Tweety - just ignorant, or singing for his supper?

There I was, literally sobbing, as I listened to Ted Kennedy, so thrilled that in my lifetime I'd see a Kennedy pass the torch to someone worthy.

Then Chris Matthews had to go and gum it up.

He said JFK was killed by "a communist" and RFK by "a middle east terrorist."

WRONG WRONG WRONG, on both counts, and so obviously so.

The CIA was clearly running Oswald in the Soviet Union. This was so clear the Soviets didn't even question Oswald, despite his too-obvious offers to give them info on the U2 program. The KGB knew the CIA would learn, even from questions they asked, what the KGB didn't know, and in the cold war, information was currency.

The CIA ruined the life of Yuri Nosenko because he told that truth as a defector just at the moment the CIA was trying vigorously to paint Oswald as a communist as part of their cover-up.

It worked on Johnson. He originally fell for the ploy, and pressured Senator Russell into a Warren Commission post to prevent "World War III" by keeping the lid on the conspiracy.

It was only later that LBJ realized he'd been had, and told a top associate that he felt the CIA was behind Kennedy's assassination.

The CIA gave Nosenko a lie detector test when he arrived that he passed. But his information did not support the CIA's story re the assassination. So after months of isolation, sensory deprivation, and other forms of torture, he was drugged, anally stimulated, and then given a SECOND lie detector test, with many more questions about Oswald in it. Surprise, surprise (not), he 'failed' the second lie detector test. It was unreadable.

In other words, the CIA sacrificed a high-level Soviet defector and his information to protect their cover story about Oswald. That's how much they needed to hide their longstanding relationship with Oswald. The CIA had a file on Oswald since at least 1959 and had an Office of Security file, usually reserved for CIA people under internal investigation.

Oswald was no Communist, ever. That was his cover, pure and simple, while he was on assignment.

And Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was NOT a "middle east terrorist." He was a longtime resident of the United States, who grew up in the public school system here. He had no accent. He was a Christian. His whole family was Christian, as were many of the displaced Palestinian Arabs. A Christian church paid the family's way to America.

And of course, to anyone who has studied these cases in depth, it's obvious that neither Oswald nor Sirhan killed a Kennedy.

One of the most amazing letters I saw from Ted Kennedy was one to the authorities in California, pleading that Sirhan NOT be given the death sentence, that the Kennedys did not believe in the death sentence, and that his life should be spared. It wasn't because Ted thought he was innocent - most of that evidence hadn't surfaced yet. It was just that Ted was true to his faith, his Catholic upbringing and family tradition, which believed all murder was wrong - whether committed by the state or not.

When I was writing for Probe Magazine, we took off after Chris Matthews fairly regularly. I strongly suspect he was licking the hand that feeds with his comments tonight. It's hard to believe he is truly that stupid, but it's not hard to believe at all that he is truly that willing to lie to protect his job.

Nothing needed to be said. The moment had come and gone. But he just had to go and inject some disinformation into the tail end of that moment.

I don't hate people. But I have no use for Chris Matthews. No matter how much his leg tingles for Obama.