[See NewsBusters for more.] Rachel Maddow on Thursday earned a rare interview with Harry Reid, offering the Senate Minority Leader softball questions on the need for more women in Congress. Yet, the same woman who, in the past, has railed against "McCarthyism," failed to challenge the high profile Democrat on his baseless, guilty-until-proven-innocent smear against Mitt Romney. In 2012, with zero evidence, Reid accused the presidential candidate of not paying taxes and demanded that Romney debunk the accusation. Maddow has previously assailed Fox News as a "McCarthyite chamber of horrors" and proclaimed on her show that Joe McCarthy's charges represented the worst in America. On Thursday, however, she avoided Reid's witch hunt and offered queries such as this one: "Should we think of Nevada as a blue state going forward in national politics or is it influx?"
. Eric Scheiner
. Curtis Houck
