The New York Times is report­ing that Chris Matthews (Host of Hard­ball) and Keith Olber­mann (Host of Count­down) are no longer host­ing the elec­tion night cov­er­age for MSNBC; David Gre­gory is tak­ing over that duty with Matthews and Olber­mann act­ing as commentators.

This was not entirely unex­pected: Olber­mann is a far left com­men­ta­tor and was removed from RNC cov­er­age for his lib­eral bias and analy­sis dur­ing a time when it should be straight news report­ing, and he has raised the ire of many top net­work heads. Some are call­ing it a “civil war” between Olber­mann and his guard against the rest of the MSNBC/NBC network.

While Matthews is much more cen­ter­ist and was a capa­ble news host–I agree with the deci­sion to pull him from anchor­ing. He’s best when he is with a diverse panel, lead­ing the dis­cus­sion in a way where all sides are heard, and allow­ing for his view at the end. Chris loves elec­tions, con­ven­tions, and politics–of this there is no doubt, but we all saw how he looked dur­ing the RNC/DNC. He doesn’t have the sta­mina or look for the long haul.

Gre­gory? I think he’s a good choice. He isn’t accused of bias, because he doesn’t show any. He’s a straight reporter and host. I expect Chris to be drawn upon quite heavily–he always had more astute obser­va­tions and com­men­tary than Keith dur­ing their co-hosting. And when you get right down to it, Matthews just loves talk­ing about politics–he won’t care if Gre­gory is host­ing the show. Keith won’t be on much, I antic­i­pate. He has a large ego, and I don’t think he’ll stand for being inter­viewed by anyone.

The Matthews/Olbermann “feud” is much more than egos. It’s about Chris not want­ing to lis­ten to what he believed to be Keith’s shal­low com­men­tary, and dis­lik­ing being inter­rupted by Olber­mann when Keith wanted to say some­thing him­self. And Keith prob­a­bly dis­likes Chris because Matthews is an insider and able to pro­duce com­men­tary, but what Olber­mann dis­liked was that he believed he was a much supe­rior speaker.

It was an inter­est­ing exper­i­ment, and I think we’re glad it’s over.

Per­sonal Note: I have been accused of “bias” towards Keith Olber­mann. I believe this to be an accu­rate charge.

Gen­eral Note: I shifted “Pol­i­tics” from a Tag to a Cat­e­gory. This is to allow the tag cloud a lit­tle less “bias” towards “Politics.”