The Semi-Permanent Pregnancy of Soledad O'Brien

Before I digest this morning's news, I have a bone to pick.

Soledad O'Brien has never been the brightest little fish in the sea but she used to be fairly tenacious in her MSNBC days. Since, however, she got "discovered", the woman tries never to go a full year without turning into a fat little sausage on TV before our very eyes.

Now, she's welcome, of course, to have as many children as she wants (I don't recall whether this is fat little sausage three or four in almost as many years), she's like that lovely excuse employers always put women through when interviewing.

How are we sure you aren't going to no more than take this position and then immediately go out on maternity leave? Yeah, I know. They aren't really supposed to ask this, but I think I rarely escaped an interview without the question posed.

Sometimes, I even understood why. When I worked in more traditional office settings, I was constantly covering for someone on maternity leave. Forget my evenings and weekends when someone got preggers. Forget overtime for doing so because, as the boss would always explain in exasperation, because he or she still had to pay the woman out on leave. The rest of us were just supposed to gleefully fill the void. I had one woman supervisor who would complain bitterly if she arrived back from maternity leave not already "in bloom" again.

When Soleduh.. er Soledad came over to CNN from MSNBC, I told everyone, "Just wait: she isn't going to make it a year without popping another one." She came onboard with CNN last July and here, at the end of June, she's in full sausage mode.

So CNN better find coverage because Soledad's going to be doing this A LOT. Her questions may not be worth shit on air, but she's very, very fertile.