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I had pretty much given up on Meet The Press over the past few months. David Gregory has done a miserable job as host. While sometimes lame, Tim Russet’s “gotcha” questions at least used guests’ previous statements to hold their feet to the fire. Gregory’s hard questions for more often fall into the hackneyed “Some people say…” formulation that is one of the lamest, and laziest, tropes in American journalism. This also means that guests can spin away Gregory’s questions while Russert gave himself a simple but devastating follow-up, “Then why did you say that?”

Even during the Russert days, the second half of the show was the weaker. If you don’t know, it usually features a round table of journalists and pundits who debate and discuss the issues of the day. At best, this was boring and at worst, it was absurdly masturbatory as the same crew of commentators would parrot “conventional wisdom” and all sort of agree with each other while nodding sagely. Even when they disagreed they tended to just ignore what the other panelists were saying; any of them could blatantly lie and none of them would call them out on it. Someone more partisan than me would also point out that the vast majority of the commentators are older and lean conservative.

This morning, Rachel Maddow was a member of the round table along with usual suspects Mike Murphy, E.J. Dionne, David Brooks. Apparently Maddow has been on the show occasionally since April but this is the first time I have seen her. It was outstanding. She didn’t let the others get away with bland generalizations or generic spin, getting into their face with follow up questions and factual rebuttals. In the face of some honest debate, Muphy and Brooks rose to the occasion and reminded me that they are actually really smart guys. The discussion was civil – if at times heated – and, for political junkies like myself, fabulously entertaining.

I really hope that MTP continues to add more liberal and young commentators to these round tables. Maddow is great, but isn’t the only one out there. Ezra Klien, Matt Yglesias or Josh Marshall would all be great additions. Not only would I like to see more people who might represent my views, but seeing smart people debate issues is good television!