Chris Matthews expressed disappointment with President Obama’s inability to stand up to the Tea Party and wondered whether Obama could potentially fear a primary challenge from his disgruntled liberal base? Jonathan Chait from The New Republic and Cynthia Tucker from The Atlanta-Journal Constitution shared Matthews worry that politically this was not good for Obama, yet on policy, they both seemed to comfort Matthews that actually “it’s not that bad.”

If you thought you heard the last from Chris Matthews today after being called out by Michael Reagan and reviewed by The Washington Post, well think again because today on Hardball he was leading the charge on a brand new Sarah Palin hit parade. With the assist from liberal commentators Cynthia Tucker and David Corn, the subject of tell-all books on Palin was the invitation for Matthews, Tucker and Corn to unleash fire.

On Sunday Morning’s The Chris Matthews Show, panelist Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution may have coined a phrase that will help to define the 2012 Republican presidential field. Speaking about the unlikelihood of a run by Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), Tucker said that the rising GOP star would be unwilling to pay the Republican “crazy tax” of pandering to the likes of the “Birthers” (and their Pied Dog-whistlers like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin), and denying science. Ozzy Osborne, we’ve got the DNC on line 1.

As if Shirley Sherrod hasn’t already suffered enough at the hands of the conservative blogosphere, the hits just keep coming. Last week, I brought you a preview of the right’s second bite at the apple, an emerging conspiracy smeary about Sherrod’s initial hiring by the USDA. Now, The American Spectator has accused Shirley Sherrod of lying about the lynching of a relative in order to glam up her personal history. I wish I was kidding.

I thought I’d misheard this yesterday, but no, that’s actually what Chris Matthews said in the midst of a roundtable discussion yesterday morning over whether the Tea Partiers had made campaigning easier for the Dems.

Has RNC chairman Michael Steele finally worn out his welcome with the party? In what could be labeled a ‘holiday weekend slam dump’ a number of prominent Republicans have come out swinging against the controversial chairman since his comments on Afghanistan were made public, including an unforgiving John McCain.

The new Arizona Immigration Law has managed to supplant both the Tea Partiers, the Birthers, and maybe even the ‘shitty deal-ers‘ as the cable news story of the week. Descriptions thus far have basically fallen into three categories: Nazis, Fascists, and the Apartheid. With that in mind, here is a short history of Arizona Immigration Law rhetoric.

Today’s This Week roundtable discussion on Arizona’s new controversial immigration law provided a fairly solid microcosm of the spectrum of the reactions nationwide. George Will is sympathetic; Paul Krugman thinks the Tea Partiers are hypocrites and is upset immigration will likely cancel out Climate Change reform; Cynthia Tucker thinks we are harkening back to South African apartheid. Video and remarks after the jump.