Dick Armey sneers at ‘a woman named Maddox’ who ‘has a Ph.D. in something that doesn’t matter.’

THINK PROGRESS

During today’s AFP-sponsored “Code Red” anti-health reform rally on Capitol Hill, one of the speakers — former House Majority Leader and current corporate defender Dick Armey — derided MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Armey was prepared to introduce Sen. Tom Coburn (whom he bizarrely referred to as “Doc Colbin” a couple of times), but Coburn wasn’t there yet. So instead, he told a story that was a shot at Maddow:

ARMEY: The last time [Coburn] and I were together, I had the amazing opportunity to watch him receive a lecture on health care from a woman named, uh, uh, uh, “Maddox.” A television personality. Who I’m told has a Ph.D. in something that doesn’t matter. Who knew she was qualified to lecture the good physician on health care in America because she had actually gone to a doctor once.

Watch it:

For the record, Maddow is a Rhodes scholar and an Oxford Ph.D. in political science. Her doctoral thesis was titled, “HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons.” (Armey has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma.) Armey is apparently referring to a Meet the Press roundtable that he sat on with Maddow and Coburn this past August. During that segment, Maddow took Coburn and Armey to task for condoning the “threats of violence” in the course of the heated health care debate.