Teh gay

Not that there's anything wrong with it if these manly men choose to out themselves, but until they do, what the hell is wrong with them?

Chris Matthews gushing in 2003.

But all through your deeply corrupted “press corps,” store-bought butt-lickers snore, burp and burble, assuring readers that their manly president really looks great in that flight suit. Margaret Carlson wolfs down her desserts, misstates Robert Byrd and keeps slandering Gore. Meanwhile, her ballyhooed buddy, the astounding Chris Matthews, chatted about Bush with Gordon Liddy last Thursday. Try to believe that you live in a country where this conversation took place:

MATTHEWS: What do you make of this broadside against the USS Abraham Lincoln and its chief visitor last week?

LIDDY: Well, I—in the first place, I think it’s envy. I mean, after all, Al Gore had to go get some woman to tell him how to be a man [Official Naomi Wolf Spin-Point]. And here comes George Bush. You know, he’s in his flight suit, he’s striding across the deck, and he’s wearing his parachute harness, you know—and I’ve worn those because I parachute—and it makes the best of his manly characteristic. You go run those, run that stuff again of him walking across there with the parachute. He has just won every woman’s vote in the United States of America. You know, all those women who say size doesn’t count—they’re all liars. Check that out. I hope the Democrats keep ratting on him and all of this stuff so that they keep showing that tape.

You’d think that no one else was so stupid. But you forgot one thing—Chris Matthews is. “You know, it’s funny. I shouldn’t talk about ratings,” he said, also gazing at Bush’s crotch. “But last night was a riot because…these pictures were showing last night, and everybody’s tuning in to see these pictures again.”

Alas for George W. Bush (and John McCain), Matthews has found a new object of his desire.

A FAMILY AFFAIR: As noted, Matthews has long swooned over Rudy (ditto Arnold; ditto McCain). To appearances, he “came out” last Wednesday in part because of something his brother had told him:

MATTHEWS: OK, let me ask you, now that you`re all revved up there, Lynn Sweet. My brother—and I always like to remind people of this, although I am not involved at all—is running for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican. He is a Republican.

And he spent the day—I just talked to him on the phone a couple of hours ago. He spent the day with Rudy Giuliani, and his son and—both, they say this guy is so hot, so revved up, so juiced up right now politically that he is running, they think he is running for president. What do you think, Lynn?

“I believe he`s running, and he`s going all the way,” the excited host said a few moments later. Just a guess: Observers at the Saint McCain Camp saw this as a worrying move. STRANGE BOATS: Regarding the shape of Campaign 08: Whether the GOP nomimates Rudy or John, the press corps is plainly pre-set for a swoon. How will Campaign 08 be spun? Campaign 04 involved a swift-boating. But Dems and liberals must understand: This next time, we’ll be in the Love Boat.

"So hot, so revved up, so juiced up." Imagine if "America's Mayor" donned an "enhancing" flight suit.