Hardball lives up to its name. Finally.

Chris Matthews has something of a history as a 'Bush-enabler,' offering unsolicited testimony such as he's a nice guy that only wackos dislike. Apparently the trick is not to accuse him of having his facts wrong-- that's when he turns on you. As with White House Counselor Dan Bartlett on Hardball yesterday.

BARTLETT: That’s not correct, Chris. The president or no one else ever said that this war was going to result in cheaper gas prices…

MATTHEWS: Ok, so just to make it official, Dan, no one in the administration has ever said that we would have cheaper gas because of war in Iraq, just to make it official?

BARTLETT: I don’t recall anybody ever saying that, Chris.

Later in the show, Matthews felt compelled to set the record straight by pointing out that then-senior economic advisor Laurence Lindsay said just that:

As for the impact of a war with Iraq, “It depends how the war goes.” But he quickly adds that that “Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits that would come from a successful prosecution of the war.”

“The key issue is oil, and a regime change in Iraq would facilitate an increase in world oil,” which would drive down oil prices, giving the U.S. economy an added boost.