The pretext for this moldy talking-points rehash is today’s Politico piece on the efforts of Bush loyalists like Fleischer to rehabilitate Dubya’s legacy. Nothing here you haven’t heard several thousand times before on Hardball, but with Glenn Beck drubbing MSNBC even more than usual at 5 p.m., Matthews has to do something to goose the ratings. So here’s the inevitable showdown, which turns entertainingly nasty about four minutes in when Chris dumps on Bush’s counterterror legacy and Ari’s patience goes up in smoke. Twelve minutes of simmering hostility later, Matthews finally gets to deliver this summa on preemptive war on behalf of his pal “Barack”:

And I am glad that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind of argument… And the American people are happier, too. They are, I can assure you. We don’t like that thinking anymore in this country.

Given the predictable badgering and interruptions, Fleischer stays surprisingly cool and does a solid job parrying the thrust about advance intel on 9/11. Note the stagehands laughing at 8:10 when he demands to get a word in edgewise. Doesn’t he know which show he’s on?