Sometimes it's the people you didn't expect to meet here at the world's largest celebrity petting zoo who make the trip interesting.

This morning it was Ron Reagan, who was in the back of the room as Philly's own Chris Matthews shouted at breakfast-eating critics. (Not in a mean way, that's just the way he talks. And talks.)

Matthews at one point interrupted himself to introduce Reagan, who'll be a regular on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" as "the next Andy Rooney."

(To which Reagan replied that he needs "a desk with a drawer I can open.")

Truth is, Reagan, who stood still for some questions after Matthews' session, comes off as more self-effacing and far more thoughtful than the present-day Rooney, whether talking about his father's funeral, his mother's new dog -- a Shar-Pei puppy given to her by Merv Griffin that she's named Duchess "after Dutch, obviously" -- or the torture of Iraqi prisoners.

Asked if he'd ever thought 20 or more years ago that he'd someday be interested in doing political commentary for the 2004 campaign, he said, "Maybe not specifically, but I don't think it would be that big a surprise. I'm not interested in politics in terms of running for office -- because I don't think you can get things done, really, as easily as you can in other sectors -- and I think being a politician would be too constraining. You have to watch what you say too much and I'm, you know, famous for not doing that."

Which doesn't mean he's not interested in the coming election.

"This isn't just a game. People are dying in Iraq, there are poor people here who still don't have enough to eat, there are people without health care -- this means something, it's important...you should have passion for this, because it affects all of us."

And in case you're wondering just how far from the Republican tree this particular Reagan has fallen, here's what he had to say about torture and how the Bush administration handled the revelations:

"The problem wasn't what he [President Bush] said when it came out, the problem was that they were seeking justification for torture in the first place....The picture that's beginning to emerge now is that we've constructed a virtual gulag around the world, where we lock people up, we don't tell anyone we have them and we're torturing them. We're strapping them to boards, dunking them under water until they think they're gonna die.

"I've said this before, and people get very angry when I say this, but this is an administration that self-consciously proclaims a 'Christian administration'...Well, who would Jesus torture?"