Can you imagine Chris Matthews (or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly) inviting a guest on his show to talk about the impending Bush administration rule that could severely limit access to birth control, sterilization and abortion? Um…no. So thank goodness for Rachel Maddow, the Air America Radio host who recently got her own show on MSNBC. On Tuesday night, Maddow interviewed Princeton University professor and reproductive rights advocate Melissa Harris-Lacewell about the rule that has health care providers (and the incoming Secretary of State) so pissed off.

RH Reality Check has a full transcript and video.

Also, we have Campbell Brown to thank for taking Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to task over some comments he made about Janet Napolitano not having a family and thus a life, all of which makes her a good pick to lead the Homeland Security Department in his view. Rendell made the comments when he thought his microphone was off. Here are some of Brown’s best points:

1. If a man had been Obama’s choice for the job, would having a family or not having a family ever even have been an issue? Would it have ever prompted a comment? Probably not. We all know the assumption tends to be that with a man, there is almost always a wife in the wings managing those family concerns.

2. As a woman, hearing this, it is hard not to wonder if we are counted out for certain jobs, certain opportunities, because we do have a family or because we are in our child-bearing years. Are we? It is a fair question.

3. If you are a childless, single woman with suspicions that you get stuck working holidays, weekends and the more burdensome shifts more often than your colleagues with families, are those suspicions well-founded? Probably so. Is there an assumption that if you’re family-free then you have no life? By some, yes.

Again Gov. Rendell, I don’t mean to rake you over the coals. I know what you meant to say. But your comments do perpetuate stereotypes that put us in boxes, both mothers and single women.

Here’s the CNN video so you can check it out for yourself: