The Fall of a Bright Liberal

It didn't have to end this way.

Back in the early 1990's Chris Matthews was a columnist for a San Francisco paper -- I forgot which one. In that role, he would appear on those egg-headed conferences that C-SPAN shows when Congress was out of session. I didn't necessarily agree with his views but I had a respect for the way he developed his. A bright liberal guy at the dawn of the Clinton Age.

Given his insights on the ways of Washington -- he was a onetime an aide to Speaker Tip O'Neal -- someone had the idea of making him a talk show host.

In the process a unique talent was converted into a commodity.

Being a talk show host means you have to develop a shtick and Matthews obliged. He would invariably answer the questions posed to his guests and his rapid fire technique showed signs of attention deficit order. (Think: Bill O'Reilly without the warmth.)

Things went well enough; he sold a few books in the process and made a nice living.

But as MSNBC, his network, lurches to the political left; the one time bright liberal has become a hack.

Last night, I took a gander at his show. He had a clock on the upper right of the screen and was counting the time it took for former Vice President Cheney to insult President Obama. As the Vice President began his remarks, he ad-libbed a "Good Afternoon" as he chided the President for being long with his presentation.

Well for Matthews, that constituted a "cheap shot." A cheap shot that came in the first five seconds of the speech. (Apparently that was the "number" for the day.)

I heard and read a lot of commentary yesterday but I have to give it to Matthews -- his insight was, well, unique.

In any event, the end may be near.

Because MSNBC is an incredibly cheap outfit -- the Matthews program is aired twice on the East Coast at 5 and 7 PM. (Fox does the same thing to a degree but it re-airs programs every three hours for the benefit of its West Coast audiences.) Based on the ratings, Matthews comes in dead last for the 25-54 demo at 5 PM and at 7 PM he's third in overall audience. (Fox's "Special Report" has about 1.1 million more viewers.) Spin 'em any way you want -- those numbers are not good.

As I noted, it didn't have to end this way for a formerly bright guy.