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Snark of the Day: Maureen Dowd
2011-11-09 23:28:00 Like the Roman Catholic Church, Penn State is an arrogant institution hiding behind its mystique. And sports, as my former fellow sports columnist at The Washington Star, David Israel, says, is “an insular world that protects its own, and operates outside of societal norms as long as victories and cash continue to flow bountifully.” Penn State rakes in $70 million a year from its football program. Paterno was still practicing for the game against Nebraska on Saturday, and supportive students were rallying at his house. This is what Israel calls “the delusion that the ability to win football games indicates anything at all about your character or intelligence other than that you can win football games.” Maureen Dowd, New York Times. Link to this post!
By: BitsBlog
Maureen Dowd: A Degraded State of Intelligent Discourse
2010-04-15 19:28:00 -By Warner Todd Huston I don't write about Maureen Dowd simply because she rarely offers anything worthy of serious, intellectual discussion. I don't claim any sort of high intellect for myself, of course, and don't necessarily claim to be able to thoroughly judge the work of the deepest of thinkers but Dowd's work is like the old saying about pornography in as much as when it comes to stupid prattle I know it when I see it. Breaking my own no-Mo-Dowd rule, though, her April 10 column must be singled out as a prime example of just how silly, inconsequential, and, well, stupid Mo Dowd really is. In it she equated Radical, oppressive, dangerous Islam to today's Catholic Church as...
Why isn?t Maureen Dowd preening any more about the absolute ?moral authorit
2009-08-21 08:23:00 Maybe because she wrote those words in 2005 when Cindy Sheehan was protesting outside George W. Bush’s vacation retreat in Crawford, Texas. Now that Mrs. Sheehan intends to camp out near Barack Obama’s summer retreat in Martha’s Vineyard, her political theater can no longer serve, to borrow John Hinderaker’s expression, as “a vehicle to return ...
By: GayPatriot
Maureen Dowd Might Have Some Liberals Up In Arms Over A Lot Of Things, But
2009-03-09 02:03:00 Question Of The Day: Can President Obama’s First Lady Out Arm Wrestle Him? Oh, yeah — she’s got style and she’s got some “daunting” (NYT — Maureen Dowd) biceps, too. According to Ms. Dowd, Obama insiders were at one point, tossing hints to the First Lady... This is only a comment summary. Visit http://guntotingliberal.com to view the lastest content complete with some of the most outrageous original photoshops in the political blogosphere!
NYT Maureen Dowd Kicked Off McCain?s Campaign Plane: He?s ?Dismissive of 1s
2008-10-02 17:36:00 -By Warner Todd Huston Well, I guess the McCain campaign really did get tough on the New York Times. Yesterday, leftist columnist Maureen Dowd was told she was no longer welcome on McCain’s campaign plane and had to go home with her tail between her legs. Tim McNulty of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that Mo’s ...
By: Publius Forum
DNC: Seems Like A Good Time To Be Peddling Valium In The Mile-High City
2008-08-28 01:14:00 First Former Black Co-President Bill Clinton To Take The Stage Tonight — Will He Behave? Buried down somewhere under hundreds of words of pontification, Maureen Dowd, in her New York Times Op-Ed piece today, Ms. Dowd eventually mentions our former co-president will be taking the stage... This is only a comment summary. Visit http://guntotingliberal.com to view the lastest content complete with some of the most outrageous original photoshops in the political blogosphere!
Snark of the Day: Maureen Dowd
2008-05-25 23:22:00 “[Mrs. Clinton] has a history of covering up her own mistakes behind sexism.” Maureen Dowd, via Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters. Copyright © 2008 BitsBlog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact feedback@florack.us so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana Technorati Tags: Maureen Dowd, Mrs. Clinton, Noel Sheppard BitsBlog Tags: BitsBlog, Mrs. Clinton, Maureen Dowd, Hillary Clinton, Snark of the day Related posts Paglia on Hillary Clinton (1) MoDo: It’s about Bill (0) MoDo distances herself from Mrs. Clinton (1) Breakfast Scramble (0) You don’t have to stupid to support Mrs. Clinton, but it helps (0) Yet more Clinton lies (0) Will the Clintons now start trashing Daniel Patrick Moynihan (0) Where’s the courage Mrs. Clinton? (0) What experience Mrs. Clinton? (0) What ch...
By: BitsBlog
Play Misty For Me
2008-05-21 16:59:00 "Put yourself in the place of [Clinton]: You?ve gone out there and made a thousand speeches, and you?ve shaken a million hands and you?ve been out there working your ass off. And then somebody comes up and says, ?Why don?t you just drop out of it??? PoliticoNYT's Maureen Dowd consults her invisible friend and divines an imaginary smackdown between Hillary and Obama. Hillary: Once Harold Ickes works his dark magic on the delegate rules to count Michigan and Florida, I?ll have the popular vote. And then the superdelegates will grovel back. They know in their hearts that they don?t want to go on a blind date with a guy who?s going to be BFF with Cuba, Hamas, Iran and retired Weathermen. You can bet your white turban that I?m not raising the white flag.? NYTOregon put Obama over the magic pledged delegates number. NYT
By: Chickaboomer
Terrytoons
2008-05-11 15:20:00 Hillary delusional pimp Terry McAullife: "If Big Russ was looking down at us having a scotch, he'd say nothing's impossible, and so would Jack McAuliffe." Tim Russert: "Big Russ is still sitting in the Barcalounger." Superficial manic Terry's crawl up Tim's ass backfired. He had no idea Tim's father was still on the planet.... "Was Buffalo out of it when they were down 39 points?" McAuliffe bombed on "Meet The Press" recycling the same tedious Hillary's The One spin. Is he on drugs? I'd bet cocaine. Appealing to Tim's love of his Buffalo Bills: "Was Buffalo out of it when they were down 39 points?" Clinton: I'll Go All The Way" NYP "Hillary Clinton Is One Sorry Sight On Her Way To Defeat" NYDN "Spoiler Clintonites Ruining A Fun Party" Peggy Noonan NYP "Illegal $115 G For Her Run" NYP "Michelle Vetoes Hillary" Robert Novak Real Clear Politics "Is She A Trojan Rabbit?" Maureen Dowd NYT
By: Chickaboomer
MSM Worries About Obama?s Elitism and Out of Touch Image
2008-05-06 13:16:00 Maureen Dowd is perplexed: How can Barack Obama, who grew up with a poor, single mother, keep appearing to be the black John Kerry, an effete Ivy Leaguer, out of touch with the ordinary voter? In her mind, it?s all the problem of a low class black kid have overlearned his lesson when he was ...
By: Webloggin
Done Dribbling, Obama Shoots
2008-04-30 15:28:00 Does Rev. Jeremiah Wright have a brand new off-shore bank account in the Caymans? I wouldn't put it past the corrupt Clinton machine to grease Wright's retired pastor palms. The NYDN reported yesterday that a Hillary supporter National Press Club chick arranged for Wright's woeful psycho wronging Obama speech duly thumped by cable Tee Vee talking heads Monday. A Press Club flack tells Politico's Michael Calderone Wright was "pitched" two years ago. Obama's Aldrich Ames was ripe for a payoff. "Betrayed" by his former supplicant. NYPNYDN: "Wright was the crazy uncle Obama kept in the basement. And now he has come charging out, spewing nonsense, for all the world to see. And for voters to wonder about the candidate who tried to hide him." NYT editorial: "It was the most forthright repudiation of an out-of-control supporter that we can remember." More NYTMaureen Dowd NYT: For some, Obama didn?t offer enough outrage. ?He talks about Reverend Wright violating his core beliefs as if h...
By: Chickaboomer
Karl Rove: Fox In The Hen House
2008-04-27 15:09:00 Unsolicited advice to Obama from Fox News political guru, the redeemed Karl Rove: "You're making mistakes and making people worry that you're an elitist. So while you'll almost certainly win the nomination, Democrats are nervous about the fall. You've given them reasons to be." More at NewsweekMaureen Dowd NYT likens Obama's waning life force to vampire chick lit. "She?s the one who is more energetic and focused and beaming, and he?s the one who seems uneven and gauzy, often fatigued and unable to disguise being fed up with the slog... Even his speeches don?t have the same pizazz.Even some Obama fans find Hillary?s toughness and shameless shape-shifting compelling. Having lost the White House twice to brass-knuckled pols, the Dems may be drawn to a woman who thinks like Karl Rove."
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary: Die Another Day
2008-04-23 15:57:00 The Pennsylvania results weren't even in and Hillary's fundraising pimps were already banging tin cups emulating Obama's $5 donation drive. NYDN "Yes, We Will" ripped off from Obama's "Yes, We Can". She's out of dough. Hill's money whores are maxed out. "Too Little Too Late" NYP "Decisive Win Can't Forestall A Daunting Task" WP "Hill Wields a Mighty Penn." NYP Wash Post In the same breath Hillary celebrated her win and pimped "send money" directing suckers to her website prominently displayed in the shot. The Tee Vee talking heads are parroting Hillary's Obama slam: he "can't close the deal." MSNBC's waving today's NYT editorial hanging Hillary's nasty campaign out to dry. "It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her ...
By: Chickaboomer
Paper Trained
2008-04-09 21:17:00 "At first I wanted to do theater. I wanted to be on Broadway. ? I didn?t know there was so much to journalism until I was in ninth grade.?Asked who her role models are, the 17-year-old Ms. Lorber fairly squealed. ?Well, Woodward and Bernstein, obviously!?When pressed for more contemporary writers she admires, she said, ?I like most of the columnists at The New York Times. I forgot her name... Ooph. I read her all the time. Uhhh...Maureen Dowd? "Yes! She rocks. She?s so witty. She could be talking about something so serious but there?s humor to it usually.? Her colleague Ms. Laham has her own heroes: ?I love Keith Olbermann from MSNBC and I watch Countdown every night. I love Seymour Hersh: That?s who I would love to be. If I could be anybody, I?d be Seymour Hersh. A serious investigative reporter who knows where to dig and how to uncover these startling truths.? (When Mr. Hersh uncovered the My Lai massacre in 1969, Ms. Laham was minus-21 years old.) NYOWatch real high school journo...
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary: Outboxed
2008-04-02 16:50:00 The best way for Obama to prove he?s ready to stare down Ahmadinejad is by putting away someone even tougher." Maureen Dowd NYTA desperate Hillary conjurs herself as "Rocky" but I see her more like Susan Hayward in 1958's "I Want To Live." Susan is on death row for a murder she didn't commit - framed by "the real killer." Hillary is on death row framed by the Democratic party, Obama media orgasmites, and herself. Yes, Hillary's her own "real killer" destined to "Die Another Day."
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary's "I'm Only Human" Acumen
2008-03-26 17:15:00 "Even some Clinton loyalists are wondering aloud if the win-at-all-costs strategy of Hillary and Bill ? which continued Tuesday when Hillary tried to drag Rev. Wright back into the spotlight ? is designed to rough up Obama so badly and leave the party so riven that Obama will lose in November to John McCain. If McCain only served one term, Hillary would have one last shot. On Election Day in 2012, she?d be 65." Maureen Dowd NYTHillary reeling from her Bosnia sniper fabrications "Clinton Seeks To Soften Impact" NYT: I would've left Wright's church. NYDN NYT NYP Jossip Softening and Harding simultaneously. Schizo. "You know it's bad when Bill Clinton is the honest one." Charles Hurt NYP The anon Democrat leaking Hillary's bagging scorched earth and embracing jealous psychoskater Tonya Harding's busting the knees of rival Nancy Kerrigan is not a FOH - Friend of Hillary. NewsBusters It's more like a message to the Clintons: the Democratic party wants you out. Now. Today an irritat...
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary: I Feel The Earth Move
2008-03-09 14:01:00 Obama wins Wyoming in a landslide. The Clinton response? Hill 'n Barack would be "unstoppable." Bill Clinton. NYDN Both Bill and Hill are pounding the "dream team" to marginalize Obama. Hill dispatched Bill early in the primaries to marginalize Obama as the black candidate. It backfired big time after South Carolina. NYT Maureen Dowd: "If he [Obama] thinks Hillary has cut him down to size lately, he?d better imagine what his life would be like as the Clintons? vice president."
By: Chickaboomer
Leatherface Lives
2008-03-05 11:29:00 I was so bummed I couldn't sleep. But it ain't over. Hillary may have won Texas (barely), Ohio, and RI, but Obama is ahead in delegates Wash Post but unable to cop the big states. NYT The lazy media are dusting off Bill Clinton's hackneyed "Comeback Kid" label. NYP Wash Post NYTThe snarky Rupert Murdoch NYP ran this photo that could've been a frame from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."John McCain hit the magic 1,191 delegate number. The Huckster dropped out. Wash Post NYPObama has two choices: Get dirty. Or stay clean. Hillary played her familiar victim role and fear card like a Stradivarius. The media and voters bought into it. Hillary may have snagged the older broads but younger babes aren't buying what they dub "shoulder pad feminism." ?Hillary doesn?t make it look like fun to be a woman. And her ?I-have-been-victimized? campaign is depressing.? Maureen Dowd NYT muses: which historical wrong do we right? Oppressed women or blacks?
By: Chickaboomer
Uphillary
2008-02-28 00:33:00 "It is only because of the utter open-mindedness of the press that Hillary can lose 11 contests in a row and still be treated as a contender." Maureen Dowd NYTNot "utter open-mindedness." Utter fear of the ruthless Clinton Machine. The liberal media aren't writing off Hillary "just in case." What is it that the shaking-in-boots media warn? "Don't count out the Clintons."
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary: Trouble Brewing
2008-02-20 12:48:00 I adore Maureen Dowd and her brilliant rapier wit. Today she writes how chameleon and self-christened "Cheesehead" Hillary donned her blue collar and revved up for Milwaukee's finest as beer factory rat Laverne: At any minute, she might break out into the ?schlemiel, schlemazel? ?Laverne & Shirley? theme: ?Give us any chance, we?ll take it. Give us any rule, we?ll break it. We?re gonna make our dreams come true. Doin? it our way." Maureen Dowd NYTThe Clintons are known political cat burglars... She changed to Change. She co-opted ?It?s time to turn the page? and ?Fired up and ready to go.? She couldn?t wait to shoplift the words ?yes? and ?can? from Obama?s trademark ?Yes, we can!? ... Bill, master thief, got in on the act, too. After Obama said that his election would tell the world that America is back, Bill said that Hillary?s election would tell the world that America is back.As Wisconsin goes, so goes Laverne. Today she's an assembly line rivethead working the night shift...
By: Chickaboomer
Hillary's Poison Penn
2008-02-13 18:05:00 NYT Maureen Dowd: As a possible first Madame President, Hillary is a flawed science experiment because you can?t take Bill out of the equation. Her story is wrapped up in her marriage, and her marriage is wrapped up in a series of unappetizing compromises, arrangements and dependencies. Instead of carving out a separate identity for herself, she has become more entwined with Bill. She is running bolstered by his record and his muscle. She touts her experience as first lady, even though her judgment during those years on issue after issue was poor. She says she?s learned from her mistakes, but that?s not a compelling pitch. As a senator, she was not a leading voice on important issues, and her Iraq vote was about her political viability. Penn Jillette talks about a joke he has begun telling in his show. He thinks the thunderous reaction it gets from audiences shows that Hillary no longer has a shot. The joke goes: ?Obama is just creaming Hillary. You know, all these primaries, you kn...
By: Chickaboomer
Sound Bites
2008-02-07 16:42:00 "I can't compete with God." Charlotte, NC WCNC TV news director on six-figure anchorman Chris Justice leaving to become a Baptist preacher. Charlotte Observer The NBC affiliate is owned by Belo. Inside Cable News: Yesterday, a Dow Jones Newswires story quoted Warren Buffett as saying the dollar will be ?worthless? if the current account deficit continues. This morning, Buffett phoned CNBC?s Becky Quick during Squawk Box to correct the story. Quick literally interrupted Jim Cramer and Steve Liesman to repeat what Buffett was telling her ? he said the dollar would be ?worth less?, not ?worthless?. The Universe gets even with Nielsen for taking back conservative NYC talk radio legend Bob Grant's lifetime achievement award that was to be given to him at Radio & Records March talk radio seminar. Nielsen owns R&R. Grant got dumped after some psycho radio guy emailed Nielsen with a catalog of Grant's racist remarks. Al Sharpton is a keynote speaker at the event. ICNBasketball gr...
By: Chickaboomer
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2008-02-06 15:30:00 Obama beats Hillary in delegate count after his Missouri win. Politico The AP had to send out a correction after naming Hillary the winner in Missouri. Examiner Fox News pats itself on the back for waiting until all the returns were in. Advice to Obama: Find Hillary's missing scale and enter the dragon. NYT Maureen Dowd: "If he wants to be president, he will still have to slay the dragon. And his dragon is the Clinton attack machine, which emerged Tuesday night, not invincible but breathing fire."
By: Chickaboomer
"You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat"
2008-02-03 15:41:00 Why would Obama want to follow in the frustrated footsteps of Al Gore, who became Bill Clinton?s vice president only to find that the job was already taken by Hillary? Think about being third banana to Billary?... Team Obama refers to the Clinton campaign as ?Jaws? because ?just when things are quiet, they keep trying to come back and capsize the boat.? Maureen Dowd NYTAll this mind-numbing chatter about a "dream" Hillary/Obama ticket is as fake as the shark in Spielberg's movie.
By: Chickaboomer
Please Bring Back The Firewall
2007-11-04 18:22:00 I have a request of the New York Times, please bring back the firewall so I won't even be tempted to read moronic drivel like this:Gift of Gall By MAUREEN DOWDAs Greg Sargent points out Ms Dowd just makes up shit to make her case: Reality to Maureen: Hillary and her campaign did not say...(a) The male candidates are beating up on me because I'm a woman; or(b) The male candidates should stop beating up on me because I'm a woman.And I think Whiskey Fire gets it right: Yes, the Idiot Princess? is at it again, sharpening her tools for her paymasters who clearly fear Hillary with a pathology that must be based on some deep Freudian shit, to judge by its intensity and depth. And as Taylor Marsh points out the Republicans really do fear her: The tape above is interesting for what Scarborough has to say about Clinton. It's honest and transparent, something that is very rare right now. I've taken out after Scarborough before, but he is very frank about Republicans. ... ... .. In the dee...
Hillary: Strong Enough for a Man, Not Made for a Woman
2007-07-22 07:41:00 In MoDo's most recent Times op ed, she states that since polls show women think Hillary would be "an effective commander in chief," her problem with women's acceptance of her candidacy isn't gender related. I disagree. As a woman-- Surprise, people, I'm female! -- I don't want Hillary to be a strong commander in chief in the image of her male predecessors. I want her to be a strong woman leader, who brings the best of her gender's unique qualities to the office of the President. I want a woman president who isn't afraid to be a woman: a president with true compassion for people and their very real problems, a president who repudiates torture, war, and inhumane acts against humanity, a president who protects our rights under the Constitution, a president who takes responsibility for her actions, a president who inspires us to be the best we can be not unlike the way our mothers inspired each of us, a president who tells us what she thinks and believes in no uncertain terms,...
What "Bring 'em On" Hath Brought
2007-07-18 06:17:00 Hey, W! Bin Laden (Still) Determined to Strike in U.S.By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesOh, as it turns out, they?re not on the run.And, oh yeah, they can fight us here even if we fight them there.And oh, one more thing, after spending hundreds of billions and losing all those lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, we?re more vulnerable to terrorists than ever.And, um, you know that Dead-or-Alive stuff? We may be the ones who end up dead.Squirming White House officials had to confront the fact yesterday that everything President Bush has been spouting the last six years about Al Qaeda being on the run, disrupted and weakened was just guff.Last year, W. called his ?personal friend? Gen. Pervez Musharraf ?a strong defender of freedom.? Unfortunately, it turned out to be Al Qaeda?s freedom. The White House is pinning the blame on Pervez.While the administration lavishes billions on Pakistan, including $750 million in a risible attempt to win ?hearts and minds? in tribal areas where Al Qaeda lea...
Who's Sorry Now?
2007-07-15 04:51:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesThere?s not much lately that we?d like to import from China.Certainly not the yummy steamed buns stuffed with shredded cardboard soaked in a caustic agent used to make soap. Or the tasty toothpaste laced with an antifreeze ingredient. Or the scrumptious seafood with a chemical kick. Or those pet foods with kibbles and bits of poison.But there is one thing made in China we could use: mea culpas of high officials.Zheng Xiaoyu, a top regulator who helped create China?s Food and Drug Administration, accepted $850,000 in bribes from drug companies and became enmeshed in the mistakes that flooded the market with dangerous drugs. Before he was executed Tuesday, he wrote a short confession titled ?How I Look on My Mistakes.??Thinking back on what has happened these years, I start to see the problems clearly,? he wrote in prison. ?Why are the friends who gave me money all the bosses of pharmaceutical companies? Obviously because I was in charge of drug admini...
History as an Alibi
2007-07-11 07:41:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesOn Friday, Condi Rice played hooky and spent the afternoon at the Tiger Woods golf tournament at Congressional Country Club in suburban Maryland.She had lunch at the clubhouse with Tiger, who had dedicated the contest to American servicemen. She followed Phil Mickelson and Brad Faxon for a bit, after having them over to the White House on the Fourth to watch the fireworks. She gave interviews about her newfound affection for golf, laughing about her errant drives and ?wicked hook.?Like W. going out boating and fishing in Kennebunkport as Britain and its new prime minister, Gordon Brown, reeled from terrorist attacks, Condi acted as if she didn?t have a care in the world. And why on earth should she?The homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, has a gut feeling that a Qaeda cell might be coming or already be here. ?Summertime seems to be appealing to them,? he said, sounding more like a meteorologist than the man charged with keeping us safe.With 30...
A Hair Beyond John Edwards' Hair
2007-07-08 08:01:00 MoDo adds to her series of "fluff" op eds and her obsession with everything you never wanted to know and could care less about about asking John Edwards. C'mon, Mo. Raise the bar. Phantom at the OperaBy Maureen DowdThe New York TimesHere are five things you might not know about John Edwards:He never saw a single episode of ?The Sopranos.?He doesn?t like the opera, but his favorite musical is ?Phantom of the Opera.?His first date with Elizabeth was dancing at the Holiday Inn in Durham or Chapel Hill ? he can?t remember which ? sometime after which she made an ironclad rule that politicians should never dance.He became a lawyer because as a kid he loved watching ?Perry Mason,? ?The Defenders? and ?The Fugitive.? (Richard Kimble really needed a lawyer.)His top sex symbol is a fellow North Carolinian, Andie MacDowell.John Edwards has not written soulful poetry, like his old running mate John Kerry or his current rivals Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich. And he says that ?if I ha...
2008: Time For A Change?
2007-07-04 05:14:00 Maureen Dowd's satirical take on Bill and Hillary in today's Times op ed begs the question, "Do we really want another term with the Clintons in the White House? The time was never more right for new blood, folks -- no more Bushies and no more Clintons, been there, done that. The question is will anyone emerge with the credentials and ability to execute a bold, positive vision for the country? Or will be faced in 2008 with yet more lesser-of-two-evil politico choices? Sure looks as though that's the way we're headed, doesn't it? One House, Two Presidents, a Million MelodramasBy Maureen DowdThe New York TimesHillary looks over at her husband.He?s in a pretty good mood. He just finished a grilled chicken sandwich from the Dairy Queen near Grinnell, and as a reward for eating healthy, she gave him a bite of her Snickers Blizzard. Crowds all over Iowa have been clamoring for him. Here in the privacy of their black S.U.V., driving through flat Iowa farmland with the press bus t...
W. Learns From Students
2007-06-27 07:06:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesA group of high school Presidential Scholars visiting the White House on Monday surprised President Bush by slipping him a handwritten letter pleading with him to not let America become known for torture and urging him to stick to the Geneva Conventions with terror detainees.The president reassured the teenagers that the United States does not torture. Then the vice president unleashed a pack of large dogs on the kids, running them off the White House lawn, before he shut down the Presidential Scholars program and abolished high schools.Since it?s rare that Mr. Bush ever sees groups that have not been prescreened to be nice to him, he made the mistake of opening the letter in front of the students and was surprised to learn that he has made many Americans ashamed by subverting values that the country has always held dear, like abiding by the Constitution and respecting human dignity.Mari Oye from Wellesley, Mass., who is headed to Yale in the fall, h...
Invisible Cheney
2007-06-24 08:03:00 A Vice President Without Borders, Bordering on LunacyBy Maureen DowdThe New York TimesIt?s hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month.Harry?s cloak of invisibility would be no match for Vice?s culture of invisibility.I?ve always thought Cheney was way out there ? the most Voldemort-like official I?ve run across. But even in my harshest musings about the vice president, I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet ? a separate entity from the White House.I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it?s quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution.Dr. No used to just blow off the public and Congress as he cook...
How We're Animalistic -- in Good Ways and Bad
2007-05-30 06:13:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesThe odd thing is that conservatives wear pinstriped suits. They love the ancients so much that they really should be walking around in togas. The main contribution of the Greeks to modern American politics may have been Michael Dukakis, who once climbed the Acropolis in wingtips.But that doesn?t stop conservatives ? especially the Straussians who pushed for going into Iraq ? from being obsessed with ancient Greece, and from believing that they are the successors to Plato and Homer in terms of the lofty ideals and nobility and character in American politics ? while Democrats merely muck about with policies for the needy.Harvey Mansfield, a leading Straussian who taught political science at Harvard and who wrote a book called ?Manliness? (he?s for it), gave the Jefferson lecture recently at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington.It was an ode, as his book is, to ?thumos,? the Greek word that means spiritedness, with flavors of ambition...
Bush's Fleurs du Mal
2007-05-27 06:58:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesFor me, the saddest spot in Washington is the inverted V of the black granite Vietnam wall, jutting up with the names of young men dying in a war that their leaders already knew could not be won.So many died because of ego and deceit ? because L.B.J. and Robert McNamara wanted to save face or because Henry Kissinger wanted to protect Nixon?s re-election chances.Now the Bush administration finds itself at that same hour of shame. It knows the surge is not working. Iraq is in a civil war, with a gruesome bonus of terrorists mixed in. April was the worst month this year for the American military, with 104 soldiers killed, and there have been about 90 killed thus far in May. The democracy?s not jelling, as Iraqi lawmakers get ready to slouch off for a two-month vacation, leaving our kids to be blown up.The top-flight counterinsurgency team that President Bush sent in after long years of pretending that we?d ?turned the corner? doesn?t believe there?s a m...
Pass the Clam Dip
2007-05-23 04:44:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesIt?s no wonder Al Gore is a little touchy about his weight, what with everyone trying to read his fat cells like tea leaves to see if he?s going to run.He was so determined to make his new book look weighty, in the this-treatise-belongs-on-the-sh-elf-between-Plato-and-Cato sense, rather than the double-chin-isn?t-quite-gone-ye-t sense, that he did something practically unheard of for a politician: He didn?t plaster his picture on the front.?The Assault on Reason? looks more like the Beatles? White Album than a screed against the tinny Texan who didn?t get as many votes in 2000.The Goracle does concede a small author?s picture on the inside back flap, a chiseled profile that screams Profile in Courage and that also screams Really Old Picture. Indeed, if you read the small print next to the wallet-sized photo of Thin Gore looking out prophetically into the distance, it says it?s from his White House years.A subliminal clue to his intentions, perhaps? He ...
Rsum of Doom
2007-05-20 05:52:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesPaul Wolfowitz may be out of a job soon, but think of what an amazing rsum he?ll be shopping around: Work Experience President of World Bank: 2005-2007 Responsibilities: Reining in European lefties, raining tax-free money on Arab girlfriend, and giving anti-corruption efforts a bad name. Achievements: Paralyzed the international lending apparatus to the point where small countries had to max out their Visa cards to pay for malaria medicine. Learned the traditions of many cultures, including those of Turkey, where you apparently are not supposed to take off your shoes at mosques to reveal socks so full of holes that both big toes poke blasphemously through. Deputy Secretary of Defense for President George W. Bush: 2001-2005 Responsibility: Starting a war. Achievements: Mismanaged the world?s most powerful army. Shattered the system of international diplomacy that kept the peace for 50 years. Undermined the credibility of American intelligence opera...
Loving, Fighting, Sulking, Dancing, Betraying
2007-05-16 18:20:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesPARISThe French can be very, well, French when it comes to the personal lives of their leaders.They take affairs, illegitimate children and tumultuous marriages in stride.But they suddenly turn traditional when it comes to the role of the first lady. They do not like the idea of Nicolas Sarkozy entertaining world leaders alone at the lyse Palace. It is not comme il faut.Maybe that?s why this country is so mesmerized with the question of whether the beautiful Ccilia Sarkozy, a former Schiaparelli model who was for years her husband?s influential political adviser, is going to serve as the chatelaine of the lyse, or run off again with a lover.No one seems sure if she will bolt, leaving the entertaining duties to Sarko?s mother, an elegant lawyer, or agree to play a limited role at the palace.?We have a hard time imagining an intermittent first lady at the lyse,? sniffed Le Temps, a daily newspaper, online.Ccilia was missing in action during the...
Labor's Love Lost
2007-05-13 07:10:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesLONDON Gordon Brown?s smile does not look at home on his face. It sits there uneasily, like an uninvited guest at a party, until his features can resume their comfortably dour grooves. The brooding Scot ended his decade-long run as a hefty Heathcliff to Tony Blair?s chatty Cathy, stepping out of the shadows Friday with visible relief to begin a campaign for prime minister that he has already won. Grumpy Gordon is an enigma compared with Captain Showbiz, as the glib Mr. Blair is called by a morning TV host here. The 56-year-old son of a Presbyterian minister, with hooded eyes and frugal charm, will be hard pressed to compete on the European stage with Iron Frau Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, dubbed ?Thatcher without petticoats.? Mr. Brown?s school friends came on TV to say he was more fun than he looked. ?He enjoys a good glass of wine,? said his pal Bill Campbell. The chancellor has been striving to move beyond his reputation as a man so obses...
Get Off the Chaise Lounge
2007-05-09 05:26:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesParisBeauty has been chased off by the Beast.Now France waits to see just how feral and domineering Nicolas Sarkozy will be.The lovely Sgolne Royal ? more phenomenon than politician ? ran a maternal, Manichaean campaign painting her intense, Napoleon-sized opponent as an immoral political animal and a brute whose election would spark riots and ?a sort of civil war.?The luminous Sego did not even deign to address the ?dark? Sarko by name, either in the debate or in her concession speech Sunday night.Cartoonists have depicted the tough guy ? who bullies rivals, betrays mentors and calls young troublemakers in low-income housing in the Paris suburbs ?scum? ? as a gargoyle, Dracula, an evil sorcerer and a devil.The imagery of the presidential duel tapped into mythic Gothic tales of France, like ?Beauty and the Beast,? ?The Phantom of the Opera,? and ?The Hunchback of Notre Dame.?With Hungarian, Greek and Jewish roots, with a father who deserted and bel...
La Campagne, C'est moi
2007-05-06 07:58:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesLILLE, FranceIt?s hard not to be drawn to a presidential candidate with a name like a Bond girl, a smile like an angel, a figure that looks great in a bikini at 53, a campaign style like Joan of Arc, and a buffet for the press corps brimming with crustless fromage sandwiches, icy chocolate profiteroles, raspberry parfaits, red Bordeaux, espresso and little almond gteaux. (When in France, let us eat cake.)Sgolne Royal brought back the sizzle to socialism, raising the ire of Stephen Colbert?s right-wing TV host, who warned that ?socialism is always a threat but never more so than when it looks like this.?At first, Sgolne seemed like the ideal candidate for a country that knew it needed change but didn?t really want change, because she looked like change but wasn?t really going to change anything. But the infatuation dampened, like a spring romance.I entered the Sgosphere, as her supporters call it, Thursday evening in Lille, for the last big rall...
Slam's Silence
2007-05-02 06:15:00 Better Never Than LateBy Maureen DowdThe New York TimesInstead of George Tenet teaching at Georgetown University, George Tenet should be taught at Georgetown University.There should be a course on government called ?The Ultimate Staff Guy.? A morality saga about how much harm you can do as a go-along, get-along guy, spending so much time trying not to alienate the big cheese so he doesn?t can you that you miss the moment where you have to can him or lose your soul.If Colin Powell and George Tenet had walked out of the administration in February 2003 instead of working together on that tainted U.N. speech making the bogus case for war, they might have turned everything around. They might have saved the lives and limbs of all those brave U.S. kids and innocent Iraqis, not to mention our world standing and national security.It would certainly have been harder for timid Democrats, like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards, to back up the administration if two members of the Bush...
The Whiney Fall Guy
2007-04-28 05:34:00 More Like an Air BallBy Maureen DowdThe New York TimesPoor Slam-Dunk.Not since Madame Butterfly has anyone been so cruelly misunderstood and misused. Slam-Dunk says that when he pantingly told the president that fetching information on Saddam?s W.M.D. would be a cinch, he did not mean let?s go to war.No matter how eager Slam-Dunk was to tell W. what he wanted to hear while polishing W.?s shoes, that intelligence they craved did not exist. ?Let me say it again: C.I.A. found absolutely no linkage between Saddam and 9/11,? the ex-Head Spook writes in his new book, self-effacingly titled ?At the Center of the Storm.? Besides, Junior and Darth had already decided to go to war to show the Arabs their moxie.The president and vice president wanted Slam-Dunk to help them dramatize the phony case. Everyone had to pitch in! That Saturday session in December 2002 in the Oval Office was ?essentially a marketing meeting,? Slam-Dunk writes, just for ?sharpening the arguments.?Hey, I feel better.Sl...
More Con Than Neo
2007-04-14 07:30:00 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesUsually, spring in Washington finds us caught up in the cherry blossoms and the ursine courtship rituals of the pandas.But this chilly April, we are forced to contemplate the batrachian grapplings of Paul Wolfowitz, the man who cherry-picked intelligence to sell us a war with Iraq.You will not be surprised to learn, gentle readers, that Wolfie in love is no less deceptive and bumbling than Wolfie at war.Proving he is more con than neo, he confessed that he had not been candid with his staff at the World Bank. While he was acting holier than thou, demanding incorruptibility from poor countries desperate for loans, he was enriching his girlfriend with tax-free ducats.He has yet to admit any real mistakes with the hellish war that claimed five more American soldiers as stunned Baghdad residents dealt with the aftermath of bombings of the Iraqi Parliament, where body parts flew, and of a bridge over the Tigris, where cars sank.But he admitted on Thursday...
Who's Your Daddy?
2007-04-11 07:22:00 Daddies in a Panic, and Mommy, Too By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesThe mind reels at the mind.The Times?s science section devoted itself yesterday to the topic of Desire, the myriad ways in which the human mind causes the body to get turned on.It now seems that instead of desire leading to arousal, as researchers once believed, arousal may lead to desire.The brain, as D. H. Lawrence once wrote, is a most important sexual organ, and men and women have extremely varied responses to sexual stimuli.As Natalie Angier, The Times?s biology expert, noted, research has shown that women differed from men ?in the importance they accorded a man?s physical appearance, with many expressing a comparatively greater likelihood of being aroused by evidence of talent or intelligence ? say, while watching a man deliver a great speech.?This could explain why many Republican women are so frustrated. They have been deprived of the bristly excitement of hearing their men on the stump delivering great spee...
By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesWashingtonI feel good about
2007-01-13 10:11:01 By Maureen DowdThe New York TimesWashingtonI feel good about the new war with Iran.How can you not have confidence in the crackerjack team that brought you Operation Iraqi Freedom, which foundered and led to Operation Together Forward, which stumbled and led to Operation Together Forward II, which collapsed and was replaced by The New Way Forward, the Surge now being launched even though nobody?s together and everything?s going backward?I say, bring it on. If a pre-emptive war in Iraq doesn?t work, why not try a pre-emptive war on Iran in Iraq?Although Tony Snow dismissed the idea of war with Iran as an ?urban legend? yesterday, Condi Rice revealed to New York Times reporters that President Bush acted months ago to parry Iran?s ambitions, issuing orders for a military campaign against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces sneaking into Iraq. Using diplomatic passports, the agents have been smuggling in sophisticated bomb-making components and infrared trigger devices, which could b...
Maureen Dowd: Fetch, Heel, Stall
2006-08-06 18:48:26 New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wields her pen like a spear: "Dubya is much less scary and evil when we can look at him as the slow, bumbling village idiot. But then he just keeps doing evil things.Feel free to vote in the comments. Evil or just stupid?Here?s Maureen Dowd?s latest that goes for stupid. Or maybe she?s cleverly going for evil pretending to be stupid so we don?t realize how evil he is." (DreamLogic)Cross posted at Dave Lucas on blogHi. | HOMEpage | QuickTrackback | Simpletracks | Digg | SlashDot | boingboing |Rojo Tag: politics | Technorati Tags: Maureen Dowd, Fetch Heel Stall, Ann Coulter, debate, George Bush |
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