Chris Matthews Denounces 'Bum' Karl Rove

Chris Matthews' "Hardball" producers let the host down, as neither Sen. Pat Leahy or Rep. Henry Waxman accepted Matthews' invitation to grill Karl Rove on tonight's 5pm edition of Hardball. However that didn't stop Matthews from taking a few shots of his own at the President's adviser, as he called Rove a "bum," and sarcastically commented on Rove's genius as he greeted viewers of the August 13th edition of "Hardball" this way:

Matthews: "Can President Bush think without the man they call his brain? What about all those great ideas like dividing the country over Iraq and leaving New Orleans to drop into the sea? A country without Karl Rove calling the shots? Let's fear for the Republic. Let's play Hardball."

A little later Matthews snapped that the only way the American people would hear Rove spill the truth is to pay for it on the lecture circuit:

Matthews: "Tonight's debate on Hardball: Should Congress be able to force Karl Rove to talk? Now that he's leaving the White House, that's the Hardball debate, he's gonna go out and make a fortune on the lecture circuit. Do you have to pay to get the truth from Karl Rove?"

Then Matthews resorted to flat out name-calling when he called Rove a "bum."

Matthews referring to Valerie Plame case: "Yeah but Bush, the President said, that 'anyone of my people involved with leaking this will be taken care of.' Did he, is that what he meant by today's ceremony, the bear hug and everything? Was that being taken care of? And, I mean, I've never seen a staff aide be signed-off on at the presidential helicopter with such majesty. It was almost regal today, like he was knighting the guy. And, and he said he was going to take care of this bum, anybody that leaked in the CIA case. Well this is how he took care of him. He knighted the guy."