Washington

It’s A Hardball Life: The Chris Matthews Book Where It Began

Bill Thompson

Chris Matthews says he has been a political junkie since childhood. And his career path would seem to back that up.

With a degree from Holy Cross, graduate work at the University of North Carolina, and a teaching position at Harvard, Matthews came to Washington while in his 20s and went to work on Capitol Hill.

And it was his years under some of Washington’s most powerful figures that he learned the tradecraft he calls hardball. It is, he says, not only how politics gets done, but how everything in business and elsewhere gets done..

After politics Matthews became a columnist, and ultimately a popular cable TV talk show host. A few years before he made that transition, he wrote his first book, which he called Hardball. That’s when I first met him.

And stick around for the second half of this interview as we talk about his predictions for the 1988 presidential race – and why we all need to master Hardball.

So here now, from 1988, Chris Matthews.

Chris Matthews will be 80 in December. He retired from his TV show in 2020 although he still appears from time to time as a guest commentator.

How ‘Term Limits’ Launched Vince Flynn’s Thrilling Career

Bill Thompson

Fed up with business as usual in Washington, DC?

This election cycle may feel like a new phenomenon, but that voter frustration has been around for decades.

Get your copy of Vince Flynn’s book

Back in 1997 a young dyslexic sales and marketing executive, temporarily employed as a bartender, turned his own frustration into his first book, a self-published political thriller called Term Limits

It got only lukewarm reviews – some even hated it. But readers ate it up. and Vince Flynn’s professional writing career was launched.

His second book introduced us to a counterterrorism specialist named Mitch Rapp, who was then featured in a bestselling series of Flynn thrillers.

Vince was a popular speaker on book tours, so I had the chance to interview him several times over the years. But today let’s go back to where it all started, our conversation about Term Limits.

So here now, from 1998, Vince Flynn.

Vince Flynn died from cancer in 2013. He was 47.

Capitol Steps

Bill Thompson

Once upon a Time three staffers for a United States Senator decided to put on a little Christmas show, just a little thing with song parodies and skits, just for entertainment.

They’re little show was a hit and they ended up putting on that show for a few other small private groups.

Before long, a few other Hill staffers join them and they’re little events. Became bigger events more organized events with bigger audiences

The year was 1981 and that’s how the capital steps was formed. And over the next four decades. The capital steps became the nation’s premier political satire group.

Two of those founding members, Bill Strauss and Elaina Newport wrote a book in 1992 called fools on the Hill and that’s when I had a chance to meet them.

So here now from 1992 Bill Strauss and Elaina Newport

The Capitol Steps disbanded in 2021, done in by the lack of bookings because of COVID.

Bill Strauss died in 2007 at age 60.

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