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Chris Matthews: Dick Cheney Is A 'Troll'
Ben Frumin | December 2, 2009, 8:33AM
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On Hardball last night, Chris Matthews called former Vice President Dick Cheney a "troll"...twice.
Here's the video.
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howie
December 2, 2009 9:11 AM
Matthews is the most frustrating talk show host. He'll boldly speak the truth one moment and then fall into "villager babble" the next.
Like when he said Obama "went to maybe the enemy camp tonight".
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AdAbsurdum
December 2, 2009 9:27 AM in reply to howie
Westpoint being a Democratic president's enemy camp is "wingnut spew" which has been sprayed into the "village babble", likely due to Mr Matthews's penchant for having the ilk Ms Coulter as frequent guests.
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Why oh why
December 2, 2009 9:56 AM in reply to AdAbsurdum
I don't know about West Point, but I read the US Air Force Academy is a lair of right-wing Bible freaks.
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howie
December 2, 2009 11:41 AM in reply to Why oh why
Maybe, but saying the CiC is the enemy of the U.S. military is just plain wrong.
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Nandemosan
December 2, 2009 12:02 PM in reply to howie
Actually, I think the Air Force is considered something of an enemy camp by the rest of the services. They have always been seen as arrogant and now they think they've got god on their side.
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jeffgee
December 2, 2009 12:41 PM in reply to Nandemosan
Well, they think they're closer when flying at 35,000 ft. And the ability to rain destruction from above.
They don't like the video gamers flying drones from a desk either.
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eztempo
December 2, 2009 3:35 PM in reply to howie
It's a reflexive DC-Bloviator meme that the Military hates Democratic presidents. Of course it's not true, and it's more than 'kinda' harmful for the likes of Matthews to keep cultivating the myth. But, hey, no one has ever said Matthews was an incisive, independent thinker.
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Odel Roo
December 3, 2009 9:14 AM in reply to AdAbsurdum
Wingnutism through osmosis... or is it WNG-NT1 Virus. Lol
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Bill E Pilgrim
December 2, 2009 9:28 AM in reply to howie
It's sort of like the classic badly-informed person who pays little attention to politics and is an easy mark to just believe and repeat whatever Villager talking points are screamed loudest and most often. Except instead of sitting on the couch at home he's serving as the host of a political talk show on cable TV.
Where you'd think that he might, you know, actually learn something deeper than the cartoon cliche talking points. Alas.
If the talking points become common wisdom, he'll jump on and use them (i.e. "Cheney is a troll") However it's the same if it's Cheney himself who issues the talking point ("Obama is "dithering" on Afghanistan"), if it catches on and everyone in DC starts repeating it enough, so will Matthews. Verbatim. You can count on it.
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M. Digby IV
December 2, 2009 2:13 PM in reply to Bill E Pilgrim
The only reason C.M. calls Ex VP "Cheeny" is this is what Dick Cheney's wife says is the proper pronunciation. She gave a interview right after the Bush term correcting this. I think she said "It would have caused so much confusion to try to correct everybody". So he gets hit for trying to be correct.
HIS FOREHEAD HIS RULES!
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Dorn76
December 2, 2009 9:47 AM
Poor guy is trying so hard to be Mr. Zeitgeist. I guess he's right now and then, but Cheney is an easy mark.
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mJJ
December 2, 2009 1:17 PM in reply to Dorn76
Yes, for someone who skipped out so many times with a silly excuse, he is certainly free with his advice for everyone else to sacrifice their lives. I think he forgets there are military folks who are married and who have more children than he did when he got those serial deferments. Now he talks as if he knows something about the military and he is oblivious to the repeated deployments of troops in the stupid wars his administration conducted. They had loads of time to finish off Afghanistan and it will always be the shame of our party that he pushed Bush into going to Iraq. So although I am a Republican, I do wish Mr. Cheney would just shut up since his watch sepent so much with so little accomplishments.
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Keatsian
December 3, 2009 12:05 AM in reply to Dorn76
Matthews can be wrong headed and make me cringe sometimes, but overall I really like the guy. He really loves what he does - has a passion for it and sometimes provides great political insight. Today - Matthews proved why he is likable in my book - he is the only political TV host other than Rachel Maddow that really gives sincere apologies when he says something stupid. In the era of Big Ego cable news people that is an important quality...
However, VERY important - if you are listening Chris - PLEASE stop interrupting people! You would think after decades on television that he would know how satellites work, yet every night he asks a question and then interrupts the guest. I love the guy - but sometimes that tests my patience!
Overall though - he loves his job and that is something I love about him...
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ivy22
December 2, 2009 9:51 AM
Troll? More like war criminal, hiding out in the open.
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Scott in PacNW
December 2, 2009 11:51 AM in reply to ivy22
+1
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NuttyProf
December 2, 2009 9:53 AM
this is no new news, ben, he has said this about "cheeny" on several other occasions this year. argh. this is the kind of in-depth reporting that one finds on politico.
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Cool Blue Reason
December 2, 2009 9:54 AM
Dick Cheney: the concern troll of right-wing establishment politics.
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AmericanDad
December 2, 2009 9:54 AM
And shat is up with pronouncing Cheney as "chee-nee"? Tweety is the only person in the country I've heard do this. Can he not hear that he's out of sinc? Or is being out of sinc with the rest of the country a requirement for being TV talking head?
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thomas1
December 2, 2009 11:01 AM in reply to AmericanDad
I always thought that the long e was the correct pronunciation.
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Nandemosan
December 2, 2009 12:09 PM in reply to thomas1
It is in Washington as it's the name of the town where Eastern Washington University is located. Not a big city, but the 10,000 plus souls who live there pronounce it with a long e sound. Ditto for the stadium where the Mariner's AAA farm club plays in Tacoma.
Again, Cheney is out of step and off the mark, chicken-hawk piece of shit that he is.
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Redshift
December 2, 2009 1:36 PM in reply to Nandemosan
I have heard that the former VP and his immediate family are the only ones who pronounce it the way they do (sounds a bit French, eh?), and everyone else (including their more extended family) pronounces it Cheeney. Don't know if that's actually true, but if so, and if he changed it when he got into public life, then I don't think tweaking him about it is out of bounds.
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JohnW1141
December 2, 2009 11:24 AM in reply to AmericanDad
American,
Matthews seems obsessed with the pronunciation, so much so that he often reminds the audience of the correct way to pronounce Cheney, going so far to aske rhetorically why he's the only one who pronounces it correctly. Even Cheney's daughter told him you can pronounce it either way. I think its a sickness as he's the only guy on the planet to care about this crap.
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AmericanDad
December 2, 2009 9:55 AM
"what is up"
sorry
typo
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activist
December 2, 2009 10:06 AM
American: It IS pronounced Chee-nee. Mrs. Troll and Lying Daughter have confirmed the family name pronunciation on-air, including on Tweety' own show (in a clip about a Cheenee family reunion if memory serves). So Matthews is actually in sync, and the rest of the media out of sync on this one.
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AmericanDad
December 2, 2009 10:18 AM in reply to activist
Holy cow! The troll is VP for 8 years and held various other high-ranking and wholly undeserved posts prior to that and the whole country mispronounces his name? That is peculiar. The "correct" pronunciation is so out of the mainstream that it comes across like a back-handed insult, sorta like the way the Right uses the noun "Democrat" instead of the adjective "Democratic" for the Democratic Party.
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CVille Dem
December 2, 2009 10:26 AM in reply to activist
But even though they said it is the correct pronunciation, they don't pronounce it that way themselves! None of them! Matthews is a dolt!
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AmericanDad
December 2, 2009 10:51 AM in reply to activist
It seems that Dick (according to AP story) and Lynne (according to video linked) go with Tweety's version, while Liz (also in video) goes the other way. Lynne notes that there is disagreement within the extended family.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/22/nobody-can-figure-out-how_n_206856.html
Hot damn. Did you see our discussion made the front page of TPM? And why not? It's at least as news worthy as Tiger's (ahem) scandal.
Now, if only we can get people to stop saying tour as if it sounds like "door"....
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wendy davis
December 2, 2009 12:37 PM in reply to activist
I found a tape of Mary saying that SHE pronounces it Chay-ney; mama says Chee-nee is correct; I think Dich says "Chay-nee."
You gotta admit, it makes Tweety's nose wrinkle to try it HIS way! Here's a Kos pronunciation mashup:
http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/001368/
Tweety is even louder lately, I think, because he wanted to run for Senate in PA, and did some exploring, and didn't find any Big $ Backers.
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theod
December 2, 2009 10:08 AM
Why is Chris Matthews insulting trolls? They are a small minority of homeless, bearded little people living under bridges.
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WaitWut?
December 2, 2009 12:25 PM in reply to theod
Unfortunately, I don't think there are any organizations fighting for anti-defamation of trolls. I personally like the little buggers.
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AdAbsurdum
December 2, 2009 10:35 AM
Chay-nee does sound more faithful to the original, of all things, French.
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AmericanDad
December 2, 2009 12:52 PM in reply to AdAbsurdum
French?! Wow. You sure know how to insult a conservative!
;-)
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Rich in NJ
December 2, 2009 10:37 AM
For all his faults, Matthews is still one of the smartest Villagers out there.
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lousgirl84
December 2, 2009 2:35 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
Well considering the field of Villagers that's not saying much. IMO that Rachel is definitely the smartest, then Keith. I'd put Matthews third.
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Rich in NJ
December 2, 2009 3:51 PM in reply to lousgirl84
I'm not sure that I consider Keith and Rachel Villagers.
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PMike1
December 2, 2009 10:52 AM
As a resident of Cheney, Washington (named for Benjamin P. Cheney of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 19th century--no relation to Dick) and which the residents pronounce with a long e (Cheeney), I have paid attention when listening to Dick or Lynn (not a frequent occurance I must admit) to see how they pronounce their name and it sounds like Cheeney to me. I have read that they gave up correcting people's pronunciation of their name years ago because nobody paid any attention. Kind of like nobody much pays attention to the correct pronunciation of Pakistan--except Obama.
There is a college in Pennsylvania, Cheyney State, which would logically be pronounced the way people are saying Cheney should be, but by the spelling, there is no reason to pronounce an e with an ay sound.
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Grackle
December 2, 2009 10:53 AM
He's making me nuts with that Cheeny stuff. I've already forgotten why he's doing it, but it's old and he needs to get over it.
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JohnW1141
December 2, 2009 2:14 PM in reply to Grackle
Grackle,
I think the Matthews/ChEEney thing is a manifestation of Matthews' Obsessive Compulsive Disorder :-)
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PMike1
December 2, 2009 10:53 AM
There is also a Cheney, Kansas. I wonder how they pronounce it.
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randomname
December 2, 2009 10:59 AM
Matthews has been calling him a troll for months. This is not new
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Milton Wiltmellow
December 2, 2009 11:22 AM
Look! "Chee-nee".
He's a troll!!
See the mirrors. Aren't they fascinating?
So many colors!
See the smoke. Isn't it strange how it curls and twists.
So many subtleties!
Matthews is better than Russert but not as good as Beck.
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Got Kids
December 2, 2009 11:26 AM
Dick Cheney is an Authoritarian Leader, nothing more, nothing less. But it makes for better TV to call him everything but.
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par4
December 2, 2009 11:33 AM
Cheney is a Fascist war criminal who should have already been hung,along with most of the last administration.
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Prysmith
December 2, 2009 11:36 AM
I'll never forget Cheney at the Inauguration, using the excuse of a sore back so he could stay slumped in a wheelchair and not rise to his feet to honor our new African-American President.
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hologram5
December 2, 2009 11:43 AM
The truth isn't pretty. Cheney is a troll, plain and simple. The guy should be hanging from a tree, not mouthing off to the news.
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KenInTenn
December 2, 2009 11:43 AM
With his denial of any culpability for the current state of Afghanistan and his reflexive paranoia, Dick Cheney has become Antigonish.
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away.
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Scarce
December 2, 2009 11:55 AM
Who knew that Chris Matthews watches "Dora the Explorer"?
http://yfrog.com/11doratheexplorer2j
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xargaw
December 2, 2009 12:02 PM
Chris is one of those beltway guys that is hanging onto the side of the cliff by a few fingers. He is so inside the beltway bubble that he has no clue about the rest of America. When he does try to explain the rest of the county, he invaribly reverts to a small piece of PA where he grew up as the icon for the whole country. He is so worried about access and being one of the players that he regularly misses the mark of the acutal arguments of the story. I think he is one of the most insecure guy in Washington. He used to be good, but that was decades ago. Ed, Keith, and Rachel have made his MSNBC show irrelevant to the daily news cycle. He has the same tired pundits and legislators on year after year. Good grief, he had Delay on again not long ago, and how many times do we need to hear from old, tired and racist Buchanan?
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rbe1
December 2, 2009 12:09 PM
Dick Cheney is the embodiment of a form of evil which is a true enemy of a democratic society. Something has happened to the man to transform him into someone who hates an awful lot of the people with whom he shares this world.
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TomH in PA
December 2, 2009 12:27 PM
I heard Tim Russert ask Cheney a question on MTP and in declining to answer he said something like " If I answer, tomorrow they'll be saying Cheeney said this and Cheeney said that." The following week Mathews picked up on that and never let it go.
Anyone else remember a 'B' movie actor named Ronald Reegun who became Governor Ronald Raygun?
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rjta
December 2, 2009 1:07 PM
I think we can all agree and the pronunciations of "traitor", "war criminal", and "asshole".
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synchronicity
December 2, 2009 1:10 PM
Now this is the kind of headline that is more befitting of Cheney.
Cheney and Bush should be ashamed to show their faces in public. They belong behind bars. They reigned destruction, raped our country of wealth by creating massive debt, and disparaged our country in the world by lying and engaging in internationally illegal activity.
Cheney, Bush, Cheney's daughter being taken seriously and given status by the media is part of our problem in this country.
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rattypilgrim
December 2, 2009 1:36 PM
Regarding Matthew's pronunciation of Cheney's name: An employee in Cheney's camp at the Bohemian Grove told me everyone there knew his name was "Cheeney", but were told not to use that pronunciation. Cheney hated it because it rhymes with "weenie". I think Matthews knows it and uses it as a constant jab at the ex-vice.
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lousgirl84
December 2, 2009 2:36 PM in reply to rattypilgrim
Cheenie Weenie. It has a nice ring to it doesn't it.
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rattypilgrim
December 2, 2009 3:46 PM in reply to lousgirl84
He probably was called that throughout his formative years and decided to show the world who a Chennie Weenie was. Petty and vindictive are just two of his personality traits.
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marticampbell
December 2, 2009 2:40 PM
Matthews is a twit, but Cheeney is the correct pronunciation. I heard that Cheney doesn't want people to know how to pronounce his name, because he likes to keep his distance . . . hmmm, whatever. I can hardly stand to watch Matthews, however did catch his "troll" and his "enemy camp" comments last night. The man trips over his tongue and his ego far too often, by engaging his mouth when he should just shut up.
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GoldenCoyote
December 2, 2009 4:32 PM
Matthews only started called Cheney Cheeny after he had Sen. Alan Simpson of WY on his show one night. Simpson said Cheeney was one of his best friends and I guess Matthews figured Simpson therefore knew how to pronounce his name and so he, too, started calling him Cheeny.
I call him Cheeny and people love it; once they find out that it's the true pronunciation they use Cheeny do. Itty bitty teeny Cheeny had a little beanie and a bird named feeny.
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serge
December 2, 2009 10:19 PM
I thought it was pronounced "douchenozzle." Matthews can't get anything right.
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stop7997
December 2, 2009 10:44 PM
Thom Hartmann calls him "Cheeney" because he said Cheney once talked about getting a perverse pleasure out of the fact that everyone else pronounced it wrong. (Cheney -- regardless of how you pronounce it -- has a bizarre sense of humor).
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Tosh
May 16, 2010 10:46 PM
As a resident of Cheney, Washington (named for Benjamin P. Cheney of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 19th century--no relation to Dick) and which the residents pronounce with a long e (Cheeney), I have paid attention when listening to Dick or Lynn (not a frequent occurance I must admit) to see how they pronounce their name and it sounds like Cheeney to me. I have read that they gave up correcting people's pronunciation of their name years ago because nobody paid any attention. Kind of like nobody much pays attention to the correct pronunciation of Pakistan--except Obama.
There is a college in Pennsylvania, Cheyney State, which would logically be pronounced the way people are saying Cheney should be, but by the spelling, there is no reason to pronounce an e with an ay sound.
m65 kamagra
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