Mirror, Mirror, Who is the Most Smug of them All?

by David Forsmark  •  Oct 26, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Cross-posted from NewsRealBlog.com

http://www.davidforsmark.com/2009/10/mirror-mirror-who-is-the-most-smug-of-them-all

I remember the first time I saw Rachel Maddow on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson show. As is my annoying (to the rest of my house full of normal people) habit, I was working on other things with the TV turned up, keeping up with political arguments, but not just vegging on the couch and devoting my full attention.

"Can you turn that off?" I asked my wife who was walking past the blaring tube, "I can't deal with Ron Reagan Junior's smug act right now."

She looked at me quizzically and said, "Umm, I'm pretty sure that's a woman…"

As we baseball coaches like to say—Good eye!

I was reminded of this the other night, when Chris Matthews hauled Ron Reagan Jr. out of obscure exile as an Air America radio host as his baffling choice to debate a true foreign policy expert, Frank Gaffney, on Dick Cheney's critique of the Obama foreign policy drift. Ben Johnson beat me to the punch (and Reagan to a pulp) on the substance of that appearance, here, hereand here, and Paul Cooper here. It was such an incredibly stupid 6 minutes of television, that I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds something else worth blogging about.

I had no idea that Reagan was on Air America—in fact, I was unsure it still existed. The last time Air America made national news it was circling the financial drain, and the last local news I heard was when Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow's husband, a founder of Air America and about 15 years her junior, was caught in a hotel with a 20 year-old hooker.

But then some eerie mirror images between the recent careers of "Ron" and "Rachel" struck me—how one seems to appear in just the place the other just vacated– and I began to wonder, are we being Tootsied?

Actor Dustin Hoffman's should-have-been-Oscar-winning performance

Let's examine the "evidence:"

While Ron's life story is a matter of (unfortunate) public record, "Rachel's" resume is at least partly made-up. From her profile on Discover the Networks:

In March 2004 Maddow was hired by the newly created Air America, where she hosted the program Unfiltered, along with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead. Maddow confesses that Air America had "no business" hiring her, and that she "forced" them into employing her by being tenacious and faking connections (Maddow's ex-girlfriend pretended she had been in Air America program host Al Franken's class at Harvard, and she brought him tapes of her broadcasts). By April 2005, Maddow had secured her own two-hour program, The Rachel Maddow Show, which in 2008 was expanded to a three-hour show.

Maddow characterizes her radio program as a "mixture of information, analysis and entertainment," featuring "commentary [that] can include parody songs and making fun of people, or, you know, ranting in my dungeon."

During the 2006 midterm election season, Maddow appeared as a regular panelist on the MSNBC television program Tucker (hosted by Tucker Carlson). Two years later, in January 2008, she became a political analyst for MSNBC, a position that earned her a spot as a panelist for the election-coverage program Race for the White House; she also began doing regular commentary on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. In August 2008, it was announced that Maddow would be replacing legal commentator Dan Abrams on MSNBC's prime-time 9 p.m. time slot.

So, what else in her resume is falsified? Who knows? Has anyone checked? Just asking.

Both have shuttled between Air America and MSNBC, appearing on one and disappearing from the other at about the same time.

Ron began disappearing from MSNBC just about the time that "Rachel" got her new gig, and his appearances were mainly on the Dan Abrams show that "Rachel" replaced. Ron's Air America radio show, began almost exactly one month after "Rachel's" air time was seriously cut back in favor of her new TV gig…

And, while Ron has made numerous MSNBC appearances, I can find no proof that he has ever appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show, (not as Ron, anyway).

Hey, all you "birthers," how about something new? Demand to see Rachel Maddow's birth certificate. I mean who knows how much of this life story is made up? Don't be satisfied with birth announcements, baby pictures, or just a county record. Demand to see the LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE. Maybe even baby footprints you can compare to the print marks in Ron's ballet slippers!

Now, I'm not seriously proposing a conspiracy here, (or am I?) or Mission Impossible rubber masks, but if thanks to the miracle of modern makeup effects, the next two pictures are both of Brad Pitt…

… I'm not sure I'll be convinced until I see Ron and Rachel both together on live TV.

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