Hopefully, when Chris Matthews co-hosts the Republican debate next Tuesday, he will have reigned in his spittle and vein bulging long enough to ask and listen to the answers of fair questions.

Chris Matthews had barely finished praising his colleagues at the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C. when his remarks turned political and pointed, even suggesting that the Bush administration had “finally been caught in their criminality.”

In front of an audience that included such notables as Alan Greenspan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Matthews began his remarks by declaring that he wanted to “make some news” and he certainly didn’t disappoint. After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him.

“Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials — especially those from Vice President Cheney’s office — called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content. “They will not silence me!” Matthews declared.

“They’ve finally been caught in their criminality,” Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred. He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero.”

Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

Following his remarks, a few network insiders and party goers wondered what kind of effect Matthews’ sharp criticism of the White House would have on Tuesday’s Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan, which Matthews co-moderates alongside CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.

Not that a whole lot of people watch his show anyway, but on Tuesday I would imagine Republicans will watch to try to evaluate the men who want our vote.

I want to hear what the candidates have to say and I want fair questions asked of them. I don’t want softball questions, but I also don’t want the co-host to “make news” with his snarky manner and butt in whenever he feels the urge, the way he does on his regular program as I recall it.

For anyone under forty, there was a time, in the not too distant past, when we could hear a debate on television and not really know the political leanings of the questioners. They surely held their political beliefs, but kept them as much at bay as possible while doing their jobs.

Then came Uncle Walter—the most trusted man in America, and he interjected his personal feelings about the Viet Nam war and all of a sudden, being objective was no longer a requirement to being a journalist.