Apropos of nothing I think it's time we talked about Rachel Maddow.
Maddow, 35, is a very bright, fast-talking Rhodes Scholar who came from Air America to break the glass ceiling of "no libruls on the Teevee." After treating Pat Buchanan with amused respect she got her own show, and it is a hit.
Since its premiere, however, MSNBC has been treating her like their very own gay Barbie doll.
When out on her own, Maddow affects a very butch appearance (right). She wears slacks, lumberjack shirts and thick, thick glasses, along with what look like black Rockports. (Before anyone writes in anger, my wife likes the same look, and we've been happy together for a third of a century.)
I can go with some tarting-up for anyone who makes a living reading a Teleprompter. Even Jon Stewart has to wear a suit when he's on the Teevee, although apparently he wouldn't be caught dead in one on his own time.
This goes further. I can go along with the eye shadow — she has very nice eyes and we have to look at them five hours a week. But the make-up gets heavier every day, like they're trying to erase those birth marks on her neck. It's silly.
Then there are the outfits, jackets with scoop neck shirts that are desperately seeking cleavage. You won't find any — she's a very thin person.
But what got me over-the-top were the games they started playing with her hair — throwing a few strands artfully here-and-there as though she were sitting in a windy studio. Please. And then the turtlenecks they gave her Inauguration week — I think the studio was heated people.
Look, I'm actually trying to listen to a very intelligent anchor conduct good interviews and deliver what Keith Olbermann ponderously calls "special comments" at the start of each show — while we're awake. She's a very fine writer, without Olbermann's hectoring tone. She's got a nice, infectious laugh, and doesn't take any of this too seriously, which is good. (I hope she doesn't take this blog post seriously, and don't expect her to read it.)
Just, MSNBC, settle on something and leave her to work, will you? End of lecture.
Olbermann did wear out his special comments when he went to that well way too many times. And then Ben Affleck killed it for good with his 8.5 minute Sat.Night.Live impression.
Surprise, surprise, however, I’m never been too impressed with Maddow. Her contribution only skims the top, and she quickly fell into the talk show template of parroting anything the host threw at her, viz., Matthews and Olbermann. She really should be on in Matthews time slot. By the time you get to 9p, everything seems like a rerun of the day’s reruns by then.