msnbc’s Rachel Maddow visited the Late Show on Wednesday night to lay the groundwork on the upcoming party conventions that she says are like weeks of Christmas for political wonks like herself.
“It’s these big, kinda pointless, pageants about what the parties stand for, but at least they get overt about it,” Maddow joked to Late Show host David Letterman.
And with the convention as Mitt Romney’s breakout opportunity to coalesce his party behind his campaign, Maddow talked about what to expect from the chatter over the elusive contents of GOP candidate's tax returns.
The last time he asked voters to trust him on his taxes was on whether or not he met Massachusetts’ residency requirements while running for governor. That one caught him up in a lie, Maddow explained. And rather than go through a deja vu on getting caught in a lie, she expects Romney to keep up his story by not releasing any more returns.
“I think that he’ll never release them. When he had that experience in 2002, he said, ‘trust me,’ and he got caught lying about his tax returns,” Maddow said. “He thought, ‘you know what? They still elected me. I got away with it then. I’ll get away with it now.’”
Of course Maddow and Letterman addressed the dust storm kicked up by Rep. Todd Akin for his claims on “legitimate rape” and the subsequent calls for him to terminate his campaign for Missouri's U.S. Senate seat.
“I say, let the guy stay in—we can handle idiots,” Letterman quipped.
But as Maddow pointed out, the only person not calling on Akin to step aside is his Democratic opponent: Sen. Claire McCaskill.
"He was her hand-picked opponent," Maddow said. "She ran ads essentially begging Republicans, 'Please pick Todd Akin. Please pick this guy.'"
Akin's almost inevitable "self-destruction" came sooner than Maddow expected, but as Letterman noted, he's not the first politician to get caught making "dumb" comments.
"I just say, the dumb will take care of themselves," Letterman said.
"Dumb is its own cure?" Maddow joked.
"It's from the Bible," Letterman concluded. "The dumb will take care of themselves."