Oh yes — and earlier in the morning, on Chris Matthews’s Sunday show, Matthews referred to former CIA director George Tenet as “a Republican CIA director.” Tenet did work for then-Republican senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania back in the early 1980s. But he spent most of his career on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and then joined President-elect Bill Clinton’s national-security transition team. Clinton appointed him to several positions, including a senior director position at the National Security Council, DDI at CIA, and finally director in 1997. In short, it seems awfully unfair to label him a Republican because he worked under a GOP president, particularly considering he spent more of his career in senior positions under a Democratic president. By that standard, the entire federal workforce is made up of Republicans right now.
But that’s the essence of Matthewsism, isn’t it? Everybody’s a good guy or a bad guy, and if you’re a bad guy, you must be a Republican.