Celebrating both his birthday and his new book, we hear “Hardball” host Chris Matthews was toasted Wednesday night by his journalistic peers at the Phillips Collection.
Matthews, who turns 66 on Saturday, marked the occasion with dinner and an interview in the Music Room, which features a gorgeous array of lunette-shaped abstractions by Augustus Vincent Tack. Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein talked to Matthews about his book, “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero,” with Matthews explaining that John F. Kennedy and Jackie had a “real marriage,” but that the real love of his life was Danish journalist Inga Arvad.
In the spirit of Kennedy, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., gave a colorful toast: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Chris Matthews.”
Among other luminaries on hand were Reps. Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, The Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, past and present MPAA heads Dan Glickman and Chris Dodd, Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman, “The New Yorker’s” Rick Hertzberg and historian Michael Beschloss.
