Rachel Maddow - Pat Buchanan Heated Exchange

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Rachel Maddow faced off with Patrick Buchannan today over Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor and particularly Buchanan's perception of affirmative action and the role that it plays in Sotomayor's qualifications to sit on the highest court. If you subscribe to Buchanan's point of view, admittance to a university via affirmative action is tainted and therefore so is the education learned regardless of where the student ranks among in his or her graduating class. Although Buchanan didn't say it directly, you can tell that he believes that affirmative action students are graded by a different standard.

The shocking part of the entire exchange was when Buchanan became outraged by the discrimination against "white folks" that results from affirmative action. Maddow suggested that the same conclusion could be drawn from the fact that 108 Supreme Court justices have been white men. Buchanan explaination was that the make up of the court is simply reflective of the fact that our nation was formed by white men, that white men signed the declaration of independence, that those who faught and died at Gettysberg where white men, and that even those who faught and died at Normandy where primarily white men. Buchanan even added that as late as the 1960s, America was a nation that was 90% white and 10% black, which was the group that was really discriminated against according to Buchanan as if it were the only group. What else could you conclude after a statement like that besides Buchanan having a wanton distain for Mexicans and those of Latin heritage.

It was clear that Maddow was taken aback by Buchanan's racist rant, but there seemed to be a hint of personal sadness and disappointment in a person she considers a collegue, if not a friend. She ended the segment by telling Buchanan that he was really dating himself by his assertions and that he was living back in the 50's.