As noted previously, Chris "Second-Craziest Person in Cable News" Matthews is extremely obsessed with pronouncing Dick Cheney's name correctly. He's very proud of the fact that he knows the right pronunciation and you don't. And the other day, November 17th, he finally had a kind of grand mal fit about it.
Matthews was in the middle of a conversation with regular guests Democratic party strategist Steve McMahon and former McCain operative Todd Harris about Cheney endorsing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her bid for the governorship of Texas, when Harris made the grievous error of pronouncing it Chainy. Hilarity ensued as Matthews grew more and more incensed about Harris' mispronunciation.
From the MSNBC transcript:
MATTHEWS: Why do you mispronounce—why do you mis—Steve—I mean, Todd, why do you mispronounce Cheney‘s name, on purpose or what?
HARRIS: You know...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: His name is Cheeny.
HARRIS: Yes, I know that. Well, I know that you pronounce it that way.
MATTHEWS: But why do you call him Chainy? Why do you call him Chainy?
HARRIS: Why do you call him Cheeny?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: It‘s his name.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Yes. No. Well, I‘m not sure that...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: I don‘t understand why you go with the—you‘re going with some sort of other pronunciation.
Every time it says "(LAUGHTER)," that's Harris trying to smooth over the fact that Matthews is a nutjob with OCD, chuckling in order to buy time for thinking about how to get past this insane line of conversation.
A few minutes later, as they closed the segment:
MATTHEWS: We‘re going to help you with that pronunciation of the former vice president‘s name.
HARRIS: Cheeny. Cheeny.
MCMAHON: Cheeny. Cheeny.
MATTHEWS: Right. Thank you. Look it up. As we always say, look it up.
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