On his New Yorker blog (which you should be reading if you don’t already), Hendrik Hertzberg has a fun reminiscence of his old Carter administration colleague Chris Matthews. “When I first met him, thirty or so years ago, his hair was a different color, he was skinnier, and his neckties were more random, but he was otherwise pretty much the same political jabber machine he is today,” writes Mr. Hertzberg.
After recounting some details of their White House period, Mr. Hertzberg tells what it was like editing Mr. Matthews when he was helming The New Republic:
Mr. Hertzberg also offers some theories of why Mr. Matthews “went kind of haywire during the Clinton years”:
Be sure to read all the way to the end of Mr. Hertzberg’s piece for his final thought on what Chris Matthews means for American politics and society. (Spoiler alert: It’s all good.)