Chris Matthews: Biased? Maybe. Rude? Oh, yes.

Was Chris Matthews the wrong guy for last night's debate of Republican presidential hopefuls? Well, yes -- but not for the reasons you've been hearing all week.

Fox News and its fellow-travelers have been waging war on Matthews, insisting the MSNBC host's recent comments about "criminality" within the Bush Administration exposed an anti-GOP bias.

Bill O'Reilly misquoted Matthews, claiming he'd called the entire administration a "criminal enterprise," while Gretchen Carlson of Fox & Friends went one better, called Matthews's remark "blasphemous." (Considering Matthews was apparently talking about Scooter Libby's conviction, that would make Dick Cheney...Jesus Christ?)

In the event, Matthews played it pretty straight, which Fox News et al will no doubt chalk up to their watchdoggery. The one off-note came in an exchange with Fred Thompson. After listening to Thompson's answer to a question about a possible government bailout of Chrysler, Matthews editorialized, "Took a long time. He said no; he should have stopped there."

There you have it: Matthews is a jerk. And while being a jerk is sometimes a useful journalistic tool, Matthews is a jerk for no reason; he doesn't seem to get the distinction between adversarial, which every journalist should be, and being combative. When Matthews brags about how "independent" he is, what he means is that he's obnoxious to both sides.

Byron York of the National Review seems to agree with me. He says Matthews's snark "seemed to cross a line," and he offers this priceless quote from a Thompson aide: "Chris kept himself in check for as long as he humanly could, and then he just reverted to type. He can't help himself. He said this isn't going to be about me, and of course it was about him."

Chris Matthews photo by Kimberly P. Mitchell/MCT /Landov