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Bumfights, NBC Edition

By Dan McLaughlin Posted in Chris Matthews | Keith Olbermann is OUTRAGED! | Liberals | Pining For Tim Russert — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Apparently, MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann - fresh from Matthews' desecration of Russert's memory with a bizarre anti-war jag - have been tripping over their own two left feet trying to stake their claims to Tim Russert's Meet the Press gig even as Russert's wake and funeral went on this week. (H/T). There's too much good stuff in the brief NY Post article to note it all here, but this is classic:

Read On...

Matthews' MSNBC cable cohort Olbermann, who was also at the memorial, is "threatening to quit if he isn't installed as Russert's replacement," another insider said. "I know, it sounds ludicrous, but, then, Keith Olbermann is ludicrous."

A rep for MSNBC said, "All of this is utterly untrue."

Russert himself wanted Chuck Todd, the NBC News political director he hired, to succeed him, said one source, who added that MSNBC hosts don't stand a chance of landing "Meet the Press." The insider said, "They're cable. They're far too partisan. They have no gravitas. If gravitas is eight letters, they're about seven letters short."

I would so love to see Olbermann quit (again) in a huff (again). You know how they used to have that line about Castro outlasting X number of U.S. presidents? If Olbermann quits, by my count, President Bush would have outlasted something like four or five Olbermann employers in the time Bush has been in office, at least if you count places the man with no balance or perspective (as a medical matter) has quit or been fired from more than once in that time.

All of which brought to mind an April profile of Matthews in the NY Times, which had some great stuff about Matthews' relationships with Russert and Olbermann - here's the key pull on Matthews and Russert:

"By the way, have you figured me out yet?" Matthews said at the end of another phone conversation the following day. "You gotta understand, it's all complicated. It's not like Tim."

Tim — as in Russert, the inquisitive jackhammer host of "Meet the Press" — is a particular obsession of Matthews's. Matthews craves Russert's approval like that of an older brother. He is often solicitous. On the morning of the Cleveland debate, Matthews was standing in the lobby of the Ritz when Russert walked through, straight from a workout, wearing a sweat-drenched Buffalo Bills sweatshirt, long shorts and black rubber-soled shoes with tube socks. "Here he is; here he is, the man," Matthews said to Russert, who smiled and chatted for a few minutes before returning to his room. (An MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, tried, after the fact, to declare Russert's outfit "off the record.")

Matthews has berated Russert to several people at NBC and has told friends and associates that Russert is like John F. Kennedy while he is more like Richard Nixon. Kennedy was the golden boy while Nixon was the scrapper for whom nothing came easily. It's an imperfect comparison, certainly (Matthews is Irish Catholic, for starters, and Russert is not charismatic by any classic Kennedyesque definition), but it does offer a glimpse into how Matthews perceives himself, especially in relation to Russert. It's also worth noting that Nixon was obsessed with Kennedy, and Kennedy could be dismissive and disparaging of Nixon.

A number of people I spoke with at NBC said that Russert can be disdainful of Matthews, whose act he often sees as clownish. They also told me that Russert believes Matthews is something of a loose cannon who brings him undue headaches in his capacity as NBC's Washington bureau chief. This friction was immortalized in notes revealed during the trial of Scooter Libby. Mary Matalin, an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, was quoted as having suggested that Libby call Russert to complain about Matthews's rants against the White House's Iraq policy. "Call Tim — he hates Chris," Matalin supposedly told Libby. Russert denies that he felt this way then or now. "I've always had a very good relationship with Chris," he told me. "We do different things." Matalin, for her part, insists that she doesn't remember ever saying that Russert "hates Chris."

Well, there's still time for Alec Baldwin to throw his hat in the ring.