In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading/watching/listening to more reports about the economy since I was an econ major in college. So maybe my OOTW should really be economics/the financial disaster/WTF with the bailout plan, but really, that’s not as sexy as Rachel Maddow.

One of the people I’ve been listening to as she wades through the morass of financial/political news is MSNBC’s latest anchorwoman, who also just happens to be an out lesbian and a former Rhodes Scholar and a ham, to boot. This week AfterEllen.com published their most recent interview with Rachel Maddow, and in the interview, well, Maddow is just awesome. Here are some of the things she says:

On being out:

"I think that there is a moral imperative to be out, and I think that if you’re not out, you have to come to an ethical understanding with yourself why you are not. And it shouldn’t be something that is excused lightly. I don’t think that people should be forced out of the closet, but I think that every gay person, sort of, ought to push themselves in that regard. Because it’s not just you. It’s for the community and it’s for the country.”

On sexism:

“One specific thing that I think has been interesting in this campaign is the use of ‘sexism’ and ‘sexist’ as an epithet in completely inappropriate ways. …

I think that young women are smart and I think that one of the things that young women have been very good at is calling people on their anti-feminist bulls–t. So I look to young women for leadership in terms of pointing out the difference between being a woman and being a feminist."

On being forced to wear makeup on TV:

“I feel like in terms of what I look like, I’m working in a very visual medium for the first time in my life, and I’m just sort of trying to get by in terms of the basic, the minimum that I need to do visually in order to be allowed to be on television. And so I put on the suit, so that I can go on TV. I let the makeup ladies put makeup on me, which they do to their own satisfaction. I don’t pay much attention to it.”

Another reason I can’t get enough? She is a total ham. Watch her facial expression as she dissects McCain’s performance in the first presidential debate last week:

OK, I admit that sometimes Maddow talks so quickly and I’m so mesmerized by trying to figure out how much makeup they’ve forced upon her (the feminization of butch women is something that deeply annoys me), that I lose track of what she is saying. But you know what? I have a DVR and it automatically records whatever I’m watching. I do not mind rewinding so that I can watch it again.

And that really says something.