The only reason anybody even knows who Chris Matthews is today, is that his show, Hardball, became appointment viewing during the Clinton/Lewinski scandal.  Matthews was interesting because he was a voice from the Left who was willing to speak the truth and pierce the spin and dissembling of the Clintonistas.

How times have changed.  Now, with a “Special Hardball Documetary: Bill Clinton, President of the Wolrd” (no, I’m not kidding) Matthews atones for his previous attempt at independent thinking.

Eager to erase his non-orthodox past (which even earned him a stint guest hosting for Rush Limbaugh) Matthews gushes that the impeached President is more popular than Winston Churchill (in Matthew’s poll of 1.)

Here’s what he said on Morning Joe in the day leading up to the unveiling of his fanboy hour:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: “You know, Churchill’s huge in this country and he’s 70-30 back in England, and Nixon is probably 20-80 here, but in France he’s about 60-40. You know, he’s 100-0 around the world, Bill Clinton…”

I guess they left Sudanese pharmaceutical manufacturers out of that poll, whose numbers Matthews obviously pulled out of his… whatever.

Matthews has gone from an interesting, honest voice, to a predictable, toe-the-party-line shill as he desperately tries to attract the audience of the recently departed Keith Olbermann.

Now, the only honesty that escapes from Chris’s mouth is of the Freudian slip variety, as in when Matthews pimped for his show with Dee Dee Meyers in his regularly scheduled broadcast that night:

MATTHEWS: Dee Dee, Bill Clinton, who we honored tonight–I should say, we put the focus on…

The Hardball segment Meyers was appearing in was called “What Would Bill Clinton Do?”

Seriously, I know Matthews once called Clinton “the voice of god” when it comes to politics, but Good Lord, are we really in for WWBCD bracelets?

The only thing missing was Bette Midler singing in the background, “Did you ever know that you’re my hero, you’re everything I would like to be…”

Fawning doesn’t even cover it.  At this point, expecting a dispassionately honest opinion out of Chris Matthews about Barack Obama or Bill Clinton is like asking one of these girls to write a critical review of a Beatles album.

Tomorrow I will fisk the special itself.  I’m working my way through it, but need to limit myself to small doses for my stomach’s sake.  Besides, I wanted to give you fair warning, in case you don’t have any barf bags handy.