by Molly Ivors
Can someone just please slap Chris Matthews? Please?
That observation opened the oft-criticized Hardball host to another round of criticism in the blogosphere. The hosts of The View, ABC's daytime chat show aimed at women, weighed in on Matthew's punditry as well.
"I'm very careful here as you know ... not to give my personal opinions," Barbara Walters said. "I had thought that people in news didn't do that. Forget it. The way to get ratings: Come out and slam."
Joy Behar chimed in: "It's almost like a pile-on of these men against her, and I think they're going to get the real backlash for it."
..........
Matthews said it was Clinton's performance campaigning for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer in 1998, after revelations of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky, that launched her own senate bid two years later. He said Walters and Behar -- whose name he either was unable to remember or refused to acknowledge -- had their facts wrong.
"Those are this historic facts, Barbara and the other woman, those are the historic facts. I know how you play to a crowd, I know how talk radio works, which is the way a lot of programs work, where you find something to argue about," Matthews said.
"If Barbara Walters wants to debate history, and politics and what's happened in this country the last 50 years, if she wants to go on Jeopardy and see what she knows and what I know, I'll take her on," Matthews promised. "If any of the women on that show want to take me on on historic political information ... let's talk political history. Let's talk facts, not opinions, facts, and I'll take them on."
Okay Chris, but it has to be Barbara or Joy, not the wingnut Elizabeth Hassellbeck or that dumb woman.
Just slap him.
UPDATE: It occurs to me, however, that this implies a rough parity between Hardball and The View, which sounds just about right. In fact, if I ever open a bar, I shall call the ladies' room "The View" and the men's room "Hardball." I don't think anyone will have trouble figuring it out.