Increasingly Bizarro World of CM

Chris Matthews (no relation) seems to be going off the rails in front of his dozens of viewers, even stepping all over a colleague's interview to demand she put her own questions aside and pursue his screwball world view.  

Matthews' degree of aggressive agitation has accelerated to a point somewhere between hilarious and alarming. If he stays on this trajectory, liability issues or outraged colleagues may force network executives to schedule some kind of hiatus, or intervention, or something.

The latest example was last night during Andrea Mitchell's convention-floor interview with Condi Rice, who had just given a superbly thoughtful and substantive speech. This was a plum for Mitchell, but Matthews breaks in, and with his craziness does his best to ruin it.

See the video (link) and notice the extremely awkward position Matthews heedlessly puts Andrea Mitchell into when he breaks in from a remote location and demands, on camera, that she ask his goofy, bizarre question of Rice. Mitchell does it with some reluctance, and Rice, no dummy, proceeds to answer a sensible question not asked, ignoring the screwball query Mitchell was forced to forward, and leaving Matthews soaking in his private fever swamp. It's quite a sequence.

It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall during the subsequent conversation between Mitchell and Matthews, because you can bet the house there was one. 

Matthews to Rice: You meant to go after birthers with your speech, huh?

Byron