Ken Berwitz

Here is a transcript (which I pulled from Noel Sheppard's blog at newsbusters.org) of Chris Matthews' hateful, envious whine, from Friday's edition of his MSNBC  "Hardball" show, about today's "Restoring Honor" rally:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me finish tonight with those few lines from the Martin Luther King speech of 1963.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS ICON: But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: Dr. King was talking about the founding place of the KKK, Stone Mountain. The site of the Scottsboro Boys trial -- Lookout Mountain.

This was 1963, never forget. The civil rights bill was a year away. Lunch counters and gas station restrooms were still for whites only, so were hotels and restaurants throughout the South. I remember myself seeing those white-only signs along the highway heading south during a spring break. I remember seeing one still there when I went to rural Louisiana to train for the Peace Corps.

There was a hard divide in this country back then. On one side stood the people who believed in the power of the federal government to do the right thing, especially when state governments, local governments and local businesses persisted in doing the wrong thing or doing nothing.

It was the time when governors like Ross Barnett of Mississippi and George Wallace of Alabama stood up to keep their universities white only.

A time when people used terms like "nullification" and "interposition," who claimed the right to obstruct the federal government, to act even when Congress passed a law.

Today, we hear the echoes of those voices, people calling for nullification. Even secession gets a call from those who just don`t like the federal government and certainly don`t like the man leading it.

Tomorrow, those who thrill to such words are heading here to Washington. They`re heading directly to the Lincoln Memorial, site of the Martin Luther King speech. The main speaker is the man who said this about this country`s first African-American president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: This guy is, I believe, a racist. Look at the way -- look at -- look at the things that he has been surrounded by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: That is the man who comes to Lincoln`s feet to claim the mantle of Martin Luther King.

Can we imagine if King were physically here tomorrow, today, were he to reappear tomorrow on the very steps of the Lincoln Memorial?

I have a nightmare that one day a right wing talk show host will come to this spot, his people`s lips dripping with the words "interposition" and "nullification." Little right wing boys and little right wing girls joining hands and singing their praise for Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. I have a nightmare.

Many talked today about a religious center near Ground Zero being a desecration. What do you call this?

There you go.  They're all a bunch of right wingers and racists.  Just ask Chris Matthews.

And if Glenn Beck dares to think that Barack Obama is a racist - a term jerks like Chris Matthews, keith olbermann and the rest of the MSNBC crowd throw around like so much confetti - it makes Beck the racist.

Evidently Marltin Luther King's niece, Aveda King, doesn't feel that way.  She spoke at the rally.  And evidently the many, many Black people who attended the rally don't feel that way.

But what do they know?  Certainly not as much as the arrogant, paternal Mr. Matthews, who has no problem stereotyping hundreds of thousands of people he never met.

The best thing I can say about Chris Matthews is that he is an envious, hate-filled south end of a northbound horse. 

And, believe me, that is a good deal more positive than what I really think.