You Could Be Head of the AFL-CIO': MSNBC's Matthews' Idea of Paying Ed Schultz a Compliment

On his show "Hardball" the night of the Wisconsin recall, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews paid an odd compliment to his fellow anchor Ed Schultz, anchor of "The Ed Show." After Schultz rattled off his usual litany of attacks on Republicans for selling out working people in the name of the "one percent," Matthews said this:

"You may not like me saying this, Ed buddy, but I'll tell you, if you weren't doing this, and you're doing a fabulous job as this colleague -- you're doing better than we're doing at Hardball, you're doing great numbers -- I gotta tell you something, you could be head of the AFL-CIO and they'd be better off for it."

If it gets Schultz off TV, some people probably would like the idea. But for our money, Schultz is better as an annoying television anchor than as someone with actual power.