Del Walters

This week, Del Walters, a veteran local Washington, DC and Baltimore television reporter and anchor, who in January of 2009 served as executive producer of “Virginia's Inaugural Black Tie and Blue Dominion Ball” starring actress Jenna Elfman and the Commodores (NB item), joined the on-air anchor team for Washington, DC’s Bonneville International-owned all-news radio station affiliated with CBS News. The ball's home page shouted: “A Celebration of a Dream Fulfilled!”

“Wasn't that local TV veteran Del Walters anchoring on all-news WTOP yesterday evening?” Dave Hughes asked Friday on his DCRTV.com site. “Sources say that the former Channel 7/WJLA and Channel 2/WMAR anchor starts a ‘regular presence’ on WTOP this week. A top TOPer says that Walters will be doing ‘fill-in’ work.”

In a 2007 novel, The Race, Walters imagined a black U.S. President “hated by every extremist group that can still hold a gun license” whose life is threatened by the KKK and Vatican-connected conspirators afraid he will demand reparations payments. From Amazon.com’s summary of the book:

The night before the inauguration, Dave Hughes reported Saturday on his DCRTV.com blog, "Virginia's Inaugural Black Tie and Blue Dominion Ball" will be emceed by two anchors at Washington, DC's Gannett-owned CBS affiliate (WUSA-TV channel 9 which is airing ads to sell tickets, see screen capture) while Del Walters, a veteran reporter/anchor until a few years ago for the local ABC affiliate (WJLA-TV channel 7), will produce the event. Amongst those scheduled to join "9 News Now" anchors JC Hayward and Lesli Foster at the National Air And Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport: Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Doug Wilder as well as Democratic Congressman Jim Moran.

The Commodores will provide musical entertainment and the Web site for the affair lists actress Jenna Elfman and astronaut Buzz Aldrin as among the "celebrity hosts." As for whether Obama will make the trek out to the Virginia suburbs for the January 19 gala, Waters hoped: "Like all of Washington and Northern Virginia, we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will celebrate along with the 1.95 million Virginians who turned this once red state blue."

The ball's home page shouts: "A Celebration of a Dream Fulfilled!"

For years Chris Matthews has been proclaiming defeat in Iraq, on an almost nightly basis, on "Hardball" but on Tuesday night he finally admitted the success of the surge that John McCain supported. However, the MSNBC host claimed it would be Barack Obama that would get to enjoy the spoils.

After Newsweek's Howard Fineman suggested, "We're not losing," and pointed out the surge success would make it easier for a troop pullout, Matthews admitted the following:

MATTHEWS: Senator McCain wanted the surge to work, it worked politically and Barack Obama is the beneficiary. Not exactly the right development, politically, for him.

Matthews began the segment by playing a clip of McCain criticizing Obama on the war but then wondered if the Republican presidential nominee, "should take it back?"

The following is the full exchange as it occurred on the July 22, "Hardball":