The possibility of the host of MSNBC's "Hardball" Christopher Matthews, running against Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, a Republican, for Mr. Specter's senate seat in Pennsylvania is intensifying.
Although Mr. Matthews said to Bill Maher of HBO that he's "not getting involved in it" when asked about whether he would seek the position in 2010, it is odd to employ his television program in a way that would make him a favorable candidate to run for senator of Pennsylvania as a Democrat.
Mr. Matthews, who is from the Philadelphia area, broadcasted his show from Philadelphia during the week of the Pennsylvania primary. Political figures that appeared on his national show were the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, and an African-American congressman of Philadelphia, Chaka Fattah. In addition, Mr. Matthews interviewed on "Hardball" the chairmen of the Democratic committees of Allegheny, Montgomery, and Lackawanna counties, James Burn Jr., Marcel Groen, and Harry McGrath, local figures vital to any statewide candidacy.
The "Hardball" host would not be a complete neophyte to politics. He was a former staffer to President Carter and the speaker of the House, Thomas O'Neill. In 1974, he ran for congress in Pennsylvania. His brother, James, a Mongtomery County Commissioner, ran for lieutenant governor as a Republican in 2006.
If Mr. Matthews were to run he would join others in the entertainment business turned politician or who attempt to turn politician such as actor/body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger who is the governor of California and comedian and commentator Al Franken who is running for the Senate from Minnesota.
Unlike those of the entertainment world, however, Mr. Matthews would be the rare person attempting to move from the press. He would be a test case for the notion that interrogating, blustering, and posturing on cable television can prepare one for a life of questioning and public speaking on the floor of the Senate.
Such a candidacy also would measure to what extent O'Neill's aphorism, "all politics is local," still matters. Mr. Matthews used that motto in the book that made him famous, "Hardball: How Politics Is Played By One Who Knows the Game." But, Mr. Matthews has been working at the national level of politics — he has been a creature of Washington, not Pennsylvania, for several decades
