Rachel's Grand Experiment

Oh my, was it a hoot.

If you thought Tweety's "Thrill up my leg" couldn't be topped, hang on ...

The Garlic is not in the camp (and it's a big one) that believes Rachel Maddow walks on water.

Far from it.

Even if we were, I don't believe I could have ignored this monumental display of obsequiousness.



When she was just a mere rookie MSNBC pundit during last years primary elections, she received the proverbial rookie treatment, getting paired up with Pat Buchanan for those post-election night debates.

Well, road kill would shine against the former Nixon Nazi, so it was pretty much a false facade being erected.

Besides, Maddow all but wore a Hillary t-shirt, or covered up with make-up, the "Clinton" tattooed on her forehead, which we commented on at one point.

But that didn't hinder her ascent, as she soon began sub-hosting for the MSNBC Mount Olympus, Keith Olbermann.

The whispers and buzzing soon morphed into a clamoring - "Give her a show!" - and the MSNBC suits, apparently after getting a Bogart-like nod from Olbermann, soon complied.

Now, there hasn't necessarily been any improvement, per se, but hey, she got the show.

Each night, Monday-Friday, she follows Olbermann, with an Olbermann-like show, of pithy politics, imbuing it with her own pithiness.

Well, we should say straining to imbue it with her own pithiness.

And, boy, does she suck up to guests.

Rarely is it a simple, "Thank you", and moving on to the next segment, Maddow has to fawn all over whoever it is she just talked with.

Constantly ... All most every night.

Last night was no different.

With the big Stimulus Package day coming to an end, the Stimulus Bill passing the Cloture vote, Maddow had Obama Guru David Axelrod on the program.

It was about a 10-minute interview, with Maddow tossing quite a few softballs;

Earlier today, you said the president is going to keep his foot on the gas pedal when it comes to the stimulus. Has the stimulus plan gotten better or gotten worse as it has gone through Congress? Qualitatively, has it improved or not?

Do you sense any frustration from the president with some of the rhetoric on the Republican side, Lindsey Graham, for example, accusing him of being AWOL on this legislation—which seems to me to be, frankly, ridiculous. Is that frustrating for you guys, for the president himself?

How much do you expect this bill to change between the time that it passes the Senate tomorrow and it is expected to pass, and the time that it actually reaches the president‘s desk? Do you think it will be a whole new ball game?

Not edge-of-the-seat, earth-shattering, but they paid for the satellite time, so, I guess, you had to allow for some filler.

But, as the interview ended, is where Maddow shined.

Like a giggly school girl talking to the football captain, trying, desperately, to connect, to show she was "with him", looking for his approval, seeking his blessing, that it was an "OMG, what did she just do!"

Here's the video

Rachel Maddow Show - David Axelrod, counselor to President Obama - press conference tonight



Fast forward to the 9:32 mark, for this;

MADDOW: I feel like I‘m part of this grand experiment where everybody else is talking about partisanship and you, guys, are talking about urgency. And I can feel you changing the frame around me while I‘ll try to resist.

Ooooh Nooooo!

Talk me down!

She didn't just drool all over Axelrod, did she?

"Changing the frame on me while I try to resist"

The heroine, tied to the railroad tracks, resisting , no, no, no ...

But, suddenly, the frame changes around her, her resistance starts buckling ...

"Hey man, I'm with ya! ... I'm on your team! ... Give me the cup, I'll drink from it from now on!"

I searched the World Wide Web, and I just couldn't find any instances of Walter Cronkite slobbering all over Pierre Salinger.

Not only that, but by uttering "part of a grand experiment", no doubt, the tinfoil hat crowd of her fan base must be in a tizzy today.

What experiment, and just what makes it so grand?

Is she going to expose it on her show?

What should we do to prepare for it?

Ohhh, I don't know ... Bring back Abrams, or Rita Cosby, maybe.

There must be a backlog of Missing White Woman, or Anna Nicole Smith, news stacking up.

Doc Bloc Death Knock? ... MSNBC Climbs Into the Big Yellow Taxi

Okay, "Sticks nix hick pix" it isn't, but it appears MSNBC is looking to get out of the rerun business

MSNBC Wants to Add a 3rd Prime-Time Show

Building on the momentum of its prime-time hours, MSNBC is developing a 10 p.m. program that would complement its left-leaning evening lineup, the cable news channel’s president said this week.

[Snip]

Unlike most major networks, MSNBC’s original programming ends at 10 each weeknight. The 8 p.m. program “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” is rerun at 10 p.m., where it usually ranks third.

[Snip]

But at 10 p.m., MSNBC replaced live programming with documentaries and repeats in 2006. It moved the reruns of “Countdown” there in March to capitalize on the political year. Reverting to tape at 10 p.m. puts the network at a disadvantage, especially on busy news nights. Meanwhile, CNN and Fox News are battling for first place in the hour. Last year, “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN outperformed “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Fox News among younger viewers, but the Fox program averaged a higher number of total viewers.

Hmmm ...

We once joked, at the height of the Missing White Woman bonanza, that MSNBC was going to launch a 24/7 Rita Cosby Channel, and, apparently, they are reluctant to plaster a Keith Olbermann Doc Bloc of sorts, endlessly replaying his Countdown program on the channel.

And, now, they want to cash in on their "left-leaning evening lineup" ...

Something seems to come to mind about that;

Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Perhaps this is an opportunity to make amends, for their boneheaded cowardness, for their capitulation to the Right Wing Freak Show, and the Bush Grindhouse, when they dumped Anti-War proponent Phil Donahue from their line-up.

Exit Phil Donahue

Phil Donahue on his 2003 MSNBC firing: "We had to have two conservatives on for every liberal. I was counted as two liberals."

MSNBC Sabotages Donahue

Then again, we haven't seen Rita Cosby pop up anywhere.

From this view, it would be nice if they came up with a second "progressive" program, and stop subjecting us to the Tweety rerun at 7:00PM.

And don't you dare put Morning Joke back in Prime Time!


Bonus MSNBC Riffs

MSNBC's Matthews Uninjured Pulling Head Out Of Judy Miller's Ass ... Hardball Host Fawns Over Former White House Stenographer; Stays Away From Tough Questions

Top Ten Cloves: Things Joe Scarborough Likes To Eat and Wear When Sitting At Computer

Developing Story - MSNBC Making Pitches To Become Eulogy Channel

Rachel Maddow: Hillary Apologist and Obama Basher


Bonus Bonus

Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi

Rachel Maddow: Hillary Apologist and Obama Basher

"...I see a lot of shades of George Bush as a candidate in what we’re hearing from Obama ... I think that Obama learned a little bit about how to campaign from what George Bush did. I hope that he would be, of course, a better president than Bush has been though ..."

Who's paying Rachel Maddow's salary, MSNBC, Air America Radio, or the Hillary Clinton Campaign?

The Liberal/Progressive's rising media darling was wearing her Hillary on her sleeve last evening, late into the coverage as a panel member on the MSNBC broadcast of the post-Iowa Caucus discussions.

When you Google "Rachel Maddow", you (or at least my search provided) get 192,000 results.

Looking over the first 100, there's nary a negative word about Ms. Maddow, not even from the Freakshow denizens, Dittoheads, or the Sludge Reports' flying monkeys.

And if she is a Hillary fan and supporter, God bless her, but was it part of her assignment with MSNBC last evening to bash Dem Iowa Caucus winner Barack Obama?

Rachel Maddow as Obama Basher

From the MSNBC transcript;

OLBERMANN: Rachel Maddow, the subject of strong views. Did not the strong views get us the president we have as well? Is there not fire to be played with in that category.

MADDOW: Well, it’s interesting. I actually feel like although I like Obama a lot more than I like George Bush as a politician and I guess probably as a person, I see a lot of shades of George Bush as a candidate in what we’re hearing from Obama. In that what Obama’s actually offering are fairly liberal policies, but spoken in language and delivered in a style that’s very moderate and that’s actually kind of post partisan in tone.

We don’t think of George Bush’s presidency as having been that way. But as a candidate, that’s exactly what he was. He was proposing very conservative policies, but in a conciliatory, compassionate, post partisan, can’t we all just get along kind of way. And that’s why people I think maybe ended up surprised at the way he governed. I think that Obama learned a little bit about how to campaign from what George Bush did. I hope that he would be, of course, a better president than Bush has been though.

Whoa, there girl!

Obama is Bush?

If fellow panel member Pat Buchanan said it, you would, well, brush it off, knowing what a whack-job Buchanan is.

And even being cautious about over-praise, being it was only one night, one event, but tying Obama to Bush?

Did the Hillary Campaign hack into her earpiece? Was she reading off the next morning's Hillary Campaign Talking Points?

Because, before she bashed Obama, you could see the hair on her neck rising, when host Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and other panel members were talking in tones of Hillary being finished.

Rachel Maddow as the Hillary Apologist

MATTHEWS: This country moves in a strange pattern. In 1870, we gave African-Americans, men, the right to vote, at least in the Constitution. Obviously Jim Crowe got in the way of that for 100 years. But it was written down into law, the amendment to our Constitution, African-Americans, former slaves, will be voting citizens of the United States.

Women got to vote, which is always interesting, 50 years later. So there’s something perhaps primordial about the willingness of this country to at least, in theory, extend the franchise, the presidency, even, to an African-American rather than a woman. That is the interesting question mark that this Hillary Clinton campaign raises.

Let’s go to the panel with this hot potato, starting with Rachel Maddow.

Rachel, and then Howard, I want you, and Pat, and, of course, Gene Robinson, all of you from your different perspectives, what is it about America that here we are in 2008, finally picking an African-American with a real shot to be president of the United States, and a woman just got a very bad night in Iowa?

Rachel?

MADDOW: I think that you’re calling this a really bad night for Hillary too early. I think that we need to see how close it’s going to be. And if ultimately the results are a three-way tie or look close to it, or Barack Obama wins tightly, that’s a story. I think it matters.

I don’t see this as a huge rejection of Hillary if she doesn’t come in with a big win, honestly. I know you see it differently.

MATTHEWS: You mean, the fact that two-thirds of the Democratic Party voted against her isn’t a rejection?

MADDOW: Two-thirds of the Democratic Party will have voted against all of the candidates if it comes in as a three-way tie, Chris. That’s the point.

The issue, if it comes out it’s a really close race, it’s going to be close heading into New Hampshire as well. And I think we discount that at our peril.

If Barack Obama, as you guys are projecting is going to be the winner, I think that’s the America we all want to live in. I think it’s an amazing day for the country and it’s great. I don’t know if it means that he gets the nomination ultimately, but it’s an exciting, historic day for the country.

OLBERMANN: Let me throw something in from the decision desk. Edwards and Clinton are in, just apropos what you’re saying, Rachel, a very tight race for second in the race for the state Democratic delegate equivalent. Those are the numbers we’re seeing so far.

And again, NBC News has projected, as you heard, Barack Obama as the winner of this Iowa caucus at 36 percent. Those other numbers are as close as you would suggest they would be, 31 percent and 31 percent.

MATTHEWS: But Howard—well, Rachel, I’ll go back to you so you can have a response here.

From the beginning of this year in the polling we’ve noticed that Hillary has been ahead of Obama all year. So she can’t claim to be somehow a comeback kid or someone who, you know, somehow never had a chance. She had a big chance in Iowa and she’s lucky to get second.

MADDOW: No, I think it may be a more comfortable place for her to be running from, to be able to say, I’m fighting for this, and to maybe play the gender card in a big way, to say we have got to fight in order to get a woman in the White House in a way that she couldn’t have played that way had she been in an inevitable front-runner. So, I mean, I think it’ll be real interesting to see how the Clinton campaign responds to this. They’re going to have to come up with something creative, but it’s not the worst position for her to be in.

Funny, I missed the PR this morning, from the Hillary camp, telling us how thrilled they are, going into New Hampshire in five days, from a third-place finish in Iowa.

And I didn't see Big Bill, on camera, extolling how coming in third-place in Iowa was the best strategic way for his wife to start off on getting the nomination.

It has been reported that Ms. Maddow has received a tryout from MSNBC (she's been appearing on the network with greater frequency the past few months), for a possible show, possibly replacing the He-Man, Tucker Carlson

If that is the case, please, someone at MSNBC, take away the HRC pom-poms before she goes on-air.