Ex-Newsweek Editor Fineman: Romney Appeals to 'Xenophobic,' 'Nativist' GOP Base

NewsBusters.org ^ | July 23, 2012 | Scott Whitlock

[Kaslin]

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman appeared on Monday's Hardball to smear the Republican Party as "xenophobic" and "nativist." Fineman lamented that Mitt Romney doesn't have the courage to take on the base, a group he mocked as being "afraid of the world."

Fineman is now the editorial director for the liberal Huffington Post, an outlet in sync with his own left-wing views. Matthews and the journalist discussed Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton who Congresswoman Michele Bachmann connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Asked why Romney won't take on people like Bachmann, Fineman assailed that the presumptive GOP nominee has "played to the kind of nativist base of the Tea Party. And by nativist, I mean people who are, in essence, afraid of the world." 

Referring to fellow Hardball guest Bob Shrum, who worked for Ted Kennedy, Fineman sniffed, "The Kennedys stood in the Democratic Party for an expanded view of Americans' role and America's role in the world."

The journalist lectured, "The Republican Party is going to cripple itself beyond recognition if they don't quit being xenophobes, which is what they're doing here now."

Fineman, in recent days, has repeatedly lashed out against conservatives. On July 16, he compared Rush Limbaugh to a "werewolf."

A transcript of the July 23 exchange can be found below:

5:52

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Where's Mitt Romney? And I'm talking sheer politics here. Isn't there a plus- forget Profiles in Courage- isn't there a plus in showing you're a man? That you have a guts- or woman- to have the guts to stand up and say, "You know, I want your vote, but not this kind of vote"?

HOWARD FINEMAN: Well, that would require Mitt Romney to run an entirely different campaign from the one he's run so far. And he's not going to do it. He is playing to- and has from the beginning of the campaign- played to the kind of nativist base of the Tea Party. And by nativist, I mean people who are, in essence, afraid of the world.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

FINEMAN: And Bob Shrum worked for the Kennedys. The Kennedys stood in the Democratic Party for an expanded view of Americans' role and America's role in the world. The Republican Party is going to cripple itself beyond recognition if they don't quit being xenophobes, which is what they're doing here now. That's the larger picture. There's the Uma Thurman question- the Huma Abedin question and then there's a question about the Republican Party's identity.

[marygam]

This is going to get nastier sooner than I thought. They all seem to be saying the same things, so I guess that this is the new “Talking Points”.

I’m a racist, your a racist, don’t you want to be a racist too?
/sarc

[Pollster1]

This is amusing. They wrote their stories a year ago assuming it would be Sarah or Newt as the nominee. They don’t care that it’s Mitt, who is to the left of Bill Clinton (but at least a decent person), they’re going with their boilerplate attacks.

[dfwgator]

WTF is “Nativist” anyway? Sounds like one of those made-up words liberals come up with, like NeoCon.

[smalltownslick]

One of those terms I’ve never understood - what’s wrong with being “nativist?”

[tumblindice]

the presumptive GOP nominee has “played to the kind of nativist base of the Tea Party. And by nativist, I mean people who are, in essence, afraid of the world.”

You know, the taxpayers, the great unwashed, the hoi polloi, those screwballs paying the bills.
Why can’t they just follow instructions and turn over their guns and more of their income?

[okie01]

...the presumptive GOP nominee has “played to the kind of nativist base of the Tea Party. And by nativist, I mean people who are, in essence, afraid of the world.”

Speaking for myself, I'm not afraid of the friggin' world.

But I sure as hell am afraid of what the morons in the liberal media are trying to do to my country.

Up yours, Howie...

[Rodm]

Howie your tool of Satan!

[lentulusgracchus]

The useful idiots like Fineman were/are also adamant that Alger Hiss was a loyal American.

That's because, as the Venona Papers were to show, some of them weren't "useful idiots" at all -- they were on the payroll instead.

CBS had one working the Middle East. I.F. "Izzy" Stone was another. There were plenty of high-toned traitors running around back then; the OGPU recruited guys like that especially, disaffected double-domers with a chip on their shoulders because the other boys gave them wedgies in the restroom.

[lentulusgracchus]

what’s wrong with being “nativist?”

Old "immigrantist" smear .... it means, anyone who didn't like rich guys importing bulk labor to undercut their wages.

Also, anyone who wasn't cool and down with letting in people who couldn't speak the language, didn't know anything about the country or the culture.

They were maybe right about their reluctance: after 1848, we got boatloads of German and German Jewish socialists who were statist as hell and hadn't the foggiest idea about "human rights", "citizens' rights", or anything else, to whom government was supposed to be a Leviathan of social services. Never lived in the countryside, never learned to be American, just stayed in town on the East Coast and dickered with ward heelers for "services".

In 1928, they took over the Democratic Party.