How the Irish became good-looking

The Irish Echo has an interview with the giant-headed Chris Matthews of NBC in which he is keen to tell the world of his Irish heritage, much like his colleague, the giant-headed Tim Russert. We have posted about this crew in the past and in particular their habit of using their Irish background for street cred, notwithstanding their millionaire lifestyles -- which is not far hidden even in this piece:

The manic verbal delivery slowed down to normal speed off-air -- perhaps a testimony to the calming qualities of Nantucket, where he was weekending with his family

But the really weird comment is about yet another of the Oirish-Americans at NBC, Norah O'Donnell:

"Ohhhh, Norah O'Donnell!" Matthews erupted in a paroxysm of delight. "Inn't she somethin'? She's somethin' else. She's the pride of the island. She's 100 percent Irish. Both parents are immigrants, I think. The parents look nothing like her, I must say."

Besides trying not to think about the state of Matthews' phone after that ... er ... outburst -- how about that slam of Norah's parents? While the old Irish proverb says "what can you expect from a crow's egg, but another crow?" Chris seems to feel that the product of this particular egg is way too much of a looker to have come from the parent crows. But as this P O'Neill (as opposed to that one) once said in a disastrously misunderstood domestic context remark, "it's amazing what make-up can do."

On a slightly more serious note, the Echo article seems to take at face value Matthew's self-image as a liberal. With a few spare hours to read the huge Daily Howler hits for Matthews, one might think differently.