The Mike Barnicle Challenge

Any faithful MSNBC news junkie could tell you that Mike Barnicle was on that channel ALL the time. He stopped by often, and it seemed like Russert tended to stop by more often on days when Barnicle was around. It would also appear that he was in town guest hosting Hardball when Russert died, had lunch with him before the faithful moment, was at the hopsital when he died ect. Their families are intertwined as one if the godfather of the others children ect. If Barnicle is "exploiting" his friendship with Russert it started a long time ago, while Russert was still alive, in front of his face, with his help and consent.

It seems to me that Barnicle was given these chances to host Hardball when Chris Matthews was out as an excuse for Russert to hang out with his pal.

That being said I dont like Barnicle much, and dont appreciate him as a jounalist. I just feel that Russert liked the guy, and if Barnicle wants to tell the world that he hung out with Russert thats his right. After all doesnt every succesful kid from a lower middle class family have a friend who never quite made it out of the rut but he loved anyway?

Well, hey, if the TV gig doesn't work out, he can always head for WBUR.