And now we know the REAL reason MSNBC hired Rachel Maddow

Shortly after MSNBC announced last week -- which suddenly seems like last year -- that it had given Rachel Maddow her own show beginning Sept. 8, replacing "Verdict with Dan Abrams," Maddow and I had an amusing conversation to discuss the initial over-reaction to the announcement. But before I could post the interview (it's below), all hell broke loose.

For reasons known only to them, MSNBC's leading personalities chose the biggest media clustershag of the year to go after each other on live TV. Even if you've watched all the clips before, "The Daily Show's" treatment last night is worth at least a couple of watches. Jon Stewart's writers get extra points for assigning "Muppet Show" characters to each MSNBC personality:

While in the long run it's just as well that Olbermann and Matthews aren't permanently paired like Huntley-Brinkley -- "It's like watching a high school news team in action or something," observed Travis Fox -- for now I can't imagine MSNBC chief Phil Griffin is completely unhappy to see all this on-air sniping. He told Politico yesterday that that's what you get when you "hire smart people who are passionate about their love of politics and love of news."

That's true, Phil. But you just hired a very smart and passionate person who also plays nice and doesn't even yell at Pat Buchanan. And who happens to be a female.

And now, all of that analysis about Maddow's hiring seems even dumber than it did last week. The idea that one woman will cause the cable news world to cross the tipping point into one of intractable, hopeless and regrettable partisanship was knocked down by the always-incisive Glenn Greenwald .

And now we know there's something much worse than partisanship on TV -- one-upsmanship on TV. Which is why I'm sure the folks at MSNBC can't wait until Maddow is running her own show. Despite her super-smart credentials (Stanford, Oxford), she doesn't give off a smarter-than-thou vibe at all. She's easy on the eyes and the ears. She is, in short, the perfect antidote to MSNBC's testosterone imbalance.

Anyway, here's my talk with Maddow, which doesn't reflect the dustups in Denver. She discusses what the format of "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC will be like and has an amusing take on those stories written about her hiring:

Rachel Maddow - interviewed 8-22-2008 (MP3)

Highlights of our talk:

• Rachel thanks me for getting her a TV show.
• Rachel says you can be funny and confrontational without being mean or cruel.
• Rachel will work hard to get the "Countdown" crowd to keep watching.
• That said, Rachel will choose stories that reflect her interests, as fans of her radio show already know. SHe predicts a "high story count" to her show. She will talk to one guest at a time.

Disclaimer: I am currently trying to take as much credit as possible for the rise of Rachel Maddow. I wrote the first profile of her in a non-LGBT publication, and I made this podcast with her, then I used this followup to talk about demographics and MSNBC and why Maddow could help the news channel get even younger.