I do believe that Tweety has had an epiphany

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

(Tweety for those who do not recognize the moniker, is Chris Matthews of Hardballl and MSNBC)

I have had a love/hate with Tweety going on for years. More hate than love due to the Iraq War and Tweety's often idefensible defense of W - "sunny nobility" "women like this guy" etc. etc. I won't bore you with all that. To me, Tweety has been the obedient servant of his corporate media masters for the most part during the last eight years.

But I think fairly recently the dormant liberal lobe of his cerebellum has been twitching uncontrollably. Many years ago, he was a staffer for Tip O'Neill. His family is from Pennsylvania where his brother just ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Lt. Gov.

I think Tweety has political aspirations. I do. I hope they are Democratic ones, despite his brother. I'm sensing some kind of internal change in him just recently. He seems to have a lot more "truthiness" going on.

I saw him in person this past year at a small venue in Portsmouth Virginia where he came out and gave a completely extemporaneous talk on politics in general. He was genial and knowledgeable and on the whole it quite enjoyable.

I'm wondering if he sees Al Franken and thinks - "I could do that". And he could.

He's certainly informed and knows the ropes. He seems to have a new WTF attitude in his interviews. I'm really starting to wonder.

[Matariki]

1. Perhaps due in part to a shift at msnbc?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Maddow beat his ass in her first month.

He's at a decade plus.

[charlie]

7. Phil Donohue regularly beat his ass

Phil's gone and Tweety's still there. It's pretty apparent Tweety was valuable to Welch for more than just ratings.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Tweety is a dunce with a modicum of political acumen.

I can't see a way in which he would positively move politics forward in PA/USA.

[McCamy Taylor]

11. Tweety is the second smartest person at MSNBC---after Buchanan.

Just because you do not like someone's politics that does not make them stupid. Never underestimate Matthews. He is extremely bright, like all hypomanics. Maddow is smart, too, but she does not have his fund of knowledge (yet).

I think that Matthews looked less bright when he was defending the conservative position, because it is basically indefensible. He seemed like a prosecutor going through the motions. His arguments have become a lot more sound recently now that he is arguing valid points, and he seems happier.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Wow!

Just "Wow!"

[Political Heretic]

19. Actually, Rachel is probably the smartest person there - objectively

PHD in Political Science and Rhodes Scholar.

[TheDebbieDee]

3. Tweety is thinking about making a run for political office...........

and he's figured out that it would be in his best interest to align himself with the Democrats!

He's such an opportunist!

[jedr]

6. Yes,I have heard rumors that he wants to run for the Senate,

Arlen Specter's seat. Remember his job is to get ratings , seems the repub' line doesn't sell so well anymore. Never the less, I feel he would make a good Senator and has roots in the Pa. Democratic party.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Supposedly, he has two houses. Welch laid out the plan and he bought it.

He was sincere in his 16 years or attacking and smearing Democrats. I don't give him an inch. If you have no memory of him doing his thing on the Clintons and Al Gore, I could see why you say this. I don't suffer selfish, wishy washy game playing fools who do and say incredible things for a grand salary.

He made a choice. He's now just being washy. As in schizophrenic. For $$$$$.

Please consider that the bosses at MSNBC selected him to morph. He does take orders. He is not his own man. But he harmed Democrats.

No free ride - let them bring in someone new.

Dems suffered plenty from Jack Welsh and his dictums for the NBCs.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. "Supposedly he has two houses"?

And that means what, exactly? And is relevant how, exactly?

Here is his wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Matthews

[peacetalksforall]

13. The point is in my message. He was a paid attacker. There wwre quite a few

threads that talked about his houses. Treating people badly for a lot of money is very sad. Two house is a only a way of saying he was paid well to do what he did.

[camera obscura]

9. I'm pretty sure the White House loathed him for his part in talking about Plame/Miller scandal

Against the backdrop of the 10th anniversary soiree for MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews offered up his own mini-Peter Finch moment, railing at the Bush administration in remarks termed "political and pointed." After declaiming that he intended to "make some news," Matthews offered the assembled well-wishers barbed snark ("God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We'd all be under a parking lot."), fiery non-sequiturs ("Spiro Agnew was not an American hero."), and one accusatory allusion against the administration, stating, "They have finally been caught in their criminality."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/04/chris-matthews-accuses-ch_n_67249.html

even before I watched his show, I had to have some appreciation for that.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Matthews has been remarkably candid about some of his voting choices

He has clearly been for Obama this cycle.

But he voted for Michael Steele against Ben Cardin last time in the Maryland Senate race to fill Paul Sarbannes' seat.

However, in the Democratic primary for that same race, he voted for Kweisi Mfume over Ben Cardin.

That history wold seem to defy political logic.

Mfume is an uber liberal. Steele is in the mold of Ken Blackwell. The only thing the two have in common is skin color.

I watch his show pretty much ever day. I actually heard him make each of those claims.

[charlie]

12. Attention deficit voting

Matches his broadcast temperament.

[SoCalDem]

15. He plans to run for the senate in '10

Has a year or less to modify his behavior.. he's a pragmatist

[Crunchy Frog]

16. He's more entertaining on TV than he would be in the Senate.

[lamp_shade]

17. More than any other quality, I admire his passion.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

18. I have to say - i liked him after 9/11 but saw a right-shift in his politics after the 2004 election

if my memory serves me...just started watching him again and there's the old Tweety that i kind of liked. Has the gag just been taken off of him? It's hard to know what the real political views are of the talking heads...

[Canuckistanian]

20. Matthews gave a thoughtful speech in Canada

It was remarkable because he accurately pinpointed what was wrong with Bush and the failure of the media.

Oddly enough, it never got any MSM coverage. The wingnuts noticed it, though.

Here's something from the Toronto Sun about the speech:

Four years after 9/11 and the "crazy zeitgeist" that permeated the
United States, most Americans have still not learned to know their
enemies instead of just hating them, U.S. political journalist Chris
Matthews says.

In a speech to political science students at the University of Toronto
yesterday, the host of the CNBC current affairs show Hardball had
plenty of harsh words for U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as
the political climate that has characterized his country for the past
few years.

"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America.
There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said.

"If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The
person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different
perspective."

He said Bush squandered an opportunity to unite the world against
terrorism and instead made decisions that have built up worldwide
animosity against his administration.

The link here is the only place to find this, because the Sun article is no longer online.
http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg06358.html