Speaking of awful people.

(Patch) — MSNBC host and former Tip O’Neill aide Chris Matthews entertained a packed house at Dominican University Wednesday night, Nov. 9, with stories from his new book Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero. But the audience cheered the loudest for his snappy remarks about current political conditions and imitations of public figures.

Though Matthews said he had a number of lessons Obama could take from Kennedy — a topic about which he wrote in TIME last week — the main difference between then and now was the political sentiment that has swept through D.C. with many of the Tea Party candidates.

“Those Tea Party people are just awful,” he said.

The fundamental problem, Matthews argued, was a basic misunderstanding of the Constitution. Under our representative democratic republic, we elect people to represent us and act on our behalf. “We don’t send them to D.C. to not govern.”

And, that, he said, is the big problem right now. After the Republicans won the majority in the last election, it would have made sense for them to present a budget deal to the Democrats that was favorable to them: a number of large spending cuts with a few tax increases on the rich. That is a deal that the Democrats wouldn’t have liked, but would have accepted.

Instead, the Republican presidential candidates — so eager for Tea Party votes — have all said they would reject even a 10-to-1 deal, with ten times the budget cuts for every tax increase, because they won’t accept any compromise on tax increases.