Chris Matthews Led the Way in Condemning Taser Attack

Joe Conason at Salon heaps praise on Chris Matthews for his work in condemning the police attack against a U. Fla student asking questions of Sen. John Kerry.

Update: Author Greg Palast Offers Job to Tasered Journalism Student

Update II: Amnesty International, ACLU Condemn Use of Tasers at University of Florida. Those John Kerry haters; they must have some sort of an anti-Kerry agenda!

And Matthews deserves the praise. He was far and away the most incisive television commentator explaining that democracy must suffer, for the better, an occasional long-winded questioner.

Writes Conason:

Appalled by the Tasering of student Andrew Meyer during an appearance by Sen. John Kerry at the University of Florida, Matthews said on "Hardball" that he regards that incident as "an iconic moment" in the degradation of free speech during the Bush years.

As a guest on that segment, along with Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, who is regularly arrested for protesting at public events, I had to agree.

Good for Conason.

But he lets off John Kerry who ineffectually droned on and allowed this police attack to go unchallenged as it transpires before his eyes, and then had his office spend the next two days swiftboating the college student, Andrew Meyer, who we are to believe had it coming, or, gasp, had an "agenda."

Much of the liberal blogosphere (OpEdNews.con, Talking Points Memo) went along with Kerry's damage control efforts, though journals like Salon, Huffington Post and other sites blasted away.

Most disappointing was the commentary of the Kerryites at Daily Kos.

In sum, the juvenile diary commentators defended the tasering and Kerry's do-nothing approach to the incident by noting that Meyer had an "agenda," a "reputation," his questions and statement constituted a "disturbance," and asking questions of Kerry was just a "stunt."

The questions Meyer asked of Kerry pertained to contesting the 2004 presidential election, a book, Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast, black voter disenfranchisement in 2004, the relationship between Kerry and Bush as members of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale, the Iraq/Iran war, and the proposed impeachment of Bush.

Chris Rowthorn at Smirking Chimp leaves us with this question:

As Naomi Wolf has rightfully pointed out, the tasering of Andrew Meyer will be remembered as a watershed moment in American history. That much is certain. The only thing that remains to be seen is how we, as Americans, react to it. Will we sit passively by while our Constitution and our Democracy are murdered right before our eyes? Will we demand that our supposed political leaders take meaningful and principled action? Will we allow our press to make excuses for the fascist takeover of our country?

The choice is clear: either we fight fascism right now with all our power, or we will be the next ones on the ground with a policeman's knee on our throats and 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through our bodies.

For those who have not seen it: Watch this video.