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" In 2006, CBS News correspondent Mika Brzezinski was abruptly fired, along with several other CBS staffers, ostensibly to accommodate Katie Couric&amp;#039;s estimated $15 million-a-year salary. But Brzezinski has pulled off a second act, this time as cohost of cable&amp;#039;s hottest political confab, MSNBC&amp;#039;s Morning Joe. Here, the 43-year-old mother of two dissects her unlikely comeback, her blunt views on family and career, and why for years she couldn&amp;#039;t get a raise to save her life.   MC: You&amp;#039;ve described your dismissal from CBS as &amp;quot;pretty ugly.&amp;quot; What did you take away from that experience?  MB: It felt like a divorce\u2014many of the people I worked with fell off the face of the earth the moment my tide had turned. I now keep a very small cluster of people at MSNBC whom I will take care of\u2014whom I trust will probably, but not definitely, take care of me, too.  MC: Was it hard to transition to being a full-time mom?  MB: I cried a lot. One night, I told my husband [reporter Jim Hoffer], &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m almost 40, I&amp;#039;m losing my looks, and I can&amp;#039;t get a job because I feel like damaged goods. How did I become such a clich\u00E9?&amp;quot; But I was making myself the clich\u00E9 by trying to get the same job I&amp;#039;d had. If you&amp;#039;re meant to be somewhere, you do whatever it takes. I came to MSNBC as a freelance reporter, for a job I would have laughed at 15 years ago, at a 10th of the salary. But it was work.  MC: After landing at Morning Joe, you made headlines when, on air, you refused to read an item about Paris Hilton. Have you ever regretted taking a stand?  MB: I have regretted not taking those moments. What I did touched a chord and permanently sealed our voice as a show. If you live to keep everyone else happy, you may never find out your true potential.  MC:What about your potential? You&amp;#039;re playing second fiddle to your cohost Joe Scarborough. Don&amp;#039;t you want Katie Couric&amp;#039;s job?  MB: Everyone at CBS was like, &amp;quot;You need to do 60 Minutes, anchor the evening news.&amp;quot; But I remembered when I was doing local news, I was a great coanchor because I would lift up the guy next to me. You have to know your strengths. For me, it&amp;#039;s being a supporting player. Women are so busy trying to prove they can do anything, but we&amp;#039;re there now, so it&amp;#039;s OK to make those choices.  MC:You encourage women to plan for a family early, like you did\u2014married at 26, kids shortly after. But what about our careers?  MB: I don&amp;#039;t want to impose rules on people, but you have only a short window, and you&amp;#039;re sorely mistaken if you think you can put off having a family. It&amp;#039;s very hard to find a good man, and it&amp;#039;s never a &amp;quot;good time&amp;quot; to have a baby if you have a career. Plus, someone who is rabidly ambitious and holds off on family\u2014it doesn&amp;#039;t come off as that smart. You just know that a woman who has her own life and is raising children really has her act together.   MC: Your book Knowing Your Value (out in April) discusses how women undersell themselves at the negotiating table. Has that been your experience?  MB: My salary situation at Morning Joe wasn&amp;#039;t right. I made five attempts to fix it, then realized I&amp;#039;d made the same mistake every time: I apologized for asking. Also, I didn&amp;#039;t really know my value, so I didn&amp;#039;t know what to ask for. It&amp;#039;s not a critique of MSNBC paying me unfairly. I put the blame squarely on myself.   MC: Are you being paid what you&amp;#039;re worth now?  MB: There&amp;#039;s always more money to be made. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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