Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Fallout from McHenry's tirade on MSNBC

Pat Go Bye Bye has already reported on McHenry's appearance with Chris Matthews on MSNBC last week.

You can learn what happened to the peeved Congressman afterwards from The Hill:

No doubt Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” can be a blabbermouth.

So what’s a congressional guest to do?

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) recently appeared on the show with Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.). Davis is passive and quiet when someone else is mid-tirade.

McHenry? Not so quiet.

The subject matter was the war in Iraq. But what’s important was the tone of the discussion.

At one point McHenry grew so exasperated by Matthews’s interruptions that he snapped, “If you’re going to fight me on your show, Chris, let me answer a question for God’s sakes.”

Matthews momentarily let up, but never apologized for the testy moment. “Chris is an equal-opportunity interrupter,” said Davis.

McHenry wasn’t so sure. “Normally he’ll allow you to finish a sentence,” he said, adding, “Chris is great because he’s in your face.”

After the show, McHenry and his spokesman, Aaron Latham, went to meet their driver, as arranged by the show’s producers, to take them back to Capitol Hill.

But where was their driver? After no driver would admit to belonging to them, McHenry again grew upset.

Finally, the driver of a black Town Car perked up when asked if anyone was there for “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”

“We cabbed it over,” said Latham, but “after an interview like that there was just absolutely no way we weren’t taking his car for ourselves.”

Latham reasoned, “At the end of the day, which is worse: to get berated on national TV or not get a ride home? In that sense we’re all even.”

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