Chris Matthews is ripping "His Excellency" a new one on abortion.

[Ilsa]

He is tearing him apart for wanting to outlaw abortion, but not be able to prescribe Penalties for breaking the law. He is criticizing the bishop or whatever he is for not thinking past the immediacy of simply wanting to outlaw abortion. Do you prosecute the doctors? Midwives? The woman? The religious guy said his role was on the moal authority, not the law. Then Chris nailed him for standing in the way of Kennedy receiving communion, saying that Kennedy is only working from the construct of the law, not trying to be approving of abortion rights.

Matthews has got it right. Well done!

[polichick]

1. That was really wild, especially since Chris is Catholic! nt

[FarPoint]

3. I think the next step it to

tax the Churches who are active in politics; now that is my feeling in follow-up to the Matthews discussion...... Bravo Matthews! :woohoo:

[BrklynLiberal]

I absolutely agree...100%

[Raven]

11. Yes, he graduated from Holy Cross, a very conservative catholic

college...Scalia's kid went there...Will Pitt went there....go figure!

[Old and In the Way]

16. Maybe today, but it wasn't that way in the 70's.

A significant majority Jesuits and profs teaching there then were very liberal...very much into social justice ala Michael Harrington and the Berrigan brothers. I don't doubt that today's Republican Catholic Church is the antithesis of what we were learning back in the 70's. I'm sure that HC has also been effected by this new conservativism.

[vssmith]

25. Yes. I think it was many of the Jesuits that espoused Liberation Theology

[MadMaddie]

2. I swear Matthews is cold and hot

This one he gets right but tomorrow he will do something that makes you say WTF?

[Bobbie Jo]

6. Exactly....and it's only Monday. nt

[MadMaddie]

10. I know, I know....sigh!

[noel711]

4. Recently I thought Chris had lost his edge.. but tonight..Wow!

I had a thrill run up my leg!

Matthews tore "HIs Excellency" a new one..
and the priest just sat there are took it.

Matthews has always played his 'faithful catholic'
card publickly... always knew what to say and do,
but I am blown away!

I've never seen a Roman Catholic as rat terrier before,
never seen anyone NOT cower in the presence of a bishop,
but bless him, Chris is my hero of the night!

And as I said to my husband,
let the Roman Catholic church keep pushing..
it'll push all its people out of that church-

If Chris will cross swords with the hierarchy,
who's it gonna be next?

[malaise]

8. He's continuing the discussion

with Buchanan the racist and Eugene Robinson.

[lamp_shade]

5. Have you seen this?

Anti-choice protestors asked the same question Chris asked the Bish.
Amazing responses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6t_tdOkwo

[Bigmack]

14. I watched the whole thing....

Amazing, actually. The respondents got the same look on their face. Their mouths puckered up and they turned their eyes away.

They generally feel that there should be no punishment for the "murder".

Just as with much religious belief, they just haven't thought it through.

[CTyankee]

7. Tweety was magnificent! He really nailed that bastard.

I think we won't be seeing "his excellency" on Tweety or any other news show (except Fox maybe)any time soon...he was utterly destroyed.

THANK YOU, CHRIS MATTHEWS!

[winstars]

12. Tweety of the day!!!!

To me, he is usually good, sometimes a real dick and yet sometimes really great. When he made Issa not say "democrat" instead of Democratic, that was great. Having a beer with Bush, not so great!!! So its AWAYS a tossup with this guy but........

[Triana]

9. What man thinks he has the "moral authority" to control women? Or anyone?

Because that's what this whole assinine flap is about.

EDIT: bytheway :woohoo: Tweety!

[Raven]

13. Many men...mostly Republicans and "men of God" n/t

[DainBramaged]

15. Did he ask "if you feel you can interfere with secular decision making, shouldn't you be taxed?"

[Ilsa]

24. It's a great question that he and others should ask. It was a fabulous interview,

IMO, even without your very important question.

[Cleita]

17. Tweety is a Catholic I think. He'd better watch out or the nasty Bishops

will make him the next refusal of communion.

[jbnow]

18. Chris was pushing abortion as problem in heakth care even gefore

stupak amendment and was certainly in tupak camp on question.

But someone on show told him representatives of Catholic Bishop's had met with Pelosi and that she was on the phone with them for a long time night before the vote finalizing the language.
Boy did his expression change! He thought that was going further than a church should go, they shouldn't bully their way into legislation.

He is so, so, so right. I thought of what JFK said too and where we are today.
Do we have to start asking Dem candidates if they would stand up to the church if pressured?

Made me worry a bit about our new SCOTUS. Imagine the pressure she will likely get. "Voye our way or go to hell"

My aunt's Catholic church said it would be a sin to vote for Obama. (Catholics voted for Obama at a slightly higher rate than country as a whole.)

Something is very, very wrong

[DefenseLawyer]

19. No mas! No mas!

I haven't seen a beating like that since Leonard-Duran II.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. The Vatican knows there's a big difference between breaking the law & being prosecuted

For instance, you can shuffle child abusing priests around for years, helping them escape law enforcement, and not be rung up on conspiracy charges, right?

[burning rain]

21. The good Tweety rides again!

Afterwards he scored Pat Buchanan for "hedging" when he declined to say he'd punish women who got abortions, the point being that if you don't want to punish them, do you really consider abortion murder? I was surprised that Buchanan didn't go ape on Tweety for not being meek and deferential to the bish!

[HughMoran]

22. I wish more would rip these fake leaders on thier massive hypocrisy

:mad:

[Fleshdancer]

23. I can honestly say I learned how to debate this topic from Tweety

and because he does it so damn well, I'm not ashamed of admitting it. His argument on this is always short, to the point, and highly effective.

[CTyankee]

26. It's funny. For years, we who labored in the pro choice movement have

relentlessly pounded many of those same points. Tweety has his own "bully pulpit" and is able to electrify thousands of people in more broadcast with the SAME arguments...

I don't care who makes the argument, tho, as long as it gets HEARD!

[madmom]

27. How do you legislate morality? Whose morality? Who gets to decide?

I am a non-believer, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll hold my morality up to a lot of those who proclaim theirs so publicly!