Now that Arianna Huffington (link via InstaPundit) has joined in the attacks against Chris Matthews, I feel obligated to defend the guy. (Not on all counts; I'm sticking with one smudgy, particularly fudgy, smear.)

Whether you like Matthews or not, he's always spoken his mind, and because of his background, he shares inside insights into the political process that many TV pundits simply don't have.

This is not to say I agree with him all or even most of the time. But there's something about the way this guy gets it from all sides that would incline to like him whether I liked him or not. He's gotten plenty of abuse from conservatives, for he's anything but a "real" conservative. But right now, he's really getting it from liberals.

Some of it may be deserved. But right now, at a lot of leftie blogs, I'm seeing a professionally done, apparently well-funded attack ad.

Here's a screen shot of it, the top of the Atrios ad section:

(It's also running at Daily Kos, and I don't think either blog's ad space is cheap....)

The ad directs readers to a blog called "Open Letter To Chris Matthews." Naturally, I went there, because Chris Matthews never struck me as the type of person who'd use the term "fag." Frankly, even if he's a closet bigot, I think he's too politically savvy to talk that way. Reading through the blog, I'm unable to find a single instance in which Matthews makes an actual "fag" joke. Nowhere is it documented that he ever used the word "fag." Instead, all the blog can do is point to his sarcastic recital of Michael Savage's rather lame (for Savage, at least) reference to "Brokeback Mountain" as "Bareback Mountain." :

MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who's on [WTNT AM] 570 in D.C., who shares a station with you at least, he said -- he calls it -- what's he call it? "Bareback Mounting." That's his name for the movie.

IMUS: Right. Of course, Bernard calls it "Fudgepack Mountain," but that's probably --

MATTHEWS: You know what? I'll bet it wins. It's either that or Good Night, and Good Luck. [Warner Independent Pictures, 2005] who'll win for an Academy Award, I think, this year. I think it's the mood. Everybody likes the movie, who's seen it, so.

Even Arianna Huffington had concede that there wasn't much to this. "Clearly being ironic" she said.

A fag joke? Hardly.

But now that I've looked into this, I feel like suing Michael Savage! Because I said it before he did!

And I'm sure Savage got the idea from me.

Michael, I think it's time to pack it in, as you'll never fudge your way out of this one (and changing "Mountain" to "Mounting" won't help!) I've been onto you from the start.