Rachel's back on Monday.

[bunkerbuster1]

Maddow, that is.

I'd had a bad feeling about this, but David Bender, who's guest hosting, just announced that she'll be returning on Monday.

Which is news, I think--they weren't saying last night.

[napi21]

1. Oh for gooness sake! You're a worrywart! People DO take vacations!

This is the time of the year that most people TAKE vacations! Are you going to get paranoid when KO takes one too?

[bunkerbuster1]

2. No, I'm not paranoid. They didn't specify when she'd be back...

and given AAR's track record for disappearing on-air talent, I was a bit worried, yeah.

Also, she'd not talked about the time off except very obliquely, just before leaving. It seemed a bit odd.

[napi21]

3. Rachel is the top anchor for AAR and they know that! The only way she's

going to leave is if she get's the permanent show on MSNBC and doesn't have the time to do both radio and TV. AAR is NOT going to get rid of her!

[babylonsister]

4. KO's due for a vaca, too. I'll bet there's plans a foot for her to sit in

there, too. She's a valuable resource now.

[bunkerbuster1]

5. It had occurred that they might've been coy because of MSNBC

Generally, when the TV machine says "jump" Rachel's inclined to say "how high?"

And so maybe she'd planned on a day off, but wasn't sure if she'd need to do Countdown on monday or some other day next week.

Still, she's usually been pretty up front about possible absences due to the television machine obligations, in the past.