Comparing Hillary Rodham Clinton to a big flopping fish will do nothing to stop criticism %26#151; from Clinton%26#8217;s presidential campaign, among others %26#151; that Matthews and his network, MSNBC, have treated the former first lady unfairly. But this didn%26#8217;t keep Matthews from bludgeoning the marlin line to death in the postdebate %26#8220;spin room.%26#8221; %26#8220;Russert caught the marlin; he got the marlin,%26#8221; Matthews shouted to a school of downcast reporters who had been hanging on every canned word of Clinton%26#8217;s chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn.The spin room is a modern political-media marvel whose full-on uselessness is perfectly conveyed by its name, but Matthews appeared in his element. He wore a dreamy smile, walking around, signing autographs. As he went, Matthews seemed compelled to give his %26#8220;take,%26#8221; which is how he describes his job each night at 5 and 7, Eastern time, on %26#8220;Hardball%26#8221; %26#151; %26#8220;giving my take.%26#8221;Someone from Matthews%26#8217;s staff mentioned that the office of Senator Larry Craig, the Idaho Republican who got in trouble for his %26#8220;wide stance%26#8221; in an airport men%26#8217;s room, had been looking for interns. %26#8220;Ha!%26#8221; Matthews exploded, a trademark outcry. %26#8220;Guess what, Mom and Dad, I just got an internship with that senator from Idaho, you know the one. %26#8220;Ha!%26#8220;Did you get a load of Lou Rawls%26#8217;s wife?%26#8221; Matthews said as he left the spin room. Apparently the Rev. Jesse Jackson was introducing the widow of the R%26#38;B singer at the media center. %26#8220;She was an absolute knockout,%26#8221; Matthews declared. It%26#8217;s a common Matthews designation. The actress Kerry Washington was also a %26#8220;total knockout,%26#8221; according to Matthews, who by 1 a.m. had repaired to the bar of the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton. He was sipping a Diet Coke and holding court for a cluster of network and political types, as well as for a procession of random glad-handers that included, wouldn%26#8217;t you know it, Kerry Washington herself. Washington played Ray Charles%26#8217;s wife in the movie %26#8220;Ray%26#8221; and Kay Amin in the %26#8220;Last King of Scotland.%26#8221; She is a big Obama supporter and was in town for the debate; more to the point, she said she likes %26#8220;Hardball.%26#8221; Matthews grabbed her hand, and Phil Griffin, the head of MSNBC who was seated across the table, vowed to get her on the show.%26#8220;I know why he wants you on,%26#8221; Matthews said to Washington while looking at Griffin. At which point Matthews did something he rarely does. He paused. He seemed actually to be considering what he was about to say. He might even have been editing himself, which is anything but a natural act for him. He was grimacing. I imagined a little superego hamster racing against a speeding treadmill inside Matthews%26#8217;s skull, until the superego hamster was overrun and the pause ended.%26#8220;He wants you on because you%26#8217;re beautiful,%26#8221; Matthews said. %26#8220;And because you%26#8217;re black.%26#8221; He handed Washington a business card and told her to call anytime %26#8220;if you ever want to hang out with Chris Matthews.%26#8221;Then, a young Irish-looking woman walked up shyly and asked if he was %26#8220;Mr. Matthews.%26#8221; %26#8220;Ah, an Irish girl has come to my aid,%26#8221; Matthews said, placing his hand gently on the woman%26#8217;s shoulder. She was in law school and said her name was Margaret Sweeney. %26#8220;I went out with a Sweeney once, a nurse,%26#8221; Matthews said, taking her hand. This Sweeney attends law school at Cleveland State, %26#8220;where Russert went,%26#8221; Matthews told her, before starting again on the marlin thing.The postdebate tableau at the Ritz was another media-political bazaar, minus the riffraff of the spin room. This is about as glitzy as you%26#8217;ll get on a snowy night in Cleveland at 1 a.m. The Ohio congresswoman, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, came over from the next table to visit with Matthews, along with the former Ohio congressman, Dennis Eckart, and a guy who told Matthews he ran for attorney general in Ohio and a bunch of suited money people and the actor Timothy Hutton and some fancy Hollywood director. %26#8220;This is all sort of like a big play world,%26#8221; Griffin, the MSNBC chief, said, surveying the room. %26#8220;You have all these politicians and media people and Hollywood celebrities in here. It sort of embarrasses me. It feels a little incestuous.%26#8221;(A disclaimer that advances this notion of incestuousness: I have been a guest on %26#8220;Hardball%26#8221; on occasion, but probably not more than a half-dozen times over the years. The New York Times also has a partnership with NBC in which the news organizations coordinate some aspects of their political coverage, posting politics-related stories and videos on each other%26#8217;s Web sites. And Matthews and I have the same book agent, for what that%26#8217;s worth.)%26#8220;People are a little impressed with themselves,%26#8221; Griffin went on to say, continuing his commentary about the scene. %26#8220;It%26#8217;s a bit of an echo chamber.%26#8221; Matthews is central to that echo chamber %26#151; at the Ritz, as in the 2008 presidential campaign. He is, in a sense, the carnival barker at the center of it, spewing tiny pellets of chewed nuts across the table while comparing Obama to Mozart and Clinton to Salieri. At one point, Matthews suddenly became hypnotized by a TV over the bar set to a rebroadcast of %26#8220;Hardball.%26#8221; %26#8220;Hey, there I am %26#151; it%26#8217;s me,%26#8221; he said, staring at himself on the screen. %26#8220;It%26#8217;s me.%26#8221; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next Page %26#x00bb;Mark Leibovich is a reporter in the Washington bureau of The Times. He last wrote for the magazine about Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
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