MSNBC's Chris Matthews celebrated the publication of his book "Tip and the Gipper: When politics worked" at a local D.C. restaurant Tuesday night. Politico captured remarks at the event by the network's president, Phil Griffin:

“Chris is now either the No. 1 or 2 guy every night since we moved him to 7 p.m.,” said Griffin, referring to Matthews new time slot at the network. “He also beats everybody in the competition — meaning Fox, our big challenger — one out of three nights. And we hope to do that regularly. It’s impressive what he’s done. We call him a national treasure at MSNBC. If you’ve ever seen Chris at an airport, you know what that means. Everyone comes up to him.”

@eScarry