NEW YORK — It certainly can't be a bad thing for a man with a political talk show called "Hardball" to be nearly challenged to a duel by a U.S. senator.
MSNBC has quickly moved to take advantage of Sen. Zell Miller's combative GOP convention interview with Chris Matthews, featuring it in advertisements. It was Matthews' second eye-popping exchange with a guest in a month.
Matthews is hot right now, and not just under the collar.
"Hardball" and parts of Matthews' Republican convention coverage gave his network some surprising ratings victories over CNN. The former print reporter whose volume and energy switches never seem off may just be the man to lead MSNBC out of the wilderness.
"Politics is certainly on the top of the minds of people and Chris is the best person on cable doing it," said his boss, NBC News President Neal Shapiro.
Matthews' much-replayed interview with Miller came less than two hours after the Democratic senator spoke to the convention in favor of President Bush, torching Bush's Democratic opponent, John Kerry.
Displeased with the line of questioning, Miller told Matthews to "get out of my face."
"I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel," Miller said.
Said Matthews, in retrospect: "I was as fascinated by the experience as the viewer was."
Bush supporters' suspicion of Matthews was raised a few weeks earlier following his exchange with conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. During a discussion of the Swift boat controversy, Malkin said there were "legitimate questions" about whether one of Kerry's war wounds in Vietnam was self-inflicted.
"What do you mean by self-inflicted?" Matthews shot back. "Are you saying he shot himself on purpose? Is that what you're saying?"
Malkin dodged the question. So Matthews asked it again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
Eleven times. Matthews grew increasingly angry, and Malkin exasperated. It was gripping television.
He eventually cut her off.
"We are going to keep things clean on this show," Matthews said. "No irresponsible comments are going to be made on this show."
Malkin, who did not respond to a request for an interview, called Matthews a "foaming jerk" in her column the next day.
"What happened last night was pure slimeball and the unfair, unbalanced and unhinged purveyors of journalism, or whatever it is they call what they do at MSNBC, should be ashamed," Malkin wrote.
