The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette writes about MSNBC’s new regular fill-in host, Ed Schultz.

Schultz began guest hosting on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this month, and the Observer reports he is currently negotiating with MSNBC about the possibility of joining the cable news network full-time.

“Who was this folksy Rush Limbaugh-lookalike, wagging his finger at the greedy corporate union-busters, and asking with head-bobbing exasperation, ‘What gives?’” writes Gillette.

Until 1998, Schultz described himself as a “hard-charging, what’s-in-it-for-me conservative radio talk show host,” but now is “already taking a page or two from the MSNBC playbook,” Gillette writes.