Mika's Do-Over

“She got the contract she wanted,” says Morning Joe executive producer Chris Licht. “Right away.”

Today, Brzezinski’s currency is at a peak because she’s not afraid to speak her mind. Nothing gets liberal blog-gers spewing more than when Brzezinski discusses another unconventional working mother, Sarah Palin, whom she’s described as “interesting,” “exciting” and “important.” “She works 150 percent and doesn’t have a shred of guilt,” Brzezinski says.

“Joe is extraordinary, but Mika makes him even better,” says Rick Kaplan, the current executive producer of CBS Evening News. “She gets under his skin. She is a catalyst for some of the show’s most interesting conversations.” And viewers feel a connection with her. As Dan Rather puts it, “Mika gets through the glass.”


MY DAY with Brzezinski winds down. When the red TV studio light goes off at nine AM, the cohosts—after three hours of banter and bickering—depart without a word to each other. Brzezinski clicks down the hall in her four-inch heels to her closet-size office, where she wiggles out of her skirt and into size 4 peg-leg jeans. Then she clicks back down the hall and onto an elevator, which she takes to a radio studio. There she eats two bowls of cornflakes. The two-hour Joe Scarborough Show with Mika Brzezinski starts at 10:00 sharp. She is back reading her BlackBerry.

I could not do this, I tell her—this being “on” for five hours straight, five days a week—all on less than five hours of sleep a night (she says that’s all she needs), cornflakes and BlackBerry drags. It wouldn’t matter if I had a fleet of nannies, housekeepers, assistants and stylists. I am two thirds of the way through just one of her mornings, and I feel skinned alive. “If I were trying to do it the way I used to, without enough support, I couldn’t either,” she answers. “I’d rather spend one good hour with my kids a day than eight bad ones. It’s called restraint, transfer-ring pow-er and control, and admitting what I’m not good at doing. I probably still couldn’t do this unless I loved it. But I really love my job. And I didn’t think this could happen again.”