How many “Ha!’s” might Chris Matthews let out during the course of a 10-question interview? I counted eight in Matthews’ Q&A with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Storm (perhaps some were edited out)?

When asked why, at age 62 and with his MSNBC contract running out in about a year, he wouldn’t just “hang up the bullhorn and go fishing,” Matthews replied:

Ha. Ha. Ha. The money is enormous. I’d probably talk politics if I wasn’t on the air. Mike Wallace is, what, 90?. These people just keep doing this stuff. It’s not like it’s a real heavy-lifting job. It’s talking about what you want to talk about, and old men love to talk about politics.

That explains a lot.