talking about Clinton……
Now do you want to buy a “bucket”?
PinkyBigglesworth on March 2, 2007 at 12:41 AM
AP I think you’re right about which “Jesus in the temple” he’s referring to. The young Jesus who kept a group of learned theologians spell bound by his speaking ability. It was the grown-up Jesus who on a couple of occasions made a whip, beat the money-changers, and basically trashed the joint.
These guys just love the disgraced, disbarred, dishonored, and impeached Bill Clinton. It’s downright ichy. There’s just something masturbatory about the whole segment. Eeoooo.
Must take shower now.
Mojave Mark on March 2, 2007 at 1:26 AM
Is it just me, or does Chris Matthews seem to fall in lust with at least one male Democratic candidate each voting season?
Gregor on March 2, 2007 at 1:48 AM
That’s a passage about the grownup Jesus being amazing in the temple. I doubt that’s what Matthews was referring to, though. I think it’s more like what MirCat said—just an off-the-cuff comparison between the two greatest people ever—at least in his muddled mind.
I remember that pitiful eulogy he gave for Mrs. King. “yeah, that’s a woman in there. I’ll tell you what—she may be eighty years old and dead but…I’d hit that!”
jdpaz on March 2, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Mathews is a total schmuck. He knows damn well he insulted many Christians with that trash mouth comment.
shooter on March 2, 2007 at 10:25 AM
Actually that took place in a synagogue, just sayin’
infidel4life on March 2, 2007 at 3:01 PM