Rachitude

By GottaLaff

—Photo: Ashton Worthington

Nobody needs to talk us down from this:

Mother Jones: You're TV's "It Girl." Why did your popularity take off so explosively?

Rachel Maddow: Two things happened. One, I opened up an umbrella factory at the start of monsoon season. The other thing was that Keith Olbermann's ratings are off the charts, so I have the best lead-in in cable news. I just hit the contextual lottery.

MJ: You've risen to fame critiquing the Bush administration. Will your show change without that foil?

RM: As if Fox News did really poorly with Bush in the White House? [...]

MJ: You're representing on a lot of different fronts: women, youngish people, gays and lesbians, lefties, Oxford PhDs, comic book enthusiasts...

RM: People who aren't conventionally attractive or a size zero, people with unruly hair. [...]

MJ: Speaking of mirrors, you changed your look a lot for TV. How was that handled?

RM: It wasn't at anybody else's encouraging. I wanted my appearance to not be the only thing people would pay attention to. So essentially I was seeking genericness.

MJ: Will women eventually be able to host a show and wear glasses?

RM: I'm not sure msnbc would stop me from wearing my glasses now if I wanted to. The problem is technical, in that the frames are cheap plastic and they reflect. [...]

MJ: Still, it's nice that you have a hipster sensibility. There's something so homogenized about the news on every level.

RM: Working in news is a homogenizing lifestyle—that's part of the problem. People say, "You seem too normal." Well, yeah, I've been in this industry for six weeks. Wait until I've been working 14-hour days and having no outside life for five years. [...]

MJ: But as the first lesbian talk-show news host...I don't know what title you'd use...

RM: It's a very small glass ceiling I've broken. [...] I'm in favor of outing when people have demonized or scapegoated gay people for their own public gain. I don't think just being a Republican is reason enough.

MJ: You've been an activist. Is being a journalist influenced by progressive values the same thing?

RM: No. Activism is setting a goal of something you would like to be different, and figuring out what would have to change to achieve that goal. [...] The only thing I'm trying to change in the world is to increase the amount of useful information in it. And entertainment, honestly.

MJ: Speak of your love of Pat Buchanan.

RM: Aww. Pat is a good debater, and I love that, and he has strong beliefs. He listens to people who disagree with him and he's not condescending. [...] And he knows a lot. You want to talk Watergate? He was there. You want to talk culture war? That was him. Southern strategy, comma, Buchanan. [...]

MJ: You're writing a book about the influence of politics on the US Military. How is it changing?

RM: My central thesis is that we need more politics in the military. This idea of "the foreign policy consensus" gave Congress an excuse to be hands-off about deploying armed forces for reasons that never got debated and were often scandalous when they came to light. The number of Iraq veterans who ran for Congress this year? Holy shit. To have the Democratic Party become the party of the veterans? There's a realignment happening at the urging of members of the military who are sick of being used.

MJ: Olbermann just renegotiated his contract for a reported $7.5 million a year. When do you get to renegotiate?

RM: For $7.5 million? Ha! It remains to be seen whether I'm a flash in the pan.

Go read the whole thing. It's Rachelicious.