Howard Kurtz profiles MSNBC's "newest left hand," Rachel Maddow, whose new show premieres after the RNC on Monday, Sept. 8. This week and next, she plays the part of convention pundit from the left. "I know I don't look like everybody else on television," Maddow tells Kurtz. "I'm not that pretty. Women on television are over-the-top, beauty-pageant gorgeous. That's not the grounds on which I am competing. There's a basic threshold you have to cross: not looking like you're insulting. You ought to wear makeup, comb your hair."

Kurtz writes about Maddow's TV trajectory. In 2004, Maddow started appearing on CNN's Paula Zahn Now and later "landed an MSNBC contract as a regular guest for conservative host Tucker Carlson." When the deal ended, Maddow returned to CNN where she taped a pilot. MSNBC caught wind, and complained.

"If you're not going to marry me, I'm not going to stop dating," she told MSNBC execs. In January she was hired as a commentator and last week, got her own show.