In Which a Great Love Is Destroyed (Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia)

Well, the long-term love affair between my husband and his celebrity girly crush Chris Matthews is over. I was pretty enraged too, but I didn't have to write a break-up letter to MSNBC.

It all fell apart when Chris devoted an hour of Hardball to the new books on Hillary Clinton that are coming out next week. Now, I haven't heard enough of Hillary Clinton's positions to make any type of decision on if I want her a president, but Chris M. thinks her campaign might be damned by the facts in these new books.

The facts: Her husband cheated on her and she "tolerated it." She sat in front of witnesses who were going to testify against her husband and intimidated them. Oh, and she stayed with her husband for political reasons because she wanted to have a future in politics.

Aren't we past this belief that having a philandering husband has something to do with the woman? Would he have straightened up if she hadn't "tolerated" it? In what way did she tolerate it? By not Bobbitting his penis? Is that tolerance? Why is it her fault her husband has no sense?

Oh, and if my husband cheated and it was going to make it into the papers, yeah, I'd try to keep it out of the papers. Jesus! They expect her not to? I give her props for going nose-to-nose with those women. I hope she made them cry. I hope she made Bill cry too.

And why on earth would anyone assume she stayed with her husband out of ambition, when there was a much better reason to stay with him? She had a kid! She had a family. Why do I think that if she'd dumped him she'd be blamed for having no family values?

I had no idea it was such a crime to have a husband who had affairs. What if Gary had affairs? You know what? If I'd been married five years I'd toss him out, but if it had been fifteen years and he'd been in other respects a good husband I'd yell, throw lamps, call his girlfriends and scare the hell out of them, but you bet I'd stay. I wouldn't waste an investment of good years because of my husband's failings. I'd make deals, too. I'd say, yeah, you'll be pushing me around in a wheelchair when the time comes. No electric wheelchair for us.

Now add to that a thirteen year old kid. I can't see why people have to go the extra step of saying "She just stayed with him out of ambition." Chris Matthews was behaving as if she'd gone out procuring women for him. And the women on the program, did any of them scream "She had a KID you ASS?" Nope.

Yeah, so I hope Chris sniffles when he reads this email Gary sent MSNBC:

"Hardball is now off of my Tivo forever.

I have had a Tivo season pass to Hardball and the Chris Mathews show for years. However, I will no longer watch either of his shows again. I have always admired Chris Mathews for his journalistic integrity. I have enjoyed his show because he seemed objective, was unafraid to ask difficult questions and always kept the discussion at a high level. I have even ignored his obvious dislike for Hillary Clinton. However, Chris's May 25th show was the last straw. I couldn't believe my eyes as Chris used his platform to advertise the two new unflattering books on Hillary Clinton as if they were news. And the glee with which he did this was disgusting and unprofessional. Time and time again he cut off any of his guests that began to speak positively about the Clintons or that attempted to bring some intelligence into the conversation. I really thought that I was watching Bill O'Reilly on the Fox broadcasting network. Shame on you, Chris Mathews, for letting your own feelings about having Hillary as a president color your reporting. I will never watch your show again. "