Kurtz Profiles Mika: Resisting Liberal Label?

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Howard Kurtz features Mika Brzezinski in his WaPo Media Notes column this morning.  Between a book deal and the syndication of her new radio show with Morning Joe partner Joe Scarborough, Brzezinski has become a hot media property of late.

The column reveals some interesting bits about Brzezinski, including the fact that she was unceremoniously let go at CBS upon the advent of Katie Couric.  But it's the discussion of her liberalism or alleged lack thereof that might be of most interest to NewsBusters readers.  On the one hand, Kurtz quotes Mika as saying: "I've been in a box as a journalist for 20 years.  That is a very safe and lazy place to be. You can hide behind objectivity. It is much harder to put yourself out there."

On the other, Kurtz dredges up Brzezinski's too-familiar dodge when accused of being a liberal [emphasis added]:

While their sparring clearly puts Brzezinski to the left of Scarborough, a onetime GOP lawmaker from Pensacola, Fla., she tries to resist being typecast as a liberal. She demurred when John McCain, during a September appearance, called her a "supporter" of Barack Obama. Brzezinski likes to point out that one of her brothers provided foreign policy advice to the McCain campaign and the other to the Obama team.

As I like to point out whenever Brzezinski seeks to hide behind her brother, that he's a Republican is as irrelevant as the fact my two sisters are Massachusetts liberals.

The column also reveals how Joe Scarborough made the case to MSNBC boss Phil Griffin to make Mika his Morning Joe partner, apparently overcoming considerable skepticism before prevailing.

My two cents: the Scarborough-Brzezinski chemistry works. And the show is heavy on substance: "no cooking, no lingerie, no missing girls," as Kurtz quotes Brzezinski as boasting.  Couple that with the show's ability to attract top-level guests and keep them on long enough to get beyond the sound bites, and Morning Joe is, IMHO, must-see TV for political junkies of all stripes.

Now, if Mika would just open tomorrow's show with an Ellen DeGeneresesque hot mic and announce "I'm liberal!"