Fred Thompson is almost universally acknowledged to have done very well at lastnight's debate, but team Thompson was displeased about the ever-narcissistic-Chris-Matthews:

Amidst all the happiness, there was one thing the Thompson camp was not pleased about, and that was the moderator. After Thompson finished answering a question about possible government aid to Chrysler, Matthews said, “Took a long time. He said no; he should have stopped there.” The remark seemed to cross a line; at the very least, it was not the sort of thing one normally hears from the moderator in these debates. Thompson responded, “In your opinion, Christopher,” and after it was all over, Thompson’s people unloaded on Matthews.

“Chris kept himself in check for as long as he humanly could, and then he just reverted to type,” the first Thompson aide told me. “He can’t help himself. He said this isn’t going to be about me, and of course it was about him.”

“The Democratic debate had Tim Russert. We had Chris Matthews. That’s like you having Roger Clemens and my team having…me. It’s just amateur hour with him. He can’t help himself.”

The only place Matthews had in lastnight's debate was as an "analyst" afterward. Anyone who watches 30 seconds of Hardball on any day knows that an interaction with Matthews is all about Matthews.