Matthews Hypes Former GOP Congressman Who Called for Carbon Tax

Matthews Hypes Former GOP Congressman Who Called for Carbon Tax, Won Kennedy 'Profile In Courage' Award (NewsBusters)

Tonight with his interview of former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews worked a trifecta of Matthewsian tropes into one segment: adulation of all things Kennedy, bashing the GOP as "anti-science," and praising a renegade Republican politician who in this case lost his job in part because of a pro-tax position he staked out.

Inglis was brought on the Earth Day (April 22) edition of Hardball in part, Matthews noted, because he has been named to receive the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. "Back in 2004, at the urging of his children and scientists, Inglis reversed his long held position that climate change wasn't real" and "he ultimately proposed a carbon tax in the U.S. Congress" only to pay for it with a primary challenge loss to Trey Gowdy.