The Cable Gamer has long understood that Chris Matthews has been angling to run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. The stars are aligning for him to run, but as we shall see, there are some anti-matter counter stars blocking his path to the Senate.
TCG sources say that Matthews is bored doing "Hardball," and that he is filled with envy over those political figures--Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bloomberg, and, of course, the ultimate celeb, Barack Obama--who are crossovers from the world of celebrity culture. And of course, Matthews started his career as a Congressional staffer, for the legendary Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, so there would be a certain symmetry in him coming back to Capitol Hill, 30 years later, as an elected big cheese.
That Senate seat is currently held by Arlen Specter, a Republican. Specter has been elected to that job five times, but never by big margins, and more to the point, he will be 80 years old in 2010. And these are bad times for GOPers, everywhere.
And so in preparation for that Senate run, as a Democrat, Matthews has tried to much more of an orthodox Dem on his MSNBC show. He was visibly and virulently pro-Obama during the Democratic primaries, and, of course, Obama won the presidential nomination (although not the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton in the Keystone State--more on that in a bit).
Yes, Matthews has made some missteps along the way: That New York Times Magazine April cover story, did him real damage, making him look like a name-dropping, ego-tripping lout. Which, in the opinion of many, he is. No wonder he wants to run for the Senate!
But even so, there's no reason for Matthews not to run for the Senate. He has plenty of money piled up, he knows that he will never get higher in the cable game than he is now, and moreover, his employer, MSNBC, has an uncertain future when GE spins off NBC. (Yes, I know that everyone at GE denies the prospect of such a sale, but Jeff Immelt had more clout within his company, and with Wall Street, when GE stock was higher than 29, but that's what I'd do, too, until the moment that I was ready to sell it.)
OK, so now we know what's in it for Chris. Is that all that matters? Not quite. The LA Times reports on a new feminist group this morning, using this ominous headline: "Women's group wants Chris Matthews fired/Calling his treatment of women on his cable TV show sexist, the New Agenda urges MSNBC to not renew his contract."
Leader Amy Siskind of Westchester, N.Y., identified by the Times as a Hillary Clinton supporter, said the group, called New Agenda, was urging that Matthews' contract not be renewed because "the kind of language he uses and the kind of behavior he exhibits in the public domain toward women objectifies them and leads to bad things for our society and to domestic violence."
Ouch!
The Times recalled this incident, for example:
In 2007, Matthews was talking on the air with Erin Burnett, a CNBC business news anchor, when he asked her to lean into the camera. "Come in closer -- really close," he told a flustered Burnett. He then laughed and said: "Just kidding. You look great. . . . You're a knockout."
Matthews, by the way, is married. But even if he weren't, it's not good to do your romantic reaching, live on TV.
But the real subtext here is feminists who supported Hillary Clinton's presidential race who are not happy with the way she, the junior senator from New York, has been treated in the past year. Those feminists and other women are taking out their anger on Obama, who they accuse of being demeaning to Hillary, and they are now taking out their anger on Matthews, who obviously was demeaning to Hillary, although in a different way than he demeaned Erin Burnett.
Now The Cable Gamer thinks it's extremely unlikely that this group will succeed in getting Matthews fired, or not renewed. On the other hand, a group of well-connected activists who pledge to use "covert" methods to undermine Matthews should not be underestimated.
So we shall see. The Cable Game stands by her prediction that Matthews will leave MSNBC and "explore" his options in Pennsylvania. And that will give Ms. Siskind a victory.
And then the question is, will New Agenda follow Matthews home to Pennsylvania, where feminist ire against him could really hurt inside a Democratic primary? My guess is that New Agenda will, indeed, continue to hound Matthews wherever he goes, in part because angry feminists need someone to hate--preferably an older white male--and in part because somebody in Pennsylvania is pulling their string. Sorry ladies, but that's what I think.
Like who? Who's the string-puller? I dunno. Maybe someone else who wants the Senate seat, like perhaps Ed Rendell, the current Democratic governor, who is term-limited out of his current job in 2010.
Or maybe that someone string-puller just doesn't think that Pennsylvania should be represented in the Senate by a self-indulgent blowhard.
