Obviously, Chris Matthews has not learned from his catalogue of election ’08 gaffs.

The voluble, risible Matthews was forced to apologize (or clarify) his clumsy remark connecting Sen. Hillary Clinton’s success to the fact that her husband “messed around” and has seen his rapturous “thrill going up my leg” line co-opted for a thousand punch lines. It was the centerpiece of John McCain’s Obama Love video deriding the media for, the McCain campaign asserted, its collective love affair with McCain rival Barack Obama. (After racking up hundreds of thousands of views on McCain's YouTube channel, the video was pulled after it was revealed that the campaign didn't properly license the music used in the ad.)

Tuesday night during coverage of the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Matthews engaged in another bizarre soliloquy sure to raise hackles.

Heaping what he obviously thought to be praise on Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, who delivered a personal, heartfelt speech on the first night of the convention, Matthews said: “They do everything right. They have great kids, they work their hearts [out], they make it in their professions, they don’t live off welfare, they don’t commit crimes, they don’t live on affirmative action.”

They don’t commit crimes?

It’s odd, to say the least, that Matthews would connect Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady, with felonious acts. Sure Betty Ford had her problems with controlled substances. But when was the last time a First Lady, former, potential, whatever, made a regular appearance on the police blotter?

The outraged press release from Media Matters should be landing in the inbox any minute.