Politico's Daniel Libit reports that since Rep. Michele Bachmann's "McCarthyist" rant on "Hardball" last week, cable bookers have been clamoring to get her on the air.

In the interview, Bachmann told Chris Matthews that she "wish[ed] the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would be — would love to see an expose like that."



But there was a bit more from Matthews not in today's piece:

Michele Bachmann may be leery about returning to Chris Matthews’ show, but Matthews tells Politico he’d love to get the Minnesota congresswoman back on “Hardball” after their headline-grabbing exchange last Friday.



“I’ve always wanted to get Zell Miller back on,” Matthews said. Matthews and the former Georgia senator had an infamously contentious encounter with the MSNBC host following the 2004 Republican National Convention.



Friday’s appearance was Bachmann’s first Matthews show and possibly her last. When asked, Bachmann spokeswoman Michelle Marston wouldn’t say whether her candidate would do “Hardball” again if invited back on.



“I have a standard job,” Matthews said, “I don’t have to focus on the subject in my interview, just my method. I try to ask questions that are relevant, to the point and get responses. And I try to listen very well to what I hear.”



Matthews dodged Bachmann’s claim that she had been painted into a corner in the interview. The clip "is open to observation,” he said. “You don’t need a filter to tell you what happened.”

He said he was instantly surprised when he heard Bachmann associate Obama and anti-Americanism. “This is all new territory for me to hear what she had to say,” Matthews said.

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