The Matthews Meter

I'll be spending the weekend at the beach, so no blogging until Sunday night or Monday. In the meantime, enjoy this rare glimpse of Fathead Chris Matthews bearing his teeth.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: We‘re back with John O‘Neill, the co-author of “Unfit For Command,” and John Hurley, national director of Veterans For Kerry.

Gentlemen, first of all, according to this Associated Press story, Kerry got a Purple Heart for getting shrapnel in his left arm above the elbow. If the shrapnel had hit him in the eye, the doctor said it could have blinded him. No. 2, he was wounded with a piece of shrapnel on February 20, this time in the left thigh. Doctors decided to leave the shrapnel in place—it is still in his leg—rather than make a wider opening to remove it.

The third time, he got it from a dangerous situation in March of that year, life-threatening. A mine exploded near Kerry‘s swift boat and enemy snipers were shooting around him. He won the Silver Star for chasing—beaching his swift boat, chasing after some V.C. in V.C. territory and killing one of the V.C. He won his Bronze for saving the life of Mr. Rassmann, as he pulled him into the boat in enemy territory. I don‘t get the point. If this is all roughly true, why are you—it is all—what is in dispute here, besides

(CROSSTALK)

HURLEY: Every word of it is true.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: All of this is true. And you‘re building a case against the guy on behalf of a guy running for president with absolutely no military experience in the field. So what is the point?

O‘NEILL: First of all, when you start off with the assumption everything is true and refuse to allow it to be questioned...

MATTHEWS: No, I listened to every point you made, but the main point...

O‘NEILL: You haven‘t let me talk about most of them. We talked about his first Purple...

MATTHEWS: You talked about each one.

O‘NEILL: His first Purple...

MATTHEWS: One of the oldest tricks on this show is for somebody to come on the show after talking for 20 minutes and say they haven‘t had the chance to talk.

O‘NEILL: Well, the first...

MATTHEWS: I‘ll be glad to clock you, John...

O‘NEILL: OK.

MATTHEWS: ... on how many minutes you spoke on the show. So don‘t try that old trick. It is a particularly conservative trick, OK?