Via Newsbusters. I realize that demonizing tea partiers is his shtick, that opposing unsustainably huge government is supposedly per se proof of nascent domestic terrorism, but maybe it’s worth laying off on an afternoon when both of the guys he names are busy arguing against the president’s power to kill U.S. citizens without due process. Right? If Obama were a Republican, Matthews would have no difficulty grasping which party to the “liquidating Americans on suspicion of terrorism” debate is more dangerous potentially. A suggested rule of thumb for MSNBC: You don’t need to agree with Paul and Cruz on this. You’re free to continue to defend Obama’s right to give the royal thumbs down to someone on John Brennan’s list, even if the target holds an American passport. But maybe, just for the sake of appearances, slow down on comparing the opposition to Nazis at a moment when they’re trying to limit the leader’s authority to summarily execute enemies of the state.

By the way, note that the expert on hate groups here actually tries to disabuse Matthews of the notion that hardcore anti-government nuts care much about Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, or any other mainstream Republican. Matthews, naturally, is having none of it. The point of having this guy on isn’t to educate the viewer about real domestic terrorists, it’s to demagogue conservative politicians who stand in the way of Obama’s agenda via guilt by phantom association. Levin, the expert, simply doesn’t understand what he’s there for.