We’ve already put out a request for video of ESPN’s Dana Jacobson three sheets to the wind at the Mike & Mike Roast and please allow us to apologize in advance for requesting another: Stephen A. Smith on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Jan. 9. The memorable transcript is available, and we’ll get to the fantastic quotes in a minute, but first, we must ask … how out-of-control is this guy’s ego? It’s the middle of the NBA season, and yet Screamin’ A feels the need to go on Hardball and offer his unqualified opinions about the voters, Barry Obama and Mike Huckabee’s honesty?

If that alone doesn’t make you shake your head in bewilderment, please do follow the jump for the transcript. [UPDATE: Here's 2007 video from SAS on Paula Zahn, talking about atheists. Still looking for the column in which he mentioned religion that helped book him for this segment. There is video from the aforementioned Hardball appearance, and we should have it soon.]

It starts out better than you could have imagined – Smith (the transcript spells his first name with a ‘v’ and not a ‘ph‘) is referred to as a “sports columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer.” Somebody’s not reading their blogs or fact checking – he hasn’t written for the paper in at least five months.

If you take umbrage with us calling Smith “unqualified,” then please answer this: Has Smith ever written about politics at ESPN? In Philly? Anywhere? (If the man has a political blog somewhere, and nobody has told us about this until now, we’re going to be very upset.) What in the name of Cheese Doodles is going on here? We’ve never seen Hardball, but how can anyone take a show seriously if it’s going to have Smith opine about politics … simply because he follows politics on TV and reads about it? That would be akin to … adding Rush Limbaugh to the Countdown cast!

SMITH: And then also you have to take into account, you have an abundance of African American voters out there who really are questioning how viable he was. At least, up to this point. That may not be the case now, but it was certainly something that a lot of African Americans were concerned about, because as an African American, I can tell you I was concerned it. I looked at it and I said to myself, how viable is it that Barack Obama can end up really challenging for the presidency of the United States? Because I didn’t want to put somebody as a representative of the Democrats to go up against the Republican that has absolutely no shot of doing it. That is still an issue to a lot of African-Americans in this country.

SMITH: Well I have the pleasure of meeting him. He actually came on my television show about a year ago. I have a lot of respect for John McCain. I think he’s got a lot of potential. But the guy that I would pick is Huckabee. I don’t want to talk about Giuliani. Please don’t bring him up. He’s the man in New York City we are from. I think that he is the worst possible candidate imaginable considering the fact that you have a president in George W. Bush in office right now who is considered a bit of a dictator. Imagine following that up with Giuliani in terms of international relations and foreign relations.

SMITH: I think about Huckabee and what he stands for. I think Huckabee comes across as more honest. He is constantly preaching about the importance to following the constitution. I think he represents the values that Republicans try to live off of, where Giuliani certainly doesn’t do that. Mitt Romney, you don’t know whether he is telling the truth from day to day because of that fake smile on his face. Fred Thompson, he’s got the picture. McCain, we love him, but he is a bit older now and you just don’t know if he has the durability to really do what’s right over the long road. I think Huckabee is the obvious choice.