There was a marvelous moment on this weekend's "Chris Matthews Show" when the host literally stuck his foot in his mouth claiming in front of four British journalists that former Prime Minister Tony Blair "was much closer emotionally and politically to Bill Clinton" than George W. Bush.
Guest's Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast and Gillian Tett of the Financial Times both immediately shook their heads as the BBC's Katty Kay and Matt Frei said "No" and "Wrong" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MATT FREI, BBC: I think Katty has a point there. I mean, you mentioned the word marriage earlier. The special relationship is like an arranged marriage. And for that arranged marriage to be happy, it needs genuine love. We had the love between Tony Blair and George W. Bush. It was perhaps a bit of a fatal attraction. We didn't have the love between Bush's father and John Major. You remember John Major? But we had the love between Reagan and Thatcher. So there needs to be some genuine affection. The chemistry at the top needs to work for everything else to click in, otherwise Katty’s point about schizophrenia is right. We Brits we tend to swing from adulation to revulsion when it comes to…
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Revulsion, okay. Well let me ask you, Gillian. I actually, just to correct one thing. I thought that Matt, that Tony Blair was much closer emotionally and politically to Bill Clinton, that's what I thought.
[DAILY BEAST’S ANDREW SULLIVAN AND FINANCIAL TIMES’S GILLIAN TETT SHAKE THEIR HEADS]
FREI: No.
KAY: He was closer to Bush.
FREI: Wrong, wrong. Emotionally and intellectually probably closer to George Bush.
KAY: And that surprised Brits a lot and disappointed Brits a lot.
MATTHEWS: It disappoints me.
Yes, I imagine it does, but not as much as being proved wrong by all of his guests with cameras rolling.
Nice job, Chris.
