EDGE: You use an audio clip of Rush Limbaugh saying ’Has anybody ever heard of Rachel Maddow’ on your show. How did that come about?

Rachel Maddow: I was on Joe Scarborough’s show on MSNBC, and he was trying to get me to condemn a Democrat who had compared what was going on in prisoner abuse with the ’just following orders’ defense that Nazis gave during the Second World War. I said, yes, I agree that Democrats shouldn’t make comparisons with Nazis when they’re talking about American politics; but I wasn’t just going to condemn Democrats for that; Republicans do it all the time. Rush Limbaugh still calls feminist ’femi-Nazis;’ and I used that as an example; and he took me to task on his radio show.

For clues about who might be next to get a show on MSNBC, viewers need not have looked further than “Countdown” earlier this month. For eight nights beginning just before the Fourth of July, Rachel Maddow, the host of a program on Air America, the liberal talk-radio network, served as a substitute for the vacationing Keith Olbermann.

“At some point, I don’t know when, she should have a show,” said Phil Griffin, hours before he was promoted on Wednesday to president of MSNBC. “She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.”

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