'TINGLING' STUPIDITY: Michele Bachmann Gives 'Ballonhead' Chris Matthews a History Lesson

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Chris Matthews once again embarrasses himself with an unhinged and ill-informed attack on Rep. Michele Bachmann in this clip. The entire basis for his idiotic attacks, repeatedly calling her a “balloonhead,” stems from Bachmann claiming that the Founders, also mentioning John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams specifically by name, continued to work until the blight of slavery became a thing of the past in America.

Chris Matthews was nearly apoplectic in his questioning of Tea Party Express co-founder Sal Russo on the topic of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and her controversial re-imagining of history where the founding fathers found a way to end slavery in their lifetime. Repeatedly calling Bachmann a “balloon head,” Matthews demanded to know why Russo and the Tea Party wanted Bachmann to give a response to the State of the Union address or, more generally, why they ever wanted her to open her mouth in the first place?

I don’t believe Bachmann said anything about “in their lifetime.” But it’s Chris Matthews that needs to bone up on his American History, not Rep. Bachmann. As a Founder and the second President, it’s true that John Adams put the Republic above what was then an impossible issue to resolve. It is inaccurate to suggest he was a proponent of slavery with no role in its ultimately being eliminated in the U.S. No, he did not sacrifice the forming of a Republic for it, which is precisely what a strong position against it would have meant. But he did make his sentiments known (for more), taking pride in never having employed a slave. He is said to have found it “repugnant” and he argued against the Southern position that blacks not be included in population figures during the Continental Congress. In short, he did what he could without sacrificing the greater cause at the time.

Adams never bought a slave and declined on principle to employ slave labor. Abigail Adams opposed slavery and employed free blacks in preference to her father’s two domestic slaves. John Adams spoke out in 1777 against a bill to emancipate slaves in Massachusetts, saying that the issue was presently too divisive, and so the legislation should “sleep for a time.” He also was against use of black soldiers in the Revolution, due to opposition from southerners. Adams generally tried to keep the issue out of national politics, because of the anticipated southern response. Though it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date on which slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, a common view is that it was abolished no later than 1780, when it was forbidden by implication in the Declaration of Rights that John Adams wrote into the Massachusetts Constitution READ MORE...