So do you think Tweety tore O'Neil a new one last night? Thoughts?

[ObaMania]

[pennylane100]

1. I thought he was great.

I do not like him very much but was very impressed by the way he handled the author of that book (I can't remember his name). He
refused to let him spin. He just wanted facts. It was great.

[NewJeffCT]

2. summary please - didn't get to watch

Thanks

[havocmom]

4. Just caught a few minutes of it but Tweety was visibly pissed.

Gone was the usual smile and good-pal style. He was holding O'Neil's feet to the heat when I watched. Kept calling him a 'Texas Republican' until O'neil couldn't take it and really got insistent that he wasn't a Texas Republican. Tweety then ripped into him about where his home was (Houston) and what candidates he supported. O'neil sputtered and claimed to have voted for Gore!

Of course, since no one can disprove his ridiculous claim to have voted for a Dem, that was hard to refute. Some sharp evilDUer posted the creep's campaign contribution record on the board last night and, wowie zowie, sure looks like he gave $$ to GOP candidates.

Every time he would make one of his claims about Kerry, Tweety made him shut up and listen to the Vets For Kerry rep (forgot his name, damned old age, anyway) refute his parroted claims with solid info each and every time.

O'Neil looked decidedly uncomfortable to have real questions put to him over and over til he actually had to make attempts at answering them. Tweety really held up his end in this one! He really went for truth instead of the 'so glad to have you here that I'll accept any ol BS answer' approach he uses so often. He was steamed at O'Neil's lying scum-bag tactics and you could see he just wasn't gonna take it anymore!

Very cool. Wish I had seen the whole thing. May have to wander over to their site and see if they have the whole think on video.

[liveoaktx]

6. I made video of it

in 4 segments at bottom of this page- Hardball O'Neill 1-4

Tweety Goes off on O'Neill

[havocmom]

10. wow, thank you!

Wonderful page :toast:

will be sending link out to several on my list. Very much thanks.

[HFishbine]

14. Thanks!

Watched it.

[WyLoochka]

17. Thank You Dac

Great job. Very much appreciated by those of us who don't have cable.

[gpandas]

19. thanks, bookmarked this great website n/t

[X_republican]

20. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Thank you for the link.

What a slimy scumbag. Until you see it with your own eyes you just don't get the full effect.

[Hidebo]

21. thank you so much!

how nice of you!!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

24. Thanks!

..

[ObaMania]

9. I thought it was funny when O'Neill said "If you'll let me speak.."

.. and Tweety said something like "that's an old conservative tactic.." and "I let you speak" and "I'll show you"

Anyway.. Tweety seemed like someone pissed him off yesterday and he wasn't cutting O'Neill any slack.

Now, in contrast to this, watch Cal Thomas' interview with him on FAUX this weekend. You'll be sick I'm sure.

I really can't believe that crap book is #1 at Amazon and B&N

[King Coal]

13. Good job, Mom!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. The line about Kerry doing more than most Americans - including Bush

is indisputable evidence that he at least spun it the right way.

[Neecy]

5. it was surprising...

Since just the day before, Matthews had acted dumb when it came to the Swift Boat Liars claims, as though the veracity of this ad was still all up in the air - though surely he knew, as a political 'journalist', that it had been been discredited. It was an annoying performance.

Then, yesterday, WHAM-O! I was shocked by his turnaround. Did you all notice that O'Neill at one point started to get up like he was going to walk off the set? I've never seen Matthews chew up and spit out a guest like he did with O'Neill- and it was richly deserved. What was really shocking was how often he brought the lack of Vietnam service on the part of Bush out - this, from someone who has whored relentlessly for Bush in the past.

The whole segment was a keeper.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Perhaps You've Never Seen Him Do That, Because. . .

. . .it is rare that a guest is so easily digestible. O'Neill's motives are so transparent and he story so preposterous that Matthews knows this is his 7.5 minutes, he doesn't deserve 449 of those seconds and needs to be slapped down.

O'Neill is an easy mark, and Matthews took the opportunity to smack him one, because he's got no credibility at all.

I'd like to see Matthews do this with someone who is not such an easy mark.
The Professor

[obnoxiousdrunk]

7. He did

impress me so much that I'm not calling him Tweety anymore.It was real Hardball last night.

[abcdan]

11. Matthews just missed the knockout punch!

Matthews did a good job of making O'Neill look foolish and ALMOST put the nail in the coffin!

(Emphasis Mine)

<snip>
MATTHEWS: Well, he risked his life, didn‘t he?

O‘NEILL: I don‘t believe that...

MATTHEWS: You mean he didn‘t face enemy, potential enemy fire by going up on the beach in Vietnam in V.C. territory?

O‘NEILL: You mean on that occasion?

MATTHEWS: Yes.

O‘NEILL: I don‘t really think so, Chris. We had people shoot at us.

John Kerry got shot at. I‘m not denying that John Kerry in being shot at showed courage. I think he did, just like all the rest of us.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, compare that to Bush‘s record in Vietnam.

O‘NEILL: Well, I‘m not here to...

MATTHEWS: No, I mean, if a man shows any courage in the battlefield, he's done more than most people do in this country. He's gone out and fought for his country and risked his life for his country and shot one of the enemy for his country. That puts him a step above most people, doesn‘t it?

O‘NEILL: I think he is millions of steps behind, because he went over...

MATTHEWS: Behind whom?

O‘NEILL: Behind everybody.

MATTHEWS: You mean Bush? President Bush?

O‘NEILL: Yes. I‘m not going to speak to President Bush.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: No, because you‘re out here as a proactive indicter of this guy‘s war record. You‘ve chosen to take this role, to write this book, to get these allies to make these case. You‘re a Republican from Texas. You‘re making this case against the guy.

And I‘m simply saying, you can‘t just go out here and take these shots without being responded to by me. I‘m going to ask you, is he less a hero than Bush?

O‘NEILL: And I would like to answer, if you‘ll give me a chance.

MATTHEWS: Sure. Sure. Plenty of time. Take all the time you want.

O‘NEILL: First of all, I‘m not a Republican from Texas. That‘s just not true.

Second, with respect to what he did, we don‘t challenge that he went ashore that day. With respect to overall, he had very limited accomplishments in the short period he was in Vietnam and he came back here and delivered almost a death blow to the U.S. military by lying.

MATTHEWS: OK, that‘s another issue. We‘ll get to that issue.

</snip>


Matthews had O'Neill on the ropes! He was admitting he's a fraud. His book and his commercials are solely about John Kerry's so-called dishonorable service in Viet Nam. Yet when pressed, he admitted Kerry showed courage, but said that still put him millions of steps behind everyone. Why? Because he had "limited accomplishments in the short period he was in Viet Nam" and (the kicker) "he came back here and delivered almost a death blow to the U.S. military by lying". HE ADMITTED THAT THIS WAS ALL ABOUT WHAT KERRY SAID AFTER THE WAR! Matthews had a chance to pounce on what this guy exposed as his true agenda--which is to tear down Kerry at any costs because of his anger towards Kerry's anti-war statements!

[kentuck]

25. It was the best "interview" of O'Neill I have seen thus far...

Tweety covered all the bases, including his comparison with George W Bush's war record, which should be basic to any interview of this guy, since he is working for the Bush regime...

[Ready4Change]

12. Matthew's an interesting watch for me.

IMO, he can do a pretty good devils advocate, taking an opposing view to put some heat on his guests. I've heard him take extreme positions on both Right and Left of issues. I can't really say he's a moderate, because he's usually on the extremes of issues, but he does sometimes play both sides.

[Killarney]

15. I think he did a great job

It would have been better if he had done his research on O'Neill's campaign contributions and then slammed O'Neill with the facts when O'Neill claimed he wasn't Republican.

Also, it would have been nice if Matthews had gotten the info out about O'Neills law partners and their connections to Bush.

Other than that, he did great. Much better than I expected from him and I think any independents/swings watching last night would realize that O'Neill is a liar.

[mzmolly]

16. I gotta be honest, I felt he was a bit concerned about the damage this

group was doing to the Republicans.

So, I don't know what his motives were ... but I'll say in his favor, he attempts to have a balance in spite of the fact that many of us here get peeved at him.

[UTUSN]

18. One Point for Our Side in SIX YEARS. Show Me More

Somebody said to me in another thread (didn't answer, too much time had gone by when I saw it) that THIS Tweety's performance PROVES that he is "50-50". Uh, no. I've had the opportunity to monitor him CLOSELY since the FAKE impeachment and into the way he treated GORE throughout Campaign 2000 and to date, and yesterday was ABSOLUTELY THE MOST he has targeted one of OUR enemies. Other than that, he has thrown ONE CRUMB at a time, MANY MONTHS apart, to us. I saw the VICIOUS hit jobs he did on Phil DONAHUE and KUCINICH. Tweety is NOWHERE CLOSE to being rehabilitated. I say again, the wingnuts are willing to USE HIM AS A TOOL, but they DON'T TRUST HIM. If we're going to have one relatively small incident on our side, FINE. But he's got a lot more time roasting in Hades, or freezing according to the DANTE model. to come, and after that he needs to prove himself along the lines of BROCK.

[0007]

22. After hearing all the flap from the early show, I watched the late

show and thought Chris did a very good job of undressing and exposing this critin for what it was worth.

[DemWitch]

23. I like the way Matthew's sliced and diced him with the facts...

BUT...

While reading the report on Kerry's Silver Star, the report said that Kerry got off the boat, followed the VC into the jungle, where the VC then turned around to fire his grenade launcher at the boat... at which point Kerry shot him.

O'Niell at least 7 times said Kerry shot a young man in the BACK, and while he had "no problem" with this being "war time" and all, it wasn't deserving of a Silver Star.

The connotation of someone shooting someone else in the back, well, need I say more... but that's not what was written... and Matthew's, while I thought he did an excellent job, should have called O'Neill on this,

[Poiuyt]

26. O'Neil said that he was not a Texas Republican

However, there is that web site (it was referenced here last night) that shows that he donated a lot of money to Republicans. I don't for a minute believe he voted for Gore. I wish Matthews had hit him on this lie.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. I don't think Matthews sees this as a Republican vs. Democrat issue

I think he views it as a Washington establishment vs. upstart fringe group issue. Matthews will usually side with the established power people, whether Democrat or Republican. After all, this involves a very powerful US Senator and probable future President, whose war record also has the support of John McCain, and Matthews wants to be able to get interviews from a Kerry administration in the future. Just a couple of nights ago, Matthews had the incredible nerve to say that the entire first half of Fahrenheit 911 was "pure BS", without stating a single fact to back up his point of view. He doesn't see Michael Moore as a power broker as far as Washington is concerned and probably considers him as much of a fringe voice as the anti-Kerry Swiftboat Whackos. Nor does he see Dennis Kucinich as a power broker, thus explaining one of the most rude interviews I've ever seen of a Presidential candidate in the way Matthews treated Kucinich on his show. And Matthews had the nerve to say on the Lester Holt show that Wesley Clark's entire campaign was a fraud. He only said that after it was certain that Clark would drop out of the race. I think Matthews is more concerned with maintaining an access to power than siding with one ideology over the other.

But still, I have to applaud the skill with which he took O'Neill apart.