Brown Nose Brady

From Gawker I learned that that bastard James Brady is working my side of the street. On Forbes.com, he reviewed Maureen Dowd’s review of Arthur Schlesinger’s new book Journals. Not only did I beat him to the punch with my own review review by five days, I didn’t go all school-girl giddy. Listen to this gushing and hold back the retching:

She drops in a wonderful reference to the fact in his later years he was "perennially broke" and didn't even have a savings account. Gosh, just like most of us. Though whenever I saw Arthur out on the town (usually with his very tall, attractive and awfully pleasant wife Alexandra), he was impeccably (if tweed-ily) dressed and seemed to have cab fare.

See, the ass-kisser manages to call Dowd “wonderful” and still name drop that he sometimes ran into Schlesinger.

The impression, from the review, and not the book, is that Schlesinger comes off as a witty companion, educated and well-informed, and a prime suck-up. Like many of us, he loved to be around the beautiful and the powerful, not quite the court jester, but also not quite the humble boy outside on the street, his nose pressed up against the glass staring at the gentry inside.

I think Mo Dowd nailed the guy. I'm equally sure Schlesinger loyalists will come rushing to his defense. But isn't stirring things up what a good book review is all about?

I think we know who the prime suck-up is, Jim. And I definitely know what your nose is pressed up against.