Please, Martin — DON'T BRING HER BACK!

Meghan McCain, that is. What is it about these Republican Gen-X women and their HIDEOUS valley girl accents? Meghan is right out of central casting; the way she bobbled her head and rolled her eyes as the segment ended on an anti-Republican note was classic. Why do the suits think this is compelling political commentary? Is Martin forced by NBC News President Steve Capus to book these Republicans, deliberately turning off his core audience? Okay, I understand, her dad went through it, but she was a kid and doesn't remember a thing. Oops.

Does Capus really believe we don't know MSNBC's dirty little secret: That all of its high profile Republican hires for this election cycle — Michael Steele, Steve Schmidt, Meghan McCain — are Romney Republicans? So much so that in a slip of the tongue "team player" Chris Matthews asked two of them to remove their partisan Romney hats and put on their "analyst" hats. Not exactly Howard Fineman and Gene Robinson territory. This, quite apart from Moron Joe and Willie The Wingnut, et al, S.E. Cupp (she's cute, sexy frames, proper diction, we'll take her), Ron Christie, some asshole named Boris, Republican Establishment faux jounalist Mark (Obama's 'a dick') Halperin, Susan Page, who doesn't even try to mask her pro-Romney bias, the POLITICO gaggle of idiot pundits, GQ man about town Jonathan 'el Bloomberg centrista' Capehart, and we might as well call MSNBC the "Romney Establishment Republican channel."

Keep in mind, the infinitely annoying crazy libertarian Dylan Ratigan was excluded; only because I believe he's well intentioned and possibly redeemable, as are some others like Jonathan and his basketball buddies. Also, Dylan's borderline insane, which makes him interesting, in spurts. Martin seems to like Dylan and seems to exert a positive influence on him. Then there's the 1,000 pound elephant in the room, Steve Capus, who intervened disgracefully to tamp down reports of Romney's clumsy 'code language dog whistle' racist line in Iowa New Hampshire, used with exceeding skill by Gingrich in the debates — 'here's how it's done, Mitt,' he seemed to be saying — as President Carter noted, "the subtlety of racism" in Newt's language to a racist audience. It was clear and unambiguous, unlike MSNBC's clumsy reporting of racism in the Republican Party with a plethora of strange and insulting euphemisms by on-camera commentators to describe 'racism' and 'racist'.

Which begs the question, are there now seven words PLUS one that cannot be uttered in certain broadcast networks? Or, regarding Capus, as Donald Trump would famously say ... ? Too bad we can't recall Steve Capus. Martin, happy birthday! You're one of the good guys and, from this perspective, one of the accidental treasures at MSNBC. I hope they'll find a role for Martin Bashir in the special election coverages coming up, if a producer with brains and influence can be made to see the obvious.