{"id":7115,"date":"2006-04-12T09:43:32","date_gmt":"2006-04-12T13:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7115"},"modified":"2006-04-12T09:43:32","modified_gmt":"2006-04-12T13:43:32","slug":"sen-chris-matthews-i-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/sen-chris-matthews-i-pa\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Chris Matthews (I-Pa.)?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember a year ago I stumbled upon a website, which is no longer online, called “[tag]Draft[\/tag] [tag]Chris Matthews[\/tag].” The site had all the appropriate elements — a petition, an explanation of Matthews’ “qualifications,” etc. — and explained why the Philadelphia native should take on Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania in 2006. It was good for a quick chuckle<\/a> and easily forgotten.<\/p>\n

After all, who would really want the MSNBC blowhard in the world’s most deliberative body? This online petition<\/a> drive set a goal of 5,000 signatures. As of today, it’s fallen 4,895 short. It’s a helpful hint about public demand for a Matthews campaign.<\/p>\n

And yet, the idea seemed to gain considerable attention yesterday. The Huffington Post noted<\/a> the rumor about Matthews possibly entering the race and Philadelphia Daily News writer Will Bunch explained<\/a> that it could, at least as a practical matter, happen.<\/p>\n

Can Matthews, a Philadelphia native who lives in the D.C. area, enter the race — which is seen as a showdown between sagging GOP incumbent Rick Santorum and anemic Democratic rival Bob Casey Jr. — at this late date? Yes…if he runs as an independent.<\/p>\n

While the door is shut on entering the race as a Democrat or Republican — Matthews is a former Democratic aide on Capitol Hill who has leaned rightward, seemingly, as a TV talking head, we’re told that Matthews could have begun circulating petitions to run as an independent on March 9 and has all the way until Aug. 1 to turn them in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bunch added that Matthews may believe he has a shot because he can be an Arlen Specter-like candidate — a pro-choice conservative.<\/p>\n

I don’t see this happening, in large part because it’s hard to imagine Matthews taking the pay cut. That said, as pundits-turned-politicians go, I can only think of one other possible candidate<\/a> who’d scare me more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember a year ago I stumbled upon a website, which is no longer online, called “[tag]Draft[\/tag] [tag]Chris Matthews[\/tag].” The site had all the appropriate elements — a petition, an explanation of Matthews’ “qualifications,” etc. — and explained why the Philadelphia native should take on Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania in 2006. It was good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}