Thursday, May 20, 1999 --- New York (APJP) -- If it weren't for the fact that someone nearly got killed, this would be worthy of a DIS-patch from my evil twin, Dave "Doctor" Gonzo.

But it is not funny.

In the least.

Rewind to last Tuesday -- CNBC's Hardball, hosted by Chris Matthews. The guest: Kathleen Willey.

Matthews: "Who was that guy I'm gonna ask ya again, because I think ya know who it was."

Willey: "I do know. I think I know."

Matthews: "Is it someone in the president's family, friends? Is it somebody related to Strobe Talbott? Is it a Shearer?"

Willey: "I can't say. I've been asked not to..."

Matthews: "You've been asked not to admit that?"

Willey: "Yes. By the Office of Independent Counsel, because they are investigating this."

Matthews: "So it's Cody Shearer."

Willey: "I can't tell you!"

Fast forward to yesterday: Hank Buchanan, a man with a sad history of mental illness who happens to be the brother of ultra-right isolationist presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and conservative commentator and former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan, is arranging through his lawyer and brother Tom Buchanan to surrender to police on a charge of brandishing a handgun at two guests of State Department official Cody Shearer this last weekend.

Hank Buchanan evidently threatened Shearer's house guests as a direct result of believing the false report that proven liar Kathleen "Slick" Willey had named Shearer as the man who allegedly slashed the tires on her car and threatened her in early 1998-- an implication which Shearer has been able to disprove since he was in California at the time of the alleged incident.

Matthews, Drudge and Limbaugh had all failed to vet the story -- but Matthews, one of a large number of interviewers to host Willey in the last few weeks as part of a vain attempt to rehabilitate her reputation (and remember, her lies and dishonesty have been repeatedly proven), must shoulder the burden for this debacle, which would have been one of the most laughable right-wing gaffes of the year.

That is, had it not endangered the lives of a State Department official and his guests because a mentally deranged, politically motivated Hardball-head went off the deep end.

The fact is that Matthews is a third-rate journalist whose only credentials for hosting a political TV chat show are his brief tenure as a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, an aide to Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and his hard-right views. Matthews has been actively fanning the flames of hatred against President Clinton and his administration by promoting every implausible conspiracy theory about wrongdoing by the President that has come down the pike.

And now his willful hatred and failure to even use the most fundamental standards of journalism has endangered the lives of innocent people.

There is simply no excuse for allowing Matthews a national forum to vent his puerile theories, sleazy innuendo and outright lies -- whether they be his own or those of others.

I hope that Cody Shearer takes action against Matthews, Drudge and Limbaugh for their recklessness.

But it is also time -- time long overdue -- for CNBC to show at least a small shred of integrity and fire Chris Matthews.