Although I do not always agree with her I do enjoy watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC from time to time. I find her clever and often entertaining but sometimes I think she goes a bit over edge in her criticism of those she disagrees with and since she likes to call people when they step over the line I see no reason to not do the same with her.

On some of her recent shows she has had a couple of central themes, the first being that she is unhappy over the fact that Republicans seem reluctant to come on her show, the second being a condemnation of the GOP for whatever mistake she says they have made that particular day. At the risk of pointing out the obvious I would suggest that perhaps the two items are connected, though that is not the real purpose of this posting.

About a week or so ago she was interviewing Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty about the stimulus package and the fact that many in the GOP had opposed the package as passed by Congress. She questioned the Governor about whether or not he should accept money from a package he opposed.

Mr. Pawlenty responded with a couple of points, both quite accurate in my opinion. The first was that while he was troubled by the version of the stimulus passed by Congress this did not mean he opposed the concept of stimulus in general. He simply felt that it should have been structured differently and had it been smaller and more targeted he would have supported it.

He also pointed out that taxpayers in Minnesota send billions of dollars to Washington in taxes so it only seemed reasonable for them to get something back in exchange. Like many states (including my own California), Minnesota sends more money out that it gets back so he felt it was proper for him to take the money.

Ms. Maddow did not seem to be convinced and continued to press the governor for some sort of concession, which was not forthcoming, much to her disappointment. However her speculation that  opposition to a proposal meant that you could not benefit from that proposal got me to thinking about some of the things Rachel Maddow has opposed over recent months and years.

Like most on the liberal side of the fence she was opposed to the ‘Bush Tax Cuts’ and to the tax cut portions of the current stimulus package. By the argument she proposed to Governor Pawlenty, should she not be unable to avail herself of any recent tax reductions ? Indeed if she is opposed to tax cuts in general, or at least tax cuts for those at her current income level, then should she not send extra money to Washington to pay ‘her fair share’ ?

Needless to say I do not expect her to adopt this position, nor do I think that she should be taking this position. I think that it is perfectly reasonable for someone to take principled stands on topics and to then accept whatever the law is as passed by Congress and to act accordingly. But it might be interesting for someone to make this suggestion to her.

And as far as finding Republicans to come on her show, we may not be politicians or celebrities, but I think we might have a few at least nominal Republicans around TMV who would be willing to take her up on an invitation.