If there were ever any doubts about how badly media Democrats want President Bush out of the White House, MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews dispelled them Tuesday night, with a prosecutorial round of questions designed to paint President Bush as a hypocrite for not serving in Vietnam



If there were ever any doubts about how badly media Democrats want President Bush out of the White House, MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews dispelled them Tuesday night, with a prosecutorial round of questions designed to paint President Bush as a hypocrite for not serving in Vietnam

Matthews: Bush a Hypocrite for Not Fighting in Vietnam

If there were ever any doubts about how badly media Democrats want President Bush out of the White House, MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews dispelled them Tuesday night, with a prosecutorial round of questions designed to paint President Bush as a hypocrite for not serving in Vietnam.

In a remarkable display of anti-Bush bias laced with bad manners, Matthews repeatedly badgered Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Terry Holt about the president's National Guard service, demanding to know why he, like millions of his generation, didn't rush off to fight on the front lines.

"John Kerry went to Vietnam. He volunteered," Matthews huffed. "Why didn't the president volunteer to go to Vietnam? He's for the war."

As Holt struggled to get a word in edgewise, Matthews kept firing away, demanding to know: "Why didn't he volunteer to go to Vietnam if he was for the war? Shouldn't people who support wars go and fight them?"

When the Bush-Cheney spokesman began to utter a few syllables, Matthews interrupted: "But why didn't he go and fight in the war? He believed in it."

Holt's response that Bush served honorably in the National Guard irked Matthews even more.

"But if you believe in a war, shouldn't you fight it, rather than someone who doesn't believe in it, a draftee getting drafted in the war?"

Moments later, Matthews insinuated that Bush was a chicken hawk:

"I know a lot of guys who went through school. They are all hawks. They said, I'm for the war in Vietnam. And you know what the problem with a lot of these hawks [was]? They're all conservatives and all that stuff. And I said, how come you're not going to the war if you believe in it? And they all said the same thing. Well, I participated in the system. They got draft deferments."

Then the MSNBC host accused Bush of being a slacker:

"Do you realize," he told Holt, "if everybody did what your guy did, the president of the United States did in Vietnam, if everybody did what he did, no one would have gone to Vietnam."

The agitated liberal demanded to know if a young George W. Bush would sign up to fight the war on terrorism. "Would he go to war today? Would he have volunteered today? ... Would George W. Bush have volunteered today and gone to fight in Iraq? Would he have volunteered today? ... No, no, because he's gung-ho for the war. Would he, if he were a young man, go fight in this war?"

When Matthews asked for the sixth time, "Do you think the president, commander in chief today, who is leading other men into battle, would go fight that war if he were a young man today, yes or no?" - Holt responded, "I think he would."

Will Chris Matthews be as tenacious the next time he interviews Sen. Kerry or his aides, demanding answers to questions about

• The Vietnam medic who said wounds for Kerry's first Purple Heart were self-inflicted.

• The accounts from U.S. POWs who say their Hanoi captors cited Kerry's anti-war activities to taunt them during torture sessions.

• Kerry's decision to meet with a North Vietnamese delegation in Paris during the height of the Vietnam War.

We won't hold our breath.