Published at 7:00 AM on October 2, 2009

Mad for Maddow: The Very Best of Rachel Maddow

Mad for Maddow: The Very Best of Rachel Maddow

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About a year and a month ago, Air America radio host Rachel Maddow decided to dabble in television commentary. After several months already spent as an MSNBC political analyst, and with a little help from her BFF Keith Olbermann, Maddow was ready to hit the big time: her very own TV show! In the year since her debut, she's already become one of the biggest names in the cable news biz. What's the secret behind her popularity? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that her show is, you know, good. Mixing a fiery brand of politics with her idiosyncratic humor and keen intellect has yielded one of the smartest, funniest and most insightful news shows on cable. And you may not agree with some of her opinions, but it's hard to fault her conviction and enthusiasm. She's had a lot of great moments so far; here's Maddow at her very best.

1. The Tom Ridge interview
The video below is the last few minutes of a lengthy, hard-hitting interview with the former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge. Rachel infers from Ridge's book that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence and the terrorism threat level to gin up political support, especially for the war with Iraq. Ridge contends that the administration acted in good faith, claiming their pre-war intelligence was faulty. They might not come to an agreement in the end, but the debate is done in a supremely civil and respectful tone - a real breath of fresh air from the usual windbags of the cable news circus:



2. Taking Pat Buchanan to the woodshed
Much hay was made of then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's "wise latina" comment, and leading the charge was erstwhile presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan. Buchanan attacked her as an "affirmative action candidate," but not content with one foot-in-mouth comment, he decided to go on Rachel's show and defend himself, to disastrous and quasi-racist results. You can almost see the metaphoric torch being passed between generations:



3. Rachel Maddow, mixologist
So in addition to her whip-smart political acumen, she can also mix a mean cocktail and wax rhapsodic about apple whiskey. As if our collective crush on her couldn't get any bigger:



4. The interview with Lt. Dan Choi
Just because she's über-liberal doesn't mean she walks in lockstep with Obama. While conservatives haven't had much trouble criticizing the president lately, Rachel is often one of the scant few liberal voices doing the same, as she does here for Obama's refusal to end the armed forces' "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, contrary to campaign promises. Rachel conducts a piercing interview with Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Lieutenant in the New York National Guard who wasn't allowed to serve his country solely because of his sexual orientation:



5. That word: I do not think it means what you think it means
Rachel and Ana Marie Cox (AKA Wonkette) have a couple of tongue-in-cheek (and hilarious) yuks at anti-tax protestors' proud embrace of "teabagging":



6. The "don't say 'gay' debates" 
Vintage Maddow, circa mid-2007. Maddow, herself the first openly-gay anchor hired to host a primetime news show, does some frank and insightful riffing on the state of gay politics in America, and what she dislikes about it:



7. Laura Tyson and the conflict of interest
Late last year Maddow ran a segment with Dr. Laura Tyson discussing the bank bailouts and the economy, while failing to note the glaring conflict of interest of Tyson serving on the board of Morgan Stanley. You see, Morgan Stanley received money from the government as part of TARP, so it's not surprising that Tyson would offer a full-throated defense of the bailout bill. The very next day, Maddow apologized to her audience. Great journalistic ethics, and pure class:




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