Chris Matthews was a guest on Friday's Now With Alex Wagner and participated in a discussion of how Harry Reid's use of the "nuclear option," eliminating the possibility of filibuster for presidential appointments except the Supreme Court, will affect politics.  Host Alex was worried about the Tea Party and the "radical right" using this as an excuse to attack Obama. Matthews said it would be used, and the fact the President is of African decent would only add to it.

Wagner asked:

Chris, I go back to you on this. In the interim, I feel like this nuclear option will be used as a cudgel against the administration by folks in the Tea Party and on the radical right, overstepping boundaries of power, tyranny of majority kind of guy, he doesn't listen to the other side. This will then--I feel like this is a narrative, while it may be inaccurate it is very easily packaged.

Matthews:

I think it's part of the theme of the hard right. Liberty, the term is used all the time, that word. I think they had this idea. Their ideological preparation for this battle is already there, the exotic nature of the President’s background, you know the African background, adds to it, the fact he's a Democrat. These are all part of it. 

Beyond the racism slander, the two MSNBC hosts must have forgotten that when the President, via executive fiat, made a "fix" to the problem of people losing their healthcare, many Democrats (including former DNC Chairman Howard Dean) questioned whether Obama was overstepping his bounds.