Rep. Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) pointedly asked MSNBC host Chris Matthews to explain why he has never referred to his old boss former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill (D., Mass.) as a "terrorist" despite O'Neill presiding over 12 shutdowns or funding gaps Sunday on Meet the Press.
Matthews replied the shutdowns of the 1980s were always "issues of a couple of days" and usually over a budgetary "number" that both sides were close to compromising on:
MATTHEWS: No, it wasn’t –
LABRADOR: You did not call him –
MATTHEWS: These were always issues of a couple of days. And they were always resolved, and they were over numbers. And it was both sides, though. Let’s be fair. Both sides were doing it.
LABRADOR: But it happened.
MATTHEWS: But you said once — where’d you get your number from?
LABRADOR: It’s from The Washington Post.
MATTHEWS: No, it was seven times, though. You were –
LABRADOR: No. So –
MATTHEWS: — counting all the times –
LABRADOR: No.
MATTHEWS: — since the ’70s. Look, they were always taking –
LABRADOR: No, there were 17 times since the ’70s, and 12 under your boss.
MATTHEWS: OK, let me –
GREGORY: All right, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Let me tell you this. They were issues of a day or two. They were issues of funding. Now, what I said before is, you can argue over numbers, and then you can — if it’s seven or nine, make it eight. But when you say we’re going to get rid of the number one program that you put into law and put in the history books, and your party’s been fighting for, for half a century, you can’t say, "Give me that." That’s a non-negotiable stand. That’s the problem.
Matthews portrays O'Neill's relationship with Reagan as one that continually facilitated positive results through negotiation in his new book Tip & the Gipper: When Politics Worked.
However, contrary to the MSNBC host's portrayal, Speaker O'Neill was not exactly adept at avoiding shutdowns during his tenure, The Washington Post reports:
[...] And O'Neill is an even worse speaker, if that's our criterion. He presided over 12 funding gaps or shutdowns, or almost 71 percent of all shutdowns to date.
Obviously, there are better governance metrics than that. But if Matthews wants to make the case that the Reagan/O'Neill era was some golden age of quality government, he really shouldn't bring up government shutdowns.
(H/T Daily Caller)