A Man of the People

KATE O'BEIRNE: Illegal aliens represent less than five percent our economy. There's not a single sector in our economy where they make up a majority of the workers. There are, in fact, no jobs Americans won't do at a certain price. What businesses, of course, want to do is import cheap labor. You could probably get 535 illegal aliens to serve in Congress for $80,000 a year instead of $160,000.

BOB SHRUM: So you're ready to join me, Kate, in raising the minimum wage so that we make sure that all of these people are not paid to little?

CHRIS MATTHEWS: No, the market economy would normally raise up the wage rate to get more sheet rock workers. You've got people unemployed today that if you told them they're going to make $30,000 or $40,000 as sheet rock guys that come into their house and put up the... what do you call it, the...I'm forgetting my old phrases now...

SHRUM: Wallboard?

MATTHEWS: Wallboard, yeah...

O'BEIRNE: Unemployment...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BEIRNE: Unemployment on the part of low skilled Americans is up over the past two or three years because they're being undercut by this cheap imported labor.

What a shock to learn that Kate O'Beirne thinks everybody has a price. DB shudders to even think some of the things O'Beirne couldn't raise enough cash to pay this blogger to do.

But the real humor in yesterday's banter isn't in the official transcript. It's camouflaged in the "(CROSSTALK)" that naturally occurs on "Hardball."

Here's how that exchange really went:

SHRUM: Wallboard?

MATTHEWS: Wallboard, yeah...

O'BEIRNE: Unemployment...

MATTHEWS: Don't laugh, Bob. I know the word. You're not more closer to the people than I am.