Chris Matthews is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of TV news hosts. Even his NBC colleagues at the Tonight Show give him no respect. Host Jay Leno just last week led with dashing Matthews competitor Anderson Cooper of CNN, who was first to sit on Leno's couch and got extra time to chat after a commercial break. Matthews? After flying to LA for the appearance, he came out last night after a segment called "Things We Found On eBay," two turns on the couch by self-styled redneck Larry The Cable Guy AND after a special skit involving Larry. Then Larry insulted Matthews with a joke about "The Chris Matthews Show," not realizing the program is known as Hardball (UPDATE: Joke's on me — that's an actual show! I guess Matthews looked annoyed at being interrupted so crudely, or somesuch). Leno awkwardly tries to salvage the situation in the clip after the jump.

Though Matthews is a frequent guest on Leno, his fall to the show's least enviable quarter-hour comes at a touchy time. Fellow host Keith Olbermann shot past him in the MSNBC pecking order and then had the nerve to mock him on national television. Some feminists accused him not only of sexism toward Hillary Clinton but also promoting domestic violence. At least Matthews had the good humor to start laughing at his situation at the end of the clip above. He may lack the polish of career TV journalists like Olbermann and Cooper, but the longtime Democratic political aide probably has the grit to make it through the minor humiliations of the moment without further loss of temper.