…and Chris Matthews was visibly unhappy with his producers. At one point, the audio feed from Kay Henderson, of Radio Iowa News, wasn’t reaching Matthews’ ears at his remote New Hampshire location, so when he asked her questions, he couldn’t hear when her responses ended. After noting that he couldn’t hear her, he trudged on with the segment, seemingly winging what she was saying based on what producers would feed him off screen. Definitely not helping matters at all were his orange and gray striped sweater.

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The NY Times is reporting that Tammy Haddad is leaving MSNBC and joining Newsweek. The move, which Haddad is claiming she’s happy about, comes just a couple of months after she was removed as the top producer on Chris Matthews‘ Hardball. She and Matthews had a much publicized falling out over the summer after Matthews was caught again swearing on-air. After she left Hardball, she said she was happy to be taking on a managerial role over all political projects at MSNBC.

Today we’re hearing that her contentious relationship with Matthews and others at the network led to the move to lower profile position at Newsweek, which is a partner of MSNBC.

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We learned only a few short months ago on Big Head DC that Chris Matthews is probably a drunk….now, we’ve discovered he’s a copycat, too.

Beginning this week, the MSNBC host introduced a new segment called “Power Rankings”….as he described on his show this past Friday, “all next week, by the way, we’ve got something big coming up on Hardball. Every night, starting Monday, for five nights, we’re going to have the Hardball power rankings. We’re going to tell you as best I can who’s got the best chance now to win the Democratic nomination. On Tuesday we`ll do the same thing for the Republicans. Then we’re going to run and show who the major contenders are, just like a sports show. We’ll deal with politics.”

That’s all fine and dandy until you realize that FOX Business Network’s America’s Nightly Scorecard has already featured “Power Rankings” a few times a week every night as one of their signature segments. It’s a pretty pathetic sign when an 11-year old network copies an idea from a network, which launched only a few weeks ago, when they had quite a headstart to generate their own material. But, then again, it would have been even more desperate if sister network, CNBC, stole the idea…oh, right, they already succeeded with Happy Hour.

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A video from the mysterious YouTube vlogger abrad2345 made an appearance on Hardball recently, reports Inside Cable News. We, along with ABC News, the NY Times and others, have been trying to figure out his identity for longer than we care to remember, and now he’s getting MSM attention. How much longer can he keep up the ruse before the jig is up? Not too much longer, our Magic 8 Ball says. (Some signs point to the Rudy camp.)

Related: abrad2345: Watch Your Back!

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After a ho-hum interview by his wife Kathleen Matthews on Thursday night’s show, some D.C. media insiders were wondering privately if the Chris Matthews 10th anniversary Hardball bash would live up to all the hype (Patrick Gavin, after all, has been peeing his pants over this one).

Well, we were there, and can answer definitively: yes AND no. Some big politico “names” did not show, which was disappointing for Chris, but lots of people, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, told him they simply adore his new book Life’s a Campaign, copies of which were readily available for purchase at the decked-out Decatur House (which was kinda crass, if you ask us). Several TV types also told Chris that they thought Jon Stewart was much too hard on him during his recent Daily Show debacle, but just as many were whispering that the clobbering was just what the doctor ordered to tame his ever-growing ego.

The biggest question of the evening was what exactly the somewhat grumpy Chris was drinking. Read more…

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Poor, misguided Michael Starr. The NY Post columnist, braving to cover something outside of Dancing with the Stars, had a case of invitation envy this morning and salivated about the not-so-hot ticket for the 10th anniversary party of Hardball tomorrow night here in D.C.

Still angling for an invite, Starr spun the following “factoid”:

“The high-decibel Matthews holds a unique niche now, what with Hardball cable’s longest-running political debate show following the demise of CNN’s Crossfire.”

Celebrating 10 years is indeed something to note, but Starr did not allow himself the necessary fact-checking to see that Hardball is cable’s second longest-running political debate show. On October 7, FOX News’ Hannity & Colmes, will celebrate 11 years… Fuzzy math, Mr. Starr.

Will Starr be at the party? Will the gift bags include White Out? Will Starr’s column ever become a must read? One hopes that someone at least fact-checked his other scoop today regarding casting for TV Land!

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Ari Fleischer, a former Bush administration spokesman, made an embarrassing mistake on Hardball today after the program aired a commercial from Freedom’s Watch, a right-wing pro-Iraq war group he now heads. The spot featured the personal story of a wounded American soldier.

“What’s that soldier’s name, Ari?” substitute host Mike Barnicle asked after the commercial ran.

“Mike, I don’t have that name in front of me.” responded Fleischer.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of American executive director Paul Rieckhoff later slammed Fleischer’s ignorance on the same show.

“What bothered me the most is that Ari Fleischer didn’t even know the guy’s name.” said Rieckhoff. “He’s willing to run a multi-million dollar campaign, utilizing the personal story of a soldier, and he couldn’t tell you on national TV what that soldier’s name is.”

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Big Head DC first reported growing tensions between Chris Matthews and his executive producer Tammy Haddad back in June. Sources were telling us that he wanted her fired as gaffes in production became increasingly apparent on-air.

The respected political producer is now officially out of the job, MSNBC sources have told Big Head DC today. She’s apparently very angry. And Chris Matthews is now the lowest rated host on MSNBC primetime.

Earlier: Chris Matthews’ Curse Ruffles the Peacock’s Feathers

Chris Matthews: Drunk As a Skunk?

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The water cooler moment of tonight’s pundit programs occurred on Hardball when, during a debate about Alberto Gonzales, The Hill newspaper’s conservative Karen Hanretty threw a flurry of eye rolls in Ezra Klein’s direction — and then screeched, “How old are you?” after he attempted to answer a question on the Gonzales federal prosecutor firings. Host Chris Matthews even cracked a smike.

For your information, Klein was born on May 9, 1984, which makes him just 23 years young.

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It’s pouring rain right now in Washington, and MSNBC still chose to go with the gimmicky outdoor “Hardball Plaza” set. Host Chris Matthews‘ hair is wetter than when he sweats in the heat, and the guests are distracted by little Hispanic guys struggling to hold massive umbrellas over their heads. Audience members are holding wet signs over their heads. It’s chaos, and looks totally unprofessional.  Why did producer Tammy Haddad let this happen?

Go inside, boob tubers!

(The second segment with actor Sam Waterson was pre-taped during the sunshine, adding to the disjointed feeling of the show.)

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