Rachel Maddow reads Rick Warren

Apparently I haven't done a good enough job sharing the wonder and glory that is Rachel Maddow with the guys at AfterElton.com, as she did not win — despite my passionate campaigning on her behalf — as the site's favorite lesbian.

I admit I love her for her butchy adorableness and world-class mind, but her politics aren't bad, either. Take, for instance, Friday's episode of her show over on MSNBC, where she sliced, diced, skewered, and eviscerated the choice of celebrity anti-gay preacher Rick Warren to pray at Barack Obama's inauguration next month.

Details and the video clip, after the jump.

Rick Warren: Just because it seems natural doesn't mean it's best for you or society. I'm naturally inclined to have sex with every beautiful woman I see, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. And why should I rein in my natural impulses? And you say, well, because I have natural impulses toward the same sex, I shouldn't have to rein 'em in; well, I disagree. I think that's part of maturity. I think it's part of delayed gratification. I think it's part of character.

Rachel Maddow: See, if you can just wait long enough for that gay gratification, eventually you might be able to delay away the gay. Maybe. Keep talking, sir; you are making the job of making the case against you so much easier.

She goes on to quote Andrew Sullivan and John Aravosis — just a little silky subversion, since both men are prominent political bloggers who have the gay themselves:

Andrew Sullivan at the website of The Atlantic magazine took note today that Warren's church runs a group aimed at curing gay people of 'the gay." Ask responsible mental health professionals and they'll tell you that's quackery....

And she quotes Aravosis as saying gay people can't even belong to Warren's oh-so-famous mega-church, or, to quote the church's website, "Someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member of Saddleback Church."  Comments Rachel:

This means Barack Obama has just asked that the spiritual clarion call at his swearing in should be delivered by a man who will not allow 'unreptentant' gay people to join his chruch. Whose church runs a program, in fact, to try to 'cure' gays, who says gay relationships are the equivalent to child molestation and incest.

The common political wisdom is that this invitation to Rick Warren can't possibly be rescinded. No! Obama has plighted his troth with Rick Warren. And people who don't think gay relationships are like incest and that gay people can be cured? They should just endure. Get over it. Rick Warren's gonna be the invocation speaker, okay?"

That is the common political wisdom here, but I think the people who make up common political wisdom are maybe underestimating the anger of the gay community here, and the national liberal and centrist regret specifically about Proposition 8 in California.

She says they also seem to have forgotten Jeremiah Wright. In addition to Obama's eventual repudiation of his former pastor during his presidential campaign, he also rescinded an invitation he made to Wright to pray at the announcement of his candidacy.

Hmmm, she says again; "Didn't want a distraction on an important day for Obama. Hmmm. So, is it really truly politically impossible that Rick Warren's invocation invitation will be rescinded?"

I don't know. All I know is Rachel Maddow dishes out some uncommonly good political wisdom. I'm glad she's playing for our team. 

There's plenty more in the clip: