Rachel Maddow wound up in the guest seat on her own show Wednesday night when Glee actress Jane Lynch took over the show, leading a “Best New Thing in the World” segment about gay rights and politics. That “thing,” she said, was a source of revenue Republicans haven’t yet tapped: there’s money to be made promoting gay rights.

Rachel Maddow took on Fox News on Tuesday night for promoting a story about President Barack Obama having a sort of enemies list with which he’s targeted private citizens. Specifically, related to one Frank Vandersloot who’s been on Fox recently, discussing how the Obama campaign’s mention on him in a blog post has essentially smeared him, affecting his business. Vandersloot is also Mitt Romney’s national finance co-chair.

As much as the Mitt Romney campaign wants to keep the election focused on jobs and the economy, this entire week was just dominated by gay marriage, one of the most divisive social issues in the country. From Joe Biden‘s endorsement of gay marriage to North Carolina’s anti-civil unions measure to President Obama finally completing his evolution, Maddow noted that this has probably been the gayest week in Romney’s entire life.

In February, Rachel Maddow declared PolitiFact effectively dead. On Thursday, Maddow (who’s been feuding with the site for a while now) revisited that remark, and noted that PolitiFact does indeed live — but it’s far from a good thing. Far from accurate fact-checking, Maddow said, the effort is essentially changing the meaning of the word “fact.”

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow paid a visit to the Today show Thursday morning, where she spoke about President Barack Obama voicing his support for same-sex marriage.

“I think that symbolic value is hard to see in the moment,” Maddow said when asked what, if anything, has actually changed after the President’s comments.

In light of President Obama‘s public support of gay marriage, Barney Frank joined Rachel Maddow on her show Wednesday. Frank came out, while serving in Congress, 25 years ago — and has voiced that the president’s lack of endorsement of same-sex marriage was a problem. When the president speaks out, he said, it “moves us a little further.”

At a Commonwealth Club event in April, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow discussed why conservative media outlets are so much more successful than its liberal competitors.

Unlike her conservative competitors, Maddow explains, “I try not to imagine my audience being people who already agree with me. I, in fact, try to imagine a Republican audience.”

Rachel Maddow introduced a segment with an acronym on Tuesday: IOKIYAR. Meaning: It’s OK If You Are a Republican. Using this premise, Maddow highlighted what she perceived to be hypocrisy from the critics who accused President Obama of politicizing the anniversary of Osama bin Laden‘s death by campaigning on the accomplishment (saying Mitt Romney wouldn’t have made the same call).

Following Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner, MSNBC threw one hell of an afterparty, and all they asked in return was for a few of the attendees to name the blog they thought would be most influential during this election. Alas, in a display of characteristic media narcissism, many took the opportunity to pimp their own outlets’ online offerings, which, even when there’s a strong case to be made, is kinda bad form. Most egregiously, none got the answer right.

On the heels of her tête-à-tête with Republican strategist Alex Castellanos over the facts of pay equity on Sunday’s Meet The Press, Rachel Maddow doubled down on her argument during her MSNBC program Monday, this time, with CNN’s fact-check team on her side.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC, CNN contributor Alex Castellanos and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow engaged in a heated debate over the reasons behind gender inequality and salary discrepancies in the work place. On Monday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and reporter Lisa Sylvester fact-checked the debate and found that Maddow was on the correct side of their argument.

Washington, DC is often referred to as “Hollywood for ugly people,” but for at least one night of the year, we are Cinderella, and Hollywood’s collective Prince Charming stalks us with a glass slipper (and a Walking Dead-style hoarde of photographers). In recent years, the White House Correspondents Dinner (or “Nerdprom,” as the so-uncool-they’re-cool kids call it) has become a feast for celeb-watchers and wonk-worshippers alike, and this year was no exception. Mediaite takes you behind the scenes of the blenders where they all mix, the pre- and post-parties.

One of the main attractions of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner is the extracurricular WHCD party time, whose appeal can be summed up in two words: open bar. On that count, it’s tough to beat the MSNBC afterparty, where, for the past few years, the network’s primetime pillar, Rachel Maddow, has moonlit as Rachel Maddow: International Mixologist of Mystery. This year, Mediaite takes you there to see Rachel show off her mad martini skillz.

Rachel Maddow sat in on today’s Meet the Press panel to talk about the importance of the women’s vote in the 2012 election and the ongoing “War on Women,” which is a totally real thing and not something being overplayed by both sides to hyperbolize serious economic and gender issues. When Maddow tried to point to disparities in pay between the genders, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos called her out on it in such a way that Maddow found his tone incredibly condescending.

Even though Rick Santorum is out of the presidential race, his words continue to reverberate throughout the minds of voters. And in the halls of MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow has been hammering away at Santorum for his claim that universities in California do not teach American history, despite the fact that they, in fact, do. Then she revealed that Santorum himself had actually sent her a message personally to clarify what he meant.

Rachel Maddow paid a visit to The Wendy Williams Show on Wednesday, continuing the promotion of her book Drift. In addition to the book, Maddow also talked about how she came out during college and, er, Ice Loves Coco.

On Tuesday, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show bested both CNN’s Piers Morgan and HLN’s Drew Pinsky in combined demo ratings and total viewership. Maddow scored an impressive 221,000 demo viewers, more than any other MSNBC show on Tuesday night.

MSNBC’s Alex Witt‘s show, Weekends, carries the same relaxed weekend vibe of the shows that precede her– Up with Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry, and to enhance the casual feel of the show, she often finds her weekday colleagues buttoned down and asks about the issues in their home offices. In today’s segment of “Office Politics,” she sat down with Rachel Maddow to talk about candidates and their families, a subject Maddow insisted should be as off-limits as possible.