Rachel Maddow is Still The Smartest Lesbian on TV

Rachel Maddow is one of The Advocate's Women of the Year. View the full list from the current issue of the magazine.

There's never a bad time to watch Rachel Maddow -- or to read her.

The lesbian MSNBC host is especially essential in an election year. If you watch her ask the candidates incisive questions or deliver insightful commentary on the latest developments, you'll understand why Maddow's been called the smartest person on TV. Lisa Rogak's new book, Rachel Maddow: A Biography, also reminds us why.

Maddow's eponymous, Emmy Award-winning show has been going strong since 2008, when it was MSNBC's most successful launch to date, and she's also a fixture of debate and primary nights, when her analysis is always a highlight of the cable channel's postmortems.

Additionally, Maddow is an accomplished author, and her latest reminds us that White House scandals and outrageous rhetoric didn't start with Donald Trump.

In Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House, she and coauthor Michael Yarvitz note that Watergate wasn't the only scandal of Richard Nixon's administration -- Vice President Spiro Agnew was engaging in bribery and extortion, and he denounced the investigation into his crimes as a "witch hunt." Sound familiar?

Bag Man, out later this year, follows Drift, which examined why Americans seem to accept a perpetual state of war, and Blowout, a look at the relationship between corruption in the oil and gas industry and Russian interference in U.S. elections (now in audio).

For all her erudition, Maddow has an open and accessible manner, displaying her intellect matter-of-factly, just as she does with her identity -- on the air, she often mentions partner Susan Mikula as casually as any other host would mention a spouse. No wonder so many discerning viewers have welcomed Maddow into their homes.