Chris Matthews Destroys Nancy Pfotenhauer's Palin Defense

Chris Matthews with Obama spokesman Bill Burton and McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer on Hardball, 10/22/08.

PFOTENHAUER: Of course the vice president, who has an office in the U.S. Capitol, and who is prescribed a specific role to cast tie-breaking votes, and theyve cast a few important ones in history, is going to interact with --

BURTON: Lots of people have offices ion the Capitol who dont get in there and really mix it up on policy --

PROTENHAUER: Oh come on, so Joe Biden who has never been able to really control his level of engagement and thats why you sequestered him in Delaware, you think he is not going to discuss with his fellow Senate democrats public policy?

BURTON: Sequestered him? Nobody's sequestered.

MATTHEWS: Nancy, let me tell you the bad news. And I know you are making the best case you can, but in 1961 when Lyndon Johnson moved from being Senate Majority Leader to vice president, he thought he could continue his leadership role in the Senate. He went to one meeting of the Democratic Caucus and never went again because he was completely frozen out. They do not let anybody but a Senator get involved in policy decisions. Nobody but US Senators can act on the floor of the United States Senate. That's the way the Constitution works. And to get that wrong is to get something very big wrong. And I don't know why Randy Scheunemann or one of the smart people around, or I don't know who else, Nicole Wallace, somebody ought to go to the candidate for vice president and give them a copy of the Constitution to read. That's all it takes. It doesn't take a lot of penetrating thought. Read the job description.

PFOTENHAUER: Chris, are you actually postulating that the vice president of the United States of a certain political party does not engage with the other senators of that same political party and have public policy discussions? How can you possibly postulate that?

MATTHEWS: Let me just tell you this. You are doing the best you can, Nancy. You wouldn't have said what the candidate just said on this tape which Ive played twice. That the vice president is in charge of the US Senate. The vice president of the United States is not in charge of the US Senate. The vice president of the United States is not in charge of policy development. They are not in charge. They are the formal presiding officer with absolutely no authority, as written in the Constitution it says will have no authority except to break a tie. And somehow in all these trips to Washington through Neimans and through Saks and everywhere else that she stopped off, she never picked up a copy of the Constitution. And it is a problem. It is a problem, Nancy, and you know it is. We'll talk about this after the election. You know it is. You got a candidate who doesn't know the job description.

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[jeepo88]

Conservative Christians corrupts, absolutely corrupts

[infinitefootball]

MATTHEWS = BADASS

[exbronco1980]

nancy has a smile that is somewhat creepy.

[NUTCASE71733]

@Allanlegacy43

CUCKOO!!! CUCKOO!!! Sorry, conspiracy theories will not fly with the public sonny boy.

[Loejyrrab]

@zofspade So that's it, she keeps moving her skull or her noggin explodes. Must be tough to catch a nap once in a while.

[Allanlegacy43]

@Loejyrrab Just ask his daddy!

[Loejyrrab]

@Allanlegacy43 Allan, more mystifying is how GW Bush became Pres.

[dgl1962]

If you voted for Obama in '08 to prove that you weren't a racist, you'll have to vote for someone else in '12 to prove that you aren't an idiot.

[goldenageflapper]

Pfotenhauser kind of gives me the creeps. I have a feeling that shaking, smiling head of hers will give me nightmares tonight...

[robhex]

Nancy Pfotenhauer spent alot of time putting her foot in her mouth defending the idiocy of Sarah Palin. I wonder if Nancy is still doing it?

[MinRen1990]

@zofspade Yup, I do dislike that type of person, no brains but only know how to undermine other people's knowledge.

[ishotu747]

Nancy Pfotenhauer must have felt so embarrassed when she had to defend Palin's nonsense answer of what her job description of the vice-presidency is.