Matthews Hushes Guest Who Reminds Viewers That John Edwards is a Multimillionaire Trial Lawyer

Could Chris Matthews make his man-crush on John Edwards any more obvious? Last night he devoted the entire hour of Hardball to interviewing the former vice-presidential nominee, at one point defending him from his wife by accusing her of busting (or possibly biting) his balls. Today, while discussing 2008 with the Politico.com’s Roger Simon and Washington Post political analyst Chris Cillizza, Edwards came up again when Matthews asked whether a recession would lead Democratic candidates to try a populist message:

SIMON: The [Democratic] Party hates [the populist] message.
MATTHEWS: You know why? Because the contributors hate it. The people with the money say, “That’s us we’re talking about.”
CILLIZZA: And Chris, one note: The people with the money includes John Edwards. I mean, this is a multimillionaire trial lawyer making the argument that, you know, ”I understand your concerns.” He did come up from very little in terms of family wealth, but he is not exactly someone who at this point in his life shares the concern of –
MATTHEWS: You’re getting too analytical, Cillizza. You’re getting very analytical. You’re going through each one of these resumes like you’re taking applications to Harvard here.

Translation: Don’t mess with my man, Cillizza. He gets enough grief from his ball-busting wife.
Video here.