Reply #18: No need to be nasty to me.This body of work: [View All]

When Matthews first arrived in Washington he was given a patronage job as an armed officer with the United States Capitol Police<1>. Matthews has worked for four Democratic politicians. He was a presidential speechwriter for four years during the Carter administration. He served as a top aide to long-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill for six years. He worked in the U.S. Senate for five years on the staffs of Senators Frank Moss and Edmund Muskie before himself campaigning for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and losing his party's nomination to Pennsylvania Congressman Joshua Eilberg in the Democratic primary in 1974.

Matthews was raised in a conservative Irish Catholic household. As a young man he supported Barry Goldwater, but was inspired to become a Democrat by Eugene McCarthy's pro-civil rights and anti-Vietnam war platforms

Matthews worked as a print journalist for 15 years, spending 13 years as Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for The San Francisco Examiner (1987 – 2000), and two years as a nationally syndicated columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.

In 1997, Matthews was given his own talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which originally aired on CNBC but is presently on MSNBC. Hardball features pundits and elected officials as guests whom Matthews will not hesitate to interrupt, often to disagree (i.e., playing "hardball" and forcing them to answer his questions). Some media watchdog groups have accused Matthews of having panels of guests that skew to the right.<2> In contrast, conservative watchdog groups accuse Matthews of taking Democratic Party positions.<3> Matthews was singled out for his accounts of presidential candidate Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign.<4> He has also frequently offered high praise for Bill Clinton. <5>

In 2002, The Chris Matthews Show began airing in syndication. The show is formatted as a political roundtable consisting of four journalists and Matthews, who serves as the moderator.

Matthews is the author of four books on politics and history. The first, Hardball: How Politics is Played, led to the creation of his signature TV show. The second, Kennedy and Nixon, detailed the friendship of the two future political adversaries from the 1940s through the 1960 election.

The third, Now Let Me Tell You What I Really Think, is the first where he discusses his real political views on various issues. His fourth book, American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions, is a history of famous and/or influential Americans and how they rose from humble and/or immigrant origins.