tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492561671397006002024-03-08T00:20:59.276-08:00Dowd ReportLightly fisking Maureen Dowdyellojkthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09592683505688819187noreply@blogger.comBlogger322125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-30676215406940694442014-12-12T06:41:00.003-08:002014-12-12T06:52:22.756-08:00Your You're So SonyRecently North Korean hackers, in retaliation for unleashing another James Franco/Seth Rogen movie on us, released hundreds of e-mails from Sony executives hoping to humiliate and embarrass them. <br />
<br />
One set with Maureen Dowd does just that, but not in the way one would expect.
The <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/leaked-emails-reveal-maureen-dowd-promised-to-sony-execs-hus">e-mails show</a> that Dowd gave secret pre-publication approval to Sony co-chair Amy Pascal's husband Bernard Weinraub. This resulted in a round robin of mutual admiration which is supposed to show how cozy Dowd is with her column subjects (like that is a shocker). <br />
<br />
What it really shows is what a passive-aggressive grammar Nazi she is. Or what an illiterate buffoon Pascal is in that she continues to make the same mistake after Dowd corrects her once.
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<blockquote>
After the column was published later that night, Pascal emailed Dowd, saying “I THOUGHT THE STORY WAS GREAT I HOPE <b>YOUR</b> HAPPY ” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dowd responded: <span style="color: blue;">“I hope <b>you’re</b> happy! Thanks for helping. Let’s do another.”</span> Pascal replied, “<b>Your</b> my favorite person so yes” and Dowd finished the conversation with<span style="color: blue;"> “<b>you’re</b> mine! <span style="color: blue;"><strong>you’re</strong></span> amazing”</span> (<em>emphasis added</em>) </blockquote>
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The second and third corrections are just to twist the knife. Smugness, <b>your</b> name is Maureen.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-26270563079686974482014-03-26T04:43:00.002-07:002014-03-26T05:10:35.307-07:00Dowd And Donaghy On March 24, 2014, Maureen Dowd trekked all the way from her Georgetown brownstone to the Kennedy Center to deliver the 27th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. What made it newsworthy was that she was joined by old friend Alec Baldwin, aka 30 Rock media mogul Jack Donaghy. This was one of Baldwin's first public appearances since publicly avowing to never make public appearances again. Or as Washington Post's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2014/03/25/alec-baldwin-doesnt-do-interviews-but-hell-show-up-for-maureen-dowd/">Reliable Sources</a> put it:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When the press releases went out the special instructions were
crystal clear: “Please note that Alec Baldwin will not be taking any
questions from the media. However, he is available for photos.” Then
there was the reminder a week later, “Again, just want to let you know
that Alec Baldwin is available for photo opportunities but he will not
be taking any questions.”<br />
And just in case some poor unfortunate scribe didn’t get the hint, at
the actual reception we were reminded yet again. Okay, got it. Baldwin,
who <span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;">famously gave his “public life” the kiss off in an epic </span><a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/alec-baldwin-good-bye-public-life.html" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;">New York magazine “as told to”</a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;"> in February, doesn’t do interviews. Alright already.</span></blockquote>
But he does pose for photos including this one:<br />
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And the dead trees edition of WaPo has this photo of Alec with the lady of the hour:<br />
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The full event with Dowd's speech can be seen here (Baldwin's introduction as the Y-Chromosome starts at about minute 19):
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And here is another photo from the event, this one with Alec and Maureen standing with Robert Lynch, CEO, Americans for the Arts:<br />
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But once again my invitation to her event got lost in the mail. I'm beginning to wonder if she is trying to avoid me.
Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-78250703734252971222013-12-15T05:05:00.000-08:002013-12-15T05:05:38.563-08:00The Buzz On Smarm<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/dowd-bigger-than-bambi.html?_r=0" target="_blank"><b>Bigger Than Bambi</b></a><br />
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By M<span itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">aureen Dowd</span><br />
Published: December 14, 2013<br />
<br />
<nyt_byline>
</nyt_byline>
<br />
There has been a backlash against snark for a couple of years now, including David Denby's book titled <i>Snark: It's Mean, It's Personal, And It's Ruining Our Conversation" which included an <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/cheap-shots-at-queen-of-snots.html" target="_blank">entire chapter</a> on Maureen Dowd.</i><br />
<br />
Now Tom Scocca, a writer I have been following since his days at Baltimore City Paper, has struck back with <a href="http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977" target="_blank">an essay</a> on a phenomenon he calls 'smarm,' overly sincere earnestness which he sees as worse than snark. He writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;">What is
smarm, exactly? Smarm is a kind of performance—an assumption of the
forms of seriousness, of virtue, of constructiveness, without the
substance. Smarm is concerned with appropriateness and with tone.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Smarm
disapproves.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Smarm would rather talk about anything other than smarm. Why, smarm asks, can't everyone just be nicer? </span></blockquote>
That essay really hit a certain portion of the zeitgeist and caused <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/12/dave-eggers-tom-scocca-and-being-nice.html" target="_blank">Malcolm Gladwell</a> for one to issue rebuttals. The Dowdster weighed in on the anti-smarm side, naturally. The title of the essay comes from what Scocca calls The Bambi Rule, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Dowd much prefers the Dorothy Parker variation, "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me." She concludes her two-cents on the smarm/snark divide with this great rant:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"> Pretending that false and ugly things don’t exist is a bit delusional.
Yet such prettifying is consistent with a culture dominated by an
Internet concerned mainly with marketing techniques.<br /> <br />
Not to review books negatively is in essence to subsume book reviewing
into advertising, public relations and promotion. Succumbing to uplift,
edification and happy talk is basically saying that there’s something
more important than telling the truth: not making enemies, not hurting
people’s feelings. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">All quarrels are not petty. Sometimes quarrels are about big things, and it’s an actual privilege to take a side in them.</span></span></blockquote>
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Snark in the defense of truth is no crime.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-6200661260229771092012-10-13T18:27:00.002-07:002012-10-13T18:27:34.690-07:00Barack From Another Planet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/an-irish-catholic-wake-up.html">An Irish Catholic Wake-Up</a></b><br />
By MAUREEN DOWD<br />
October 13, 2012<br />
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For this week's Movies With Maureen feature she picks a deep cut, John Sayles's lesser known cult classic, <i>Brother From Another Planet</i>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">Ever since Obama tapped him, Biden has felt that his role is to warm up Barry’s <b>Brother From Another Planet</b> affect.</span></blockquote>
The titular alien who landed in New York Harbor was indistinguishable from a person of African descent except for the number of toes on his feet. He wanders around Harlem mute until he is able to blend in with the whacky locals. Feel free to make your own metaphor about Obama and Washington, D.C.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-60153344493497973282012-09-19T06:10:00.001-07:002012-09-19T06:10:33.578-07:00The 47% Solution<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/opinion/dowd-let-them-eat-crab-cake.html" target="_blank">Let Them Eat Crab Cake</a>
<br />
By MAUREEN DOWD<br />
Published: September 18, 2012
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<br />
Despite our extended absence, Maureed Dowd has continued to limm the political landscape with her usual savvy and insight. Today's column is yet another journeyman piece of work. As a refresher course let's review the rhetorical devices she is so fond of.<br />
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<strong>Alliteration</strong><br />
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Perhaps the most ignored aspect of her arsenal, the lilting alliteration is one of her go-to tricks.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">But, even as Mitt was spitefully <strong>demonizing</strong> and <strong>dividing</strong> in Boca, he remained <strong>cardboard-cutout</strong> un-self-aware</span></blockquote>
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And while that one is good it is no match for one later in the column:<br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">
Romney came across as a mean geek, a <strong>Cranbrook kid</strong> at the <strong>country club</strong> smugly swaddled in <strong>class</strong> disdain.</blockquote>
</span><br />
It's like poetry, only with venom.<br />
<br />
<strong>Crossword Clues</strong><br />
<br />
While never quite hitting the heights that William F. Buckly or former Times stablemate William Safire, reading a Dowd column should make you scramble for the dictionary at least twice each week. Her is the word of the week, hitting that perfect connotation of folly, ignorance and effeteness which exemplifies Mitt Romney:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">At another point in the video, Romney once more showed his foreign policy <strong>jejuneness,</strong></span></blockquote>
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<strong>Not-So-Nice Nicknames</strong><br />
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Dowd's withering sobriquets often sting more than the rest of the column. While Mitt Romney has yet to have one like The Dauphin (for W.) or No Drama Obama (among the dozens she has invented for The One), she does give one for the Mittster here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;"><strong>Mr. Sunshine</strong> said he sometimes felt “that the Palestinians have no
interest whatsoever in establishing peace — and that the pathway to
peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”</span></blockquote>
<br />
<strong>Dowdversion<span id="internal-source-marker_0.1351478823518385" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">™</span></strong><br />
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The pinnacle of parallelsims in a Maureen Dowd column is when she reverses a phrase with flourish. While today's examples aren't perfect, they do hint at the flavor she can reach. The first doesn't quite pull off the full reversal.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: blue;">We thought Romney was <strong>secretly moderate</strong>, but it turns out that he’s <strong>secretly cruel</strong>, </span></blockquote>
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And the second lacks quite the twist needed.<br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">
One thing we have to give Mitt, though: He is, as advertised, a
<strong>brilliant manager</strong>. He’s <strong>managed to ensure</strong> that President Obama has a
much better chance of re-election. </blockquote>
</span><br />
It's tough to put out 1600 words of this quality every week so we can forgive if everything isn't quite perfect, as long as Maureen isn't perfectly quiet. With less than two months left in the campaign, we are in for a bumpy ride.<br />
<br />Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-82915824093384596672012-06-14T13:53:00.000-07:002012-06-14T13:55:04.417-07:00Charles Pierce's Crush<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xzYzjGMHxntjtYOZ8avQ9OMeTHIC_Y2aISWBIe-XnqOc9KMlSITdcM66uMhjwc3_hgRMGP3BigCvkfGXZm9OsIDdB4WFGN8mz1gEQ37VghrhMIRz3HtLRByYbZPahHvjKd9AwuIyCNE/s1600/esq-charles-p-pierce-headshot-2011-lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xzYzjGMHxntjtYOZ8avQ9OMeTHIC_Y2aISWBIe-XnqOc9KMlSITdcM66uMhjwc3_hgRMGP3BigCvkfGXZm9OsIDdB4WFGN8mz1gEQ37VghrhMIRz3HtLRByYbZPahHvjKd9AwuIyCNE/s200/esq-charles-p-pierce-headshot-2011-lg.jpg" width="200" /></a>Charles P. Pierce, erstwhile Boston sportswriter turned acid-penned political pundit, has a running bit where he ridicules David Brooks's New York Times columns mercilessly. But lately he has been finding that there is someone else worth his attention. A few days ago he had <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/maureen-dowd-superhero-9423082#ixzz1xnoxnsfy">this to say</a> about Maureen Dowd:
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: red;">...we should pause and congratulate Maureen Dowd for producing what, to me, anyway, was the shining, glorious quintessence of her entire career as a political commentator, to say nothing of loosing finally every bat that's been bouncing off the walls of her peculiar belfry for the past 20 years. Combining Stuff I Read This Week with a bit of discreet gay-baiting, a dollop of material that she first tried out while smoking in the Girls Room at Our Lady, Queen Of Clairol, and a whole lot of her unique ability to project her own Daddy neuroses on every Democratic politician within a 20-mile radius — it looks like Ed Rendell gets to stand in for her sainted Irish pops these days, and, I swear, you can almost hear the phlegm ringing in the spitoon — MoDo apparently has decided that the president is no longer man enough for her.</span></blockquote>
Whew. I'm out of breath just reading that.
Today he <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Halperinization_Of_America">decides</a> that in the entire decline of political punditry, Dowd is at least 50% culpable.
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: red;">...the worst two things that have happened to American political journalism in the past 30 years are Maureen Dowd and Mark Halperin -- Dowd, because of her relentless, obsessive need to take her own galloping Oedipal neuroses for an outing every time there's an election...</span></blockquote>
But then he has this to say: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: red;">Dowd, at least, can write a little. Most of her imitators can't.
</span></blockquote>
What a sweet talker. Charlie Pierce, like Charlie Brown has a crush on The Little Red Headed Girl. I think Chuckie is in love.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-56670830516194162182012-03-07T05:51:00.003-08:002012-03-07T06:02:59.016-08:00Ripping Romney<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/opinion/dowd-liz-cheney-desist.html">Liz Cheney: Desist!</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />March 6, 2012 <br /><br />Maureen Dowd has some harsh words for Mitt Romney about a recent warmongering speech, but here is her real beef:<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">“I will station multiple aircraft carriers and warships at Iran’s door,” he said as if he were playing Risk. Not afraid to employ “<span style="font-weight: bold;">military might</span>” (or <span style="font-weight: bold;">alarming alliteration</span>), </span></blockquote>Be careful, Mitt. Maureen is working that side of the street. Remember what she did to Clinton. Don't make her pull her Pulitzer out on you.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-21959453404990693992012-01-29T04:04:00.000-08:002012-01-29T05:12:26.030-08:00Alliteration Alert At The Airport<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOA1G9uD1TZf0Q0P2QvOHY-dfPzVj42SG0_nFHj8PfFbTRbZhB168gSn0nSnYW8SkGkxpnnsQ0sHZFD_HzwBuf6gQj06dAaNq7kMZg36GjIN6iu6v-SifSNAnIy0mu8x4QjkEiWf5d2B4/s1600/BrewerLOL.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 388px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOA1G9uD1TZf0Q0P2QvOHY-dfPzVj42SG0_nFHj8PfFbTRbZhB168gSn0nSnYW8SkGkxpnnsQ0sHZFD_HzwBuf6gQj06dAaNq7kMZg36GjIN6iu6v-SifSNAnIy0mu8x4QjkEiWf5d2B4/s400/BrewerLOL.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703035790225840642" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/dowd-tension-on-the-tarmac.html"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tension on the Tarmac</span></a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: January 28, 2012<br /><br />Our Miss Maureen loves her some alliteration, starting right from the titillating title. Some days she tries to fit in as many fanciful phrases as she can. She starts by waxing nostalgic for the days when Clintons were campaigning.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">But No Drama Obama saves his <span style="font-weight:bold;">rare</span> tempests for the <span style="font-weight:bold;">runway</span>.<br /><br />Hillary had sent <span style="font-weight:bold;">word</span> that she <span style="font-weight:bold;">wanted</span> to talk to Obama. Standing in front of her plane, she apologized to him for the <span style="font-weight:bold;">comments</span> of her <span style="font-weight:bold;">co-chairman</span> in New Hampshire, Billy Shaheen, who had warned that Republicans would pounce on Obama’s <span style="font-weight:bold;">confessions</span> of <span style="font-weight:bold;">cocaine</span> and marijuana use. </blockquote>But it's not until the middle of the missive that she really builds up a head of steam. Check out these cheeky chestnuts:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">But Hillary did not like it, feeling she was being held in <span style="font-weight: bold;">place</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">patronized</span>, even “manhandled,” as her aide put it to a reporter.</blockquote>Having rehashed a Hillary Clinton anecdote, Dowd turns to the newer tempestuous contretemps at an airport, the one with Arizona governor Jan Brewer.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The <span style="font-weight: bold;">toxic dominatrix </span>of illegal immigration, the woman who turned every Latino in her <span style="font-weight: bold;">state</span> into a <span style="font-weight: bold;">suspect</span>, was flustered and gesticulating at the president as he put his hand on her arm to chill her out. </blockquote>Culminating in this colorful collage:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">After his <span style="font-weight: bold;">brouhaha</span> with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Brewer</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">dubbed</span> “the <span style="font-weight: bold;">dust-up</span> in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">desert</span>,” he became a <span style="font-weight: bold;">hero</span> to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hispanics</span> he had gone West to court. They <span style="font-weight: bold;">loved</span> seeing their Cruella <span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vil</span> get <span style="font-weight: bold;">dressed down</span>.</blockquote>Try saying any of those phrases three times fast. But it doesn't end there. The going is just getting good.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Everything is <span style="font-weight: bold;">breaking Barry’s</span> way, as Mitt and Newt rip into each other in vicious ads and debates like alligators going after house pets.<br /></blockquote><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Romney was tutored in Florida by Brett O’Donnell, a new debate coach. Too bad he can’t find a <span style="font-weight: bold;">conviction coach</span>.<br /><br />O’Donnell <span style="font-weight: bold;">manned</span> up <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mittens</span> and taught him how to pummel Newt in “moments of strength,” as the Republican strategist Alex Castellanos calls them.</blockquote>The alliterative lilt is perhaps the most underestimated of Dowd's rhetorical reaches, but when she strikes her stride, nobody can hold a candle to her cadence.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-52550875446277321462012-01-14T13:53:00.000-08:002012-01-14T14:07:50.571-08:00Mitt's Favorite Things<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/dowd-mitts-big-love.html"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mitt’s Big Love</span></a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: January 14, 2012<br /><br />Recently an internet mash-up featured clips of Mitt Romney cut into Jule Andrews singing "A Few Of My Favorite Things" from <span style="font-style:italic;">A Sound Of Music</span>:<br /><div style="text-align:center"><br /><object id="FiveminPlayer" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="400" height="285"><br /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><br /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><br /><param name="movie" value="http://embed.5min.com/517246338/"><br /><param name="wmode" value="opaque"><br /><embed name="FiveminPlayer" src="http://embed.5min.com/517246338/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="opaque" width="400" ></embed><br /><br /></object><br /></div>Well, it seems there is a reason for doing so. As Maureen Dowd reports:<br /><blockquote><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Romney recoiled from ’60s counterculture and was “proudly square” as he went from seeing <span style="font-weight:bold;">“The Sound of Music”</span> with [future wife] Ann to avoiding the Grateful Dead at college, Kranish and Helman report. </span></blockquote><br />And while he isn't on the stump telling tales of his youthful varmint hunting, it's clear the one thing he loves more than firing guns is firing people.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-22748477945093682732011-12-28T06:32:00.000-08:002011-12-28T06:35:04.856-08:00A Prayer For KevinOnce a year, Maureen Dowd turns her column over to her very conservative brother, Kevin. This year the story had a touching preamble:<br /><span style="color:#000099;"><br /><blockquote><span style="color:#000099;"><i>After a random blood test last summer, my brother learned that he had a 20.3 centimeter malignant tumor in his kidney, struggling to burst out like the creature in “Alien.” With the guidance of the saintly Dr. Jerry Groopman, and the brilliance of the Sloan-Kettering surgical team — the exuberantly blunt Paul Russo, the mystically serene Manjit Bains and the calmly proficient Gerald Soff — Kevin survived to enjoy Christmas with his wife, Ellen, his three sons and his 15 crèches.</i><br /></span><br /></blockquote></span>I hope he enjoys many more.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-76666841835307096972011-11-01T21:49:00.000-07:002011-11-01T22:15:49.562-07:00Raising Cain<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGwdxXhEjQtJKH6b4yar6NtcNPABU_HFg2VKDOFIEVXOxU4W5qN1WnWnx3YGAd3wfWh87jl9nfyVN5RVxHtqbEib5ijR9BEPbFvOeJHR-eWhMUbc27Opm0vkXeTDE0zY_i0kBUuu9DRYA/s1600/cain+pride+and+prejudice.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 287px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGwdxXhEjQtJKH6b4yar6NtcNPABU_HFg2VKDOFIEVXOxU4W5qN1WnWnx3YGAd3wfWh87jl9nfyVN5RVxHtqbEib5ijR9BEPbFvOeJHR-eWhMUbc27Opm0vkXeTDE0zY_i0kBUuu9DRYA/s400/cain+pride+and+prejudice.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670260270538212754" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/dowd-cain-not-able.html">Cain Not Able</a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: November 1, 2011<br /><br />Maureen Dowd is always at her best when there is a whiff of sexual scandal in the air. It's what won her her Pulitzer after all. So the Herman Cain scandal is right up her alley. And this affair has her pining for prim and proper alliterative <span style="font-weight: bold;">Austen</span> novels.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">It’s the Republican primary. Or “<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pride and Prejudice</span>.” Take your pick.</blockquote>Which allows her to put her twist on one of the most famous <span style="font-weight: bold;">opening lines</span> in the English language (a gimmick she used on <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/08/price-of-pride.html">another politician</a> back in 2008):<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">It is a <span style="font-weight: bold;">truth universally acknowledged</span> that it’s not the scandal that kills you; it’s the cover-up. Herman Cain has added a corollary: It’s not the cover-up that kills you; it’s the cascade of malarkey that spills out when you try to cover up the cover-up.</span></blockquote>And she elaborates the analogy further by placing the actors with the <span style="font-weight: bold;">characters</span>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The Herminator was just a raffish passing fancy, like <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mr. Wickham</span>, a place for Republicans to store their affections while they try to overcome their aversion to Mitt Romney’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mr. Darcy</span>.</blockquote>The eighteenth century landed gentry lived by a strict moral code and Dowd gives us an update useful in the 21st:<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">It is never right for any boss, especially the president of the United States, to mess with an intern, even if she’s the aggressor.</span></blockquote>But she says that this particular tale is not a bodice-ripping potboiler, it is something far more pedestrian.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">It is the most hackneyed story in Washington — another powerful man who crossed the line and then, when caught, tried to blame the women.</blockquote>And our Maureen has too much sense and sensibility to let anyone get away with that.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-75460483240640364052011-07-30T18:15:00.001-07:002011-07-30T18:46:45.963-07:00Gargoyles In The House<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiHEL7k-NVF_sfdBg_98TA6poPLd8ixsClJD9TVdRYdbucE5NP_97ySZ0CJ4kmxEdt6wTeHarVlL8N_0Vjh8OF7ZKRLpRfgBcfahsyHQf7M28ZLlntxklBbQXeyh2LVmg0ypzW5EIKjU/s1600/teapartygargoyles.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiHEL7k-NVF_sfdBg_98TA6poPLd8ixsClJD9TVdRYdbucE5NP_97ySZ0CJ4kmxEdt6wTeHarVlL8N_0Vjh8OF7ZKRLpRfgBcfahsyHQf7M28ZLlntxklBbQXeyh2LVmg0ypzW5EIKjU/s400/teapartygargoyles.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635319473958186818" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/opinion/sunday/dowd-tempest-in-a-tea-party.html">Tempest in a Tea Party</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: July 30, 2011<br /><br />Maureen Dowd invokes the name of a <span style="font-weight:bold;">1990's animated series</span> featuring long dormant creatures who are awakened, but cannot be controlled, by an evil mastermind hell-bent on world domination.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Like <span style="font-weight: bold;">gargoyles</span> on the Capitol, the adamantine nihilists are determined to blow up the country’s prestige, their party and even their own re-election chances if that’s what it takes.</blockquote><br />Let's hope Boehner can control these gargoyles better than Xanatos was ever able to.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-86761662947904255342011-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:002011-02-14T08:13:10.645-08:00Pardon Her French<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/opinion/13dowd.html" target='_blank' rel='external'>Simply the Worst</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: February 12, 2011<br /><br />While the rest of world was fixating on the revolution in Egypt and its ramifications, Maureen Dowd was amortizing her purchase of Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs. About the unrepentant former Defense Secretary, she had this to say:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">As part of his “<span style="font-weight: bold;">Je ne regret rien pas</span>” book tour, the 78-year-old former defense secretary stopped by the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, where he got the group’s annual “Defender of the Constitution” award.</blockquote>Running that French phrase through the astoundingly incompetent Babelfish translator gets the English abomination of "<span style="font-weight: bold;">I regret nothing not</span>." <a href="http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2011/02/maureen_dont_you_have_french_f.html" target='_blank' rel='external'>Jay Hancock</a> of the Baltimore <span style="font-style:italic;">Sun</span> takes issue with her lack of translation talent saying:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">If Maureen Dowd is going to use French in her column on Rumsfeld, you would think she could consult with somebody who knows the language, or at least Google the Edith Piaf song.</blockquote>To which he links to the famous Edith Piaf song.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q3Kvu6Kgp88" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="325" width="400"></iframe><br /><br />This is not the first time Dowd has alluded to the French chanteuse's oeuvre. Back <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/06/cowboy-diplomacy.html">in 2008</a>, she referenced "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">les imbeciles de regime cowboy</span>" (pidgen French for 'idiot cowboy administration') when she said:<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">On the illicit rush to war, W. <span style="font-weight: bold;">ne regrette rien</span>. </span></blockquote>Note that the phrase is used slightly differently then. Suitably pedantically, <a href="http://newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/32627#CurDomainURL#/blog.cfm" target='_blank' rel='external'>The Iconoclast</a> at the New English Review diagrams the error:<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><blockquote>It was the first month, or possibly first week, of first-year Freshman French. For her howler today -- "Je Ne Regret Rien Pas" -- was wrong in not one but several different ways. It was wrong as to the spelling of the verb, and even more embarrassingly wrong with the pleonasm of the negation: no "pas" is necesary, and the verb regretter requires a first-person singular "regrette" -- so that if she were writing correct French, the line attributed to the man she condescedingly calls "Rummy" would read "Je ne regrette rien."</blockquote></span>Somewhere there is a French teacher at Catholic University hanging her head in shame while Edith Piaf spins in her grave.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-46662774982007320702011-02-05T18:18:00.000-08:002011-02-05T19:26:29.926-08:00Rummy And Poppy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pjrngXYQQi5x0mpZIWOF3oQQavLFYKaejEUCx4rSVf6slbokFaMaGaBdQ9CNXDdRiTd-es3QChRwxUL1GwaWJDFvDKf-bD6V87oQLBG5J9O_wyjX-cmUWF3KsaDndgAyF3bioY5kGcI/s1600/rummy"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 192px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pjrngXYQQi5x0mpZIWOF3oQQavLFYKaejEUCx4rSVf6slbokFaMaGaBdQ9CNXDdRiTd-es3QChRwxUL1GwaWJDFvDKf-bD6V87oQLBG5J9O_wyjX-cmUWF3KsaDndgAyF3bioY5kGcI/s200/rummy" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570412148978528498" border="0" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/opinion/06dowd.html">Blame, Not Shame</a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: February 5, 2011<br /><br />Parsing the psychodrama of the Bush Dynasty is a long-lasting obsession of Maureen Dowd and a new memoir by Donald Rumsfeld adds new fuel to the fire. Maureen has a soft spot for George I with nothing but disdain for the his more hot-headed son.<br /><br />As she sees it, Rumsfeld has the obverse opinion. Rummy is envious and disdainful of George H. W.:<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Rummy has never hidden his disdain for Poppy, whom he regards as a flighty preppy who didn’t have the brass to march into Baghdad and take down Saddam Hussein.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">{snip}</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">No doubt Rummy feels that if he’d been a pedigreed scion instead of a working-class scholarship kid, he could have been president. And he wouldn’t have made a hash of it, like some presidents he worked for.</span></blockquote>Meanwhile, W. hero-worships the rough-hewn Rumsfeld, giving him a <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rude Name®</span> and all:<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The 78-year-old </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Rumstud</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">, as W. dubbed him, was both the youngest defense secretary in American history and the oldest.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">{snip}</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">W., however, loved Rummy’s blunt muscularity and contempt for weakness.</span></blockquote>And this is where Rumsfeld forms a hinge in Dowd's working thesis that the W.'s actions are all predicated on resolving his deep-seated daddy issues. <blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Rummy writes about the president-elect. “He had to be aware that I did not have a close relationship with his father.” At some level, that must have appealed to the wimp-phobic W., who spent more time trying to be Ronald Reagan’s heir than his dad’s. </span></blockquote>Rumsfeld shares one other attribute with the president who saw an invasion of Iraq as a way to right perceived weaknesses.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The high school wrestling champ doesn’t wrestle with self-doubt.</blockquote>If only he and the last president he served had been more right rather than so certain.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-44867061930060769662011-02-05T03:52:00.000-08:002011-02-05T04:04:38.710-08:00Welcome BackIt seems we at Dowd Central weren't the only ones that missed Ms. Dowd.<br /><br /><object style="height: 240px; width: 400px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHtgE3FMSn8?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHtgE3FMSn8?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="400" height="240"></object><br /><br />Where ever you were, partying with Charlie Sheen, skiing with Marc Mezvinsky, or just enjoying some well earned rest, we are just glad you are back.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-17446696750218715272011-02-02T03:25:00.000-08:002011-02-02T03:46:29.970-08:00Easy For You To Say<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/opinion/02dowd.html">Bye Bye, Mubarak</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: February 1, 2011<br /><br />Which of these three tongue twisters from today's column would be hardest to say three times fast?<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The ire in Tahrir Square is full of ironies...</blockquote>or<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">...stanch the uncontrolled surge...</blockquote>or<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">...the awful hypocrisy of America coddling autocratic rulers. </blockquote></div><br />And just to prove that we have the real deal back after a month long absence from the pundit page of the Gray Lady, Maureen throws in a patented Dowdversion®:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Cleopatra’s Egypt was <span style="font-weight: bold;">modern</span> in <span style="font-weight: bold;">ancient</span> times and Mubarak’s was <span style="font-weight: bold;">ancient</span> in <span style="font-weight: bold;">modern</span> times.</blockquote>Maureen, you maniacal maven, we missed you.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-16431634621833530952010-10-20T03:28:00.000-07:002010-10-20T03:42:46.216-07:00Marilyn Monroe, Bookworm<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0c2AHeGMmiAZ2jxyxodSowqZpAhVMrb2xqqZfdcbTZn1pF758e7xjJbQNjxWJljU_zj2AX5lCyR2hRSfVHZOGuoXkBbDl6KhbHtqzc_GtKuBU1kruarM2zf_pri2ALTWlFzBj-dvWN4/s1600/marilyn,marilyn,monroe,reading-45f13c6317fd05191e839efb45f6336f_m.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 171px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0c2AHeGMmiAZ2jxyxodSowqZpAhVMrb2xqqZfdcbTZn1pF758e7xjJbQNjxWJljU_zj2AX5lCyR2hRSfVHZOGuoXkBbDl6KhbHtqzc_GtKuBU1kruarM2zf_pri2ALTWlFzBj-dvWN4/s200/marilyn,marilyn,monroe,reading-45f13c6317fd05191e839efb45f6336f_m.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530076758015876386" border="0" /></a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/opinion/20dowd.html">Making Ignorance Chic</a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: October 19, 2010<br /><br />Maureen admires a certain dumb blonde:<br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The false choice between intellectualism and sexuality in women has persisted through the ages. There was no more poignant victim of it than Marilyn Monroe.<br /><br />She was smart enough to become the most famous Dumb Blonde in history. Photographers loved to get her to pose in tight shorts, a silk robe or a swimsuit with a come-hither look and a weighty book — a history of Goya or <span style="font-weight: bold;">James Joyce’s “Ulysses”</span> or Heinrich Heine’s poems.</blockquote><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOoWMeaCK8kLHDRUJF_UgQHrtevsO5GDLiThMdohMq1iKRRQbvbQ7-stN7nrxcxRw7mYL1zWbubV1zjDsMhlLRMhQ_7WBE_O1A0cDFb1Qp-dx2ovNMBwtjfqwxJV8zezcAxTiZWs5DYuQ/s1600/marilyn.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOoWMeaCK8kLHDRUJF_UgQHrtevsO5GDLiThMdohMq1iKRRQbvbQ7-stN7nrxcxRw7mYL1zWbubV1zjDsMhlLRMhQ_7WBE_O1A0cDFb1Qp-dx2ovNMBwtjfqwxJV8zezcAxTiZWs5DYuQ/s400/marilyn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530073971252979074" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">What’s more, she read some of them, from Proust to Dostoyevsky to Freud to Carl Sandburg’s six-volume biography of Lincoln (given to her by husband Arthur Miller), collecting a library of 400 books. </blockquote><br />A list of those books as well as lots more pictures of Marilyn Monroe reading, or pretending to read, can be found at the <a href="http://www.booktryst.com/2010/10/marilyn-monroe-avid-reader-writer-book.html">Booktryst</a> blog.<br /><br />Included in the list are:<br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">297) American Rights: The Constitution In Action, by Walter Gellhorn</blockquote><br />This is a book I doubt Christine O' Donnell is familiar with. Perhaps the current crop of political airheads, blonde or otherwise, can learn a few things.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-16901671131622195162010-10-17T15:13:00.000-07:002010-10-17T15:20:54.603-07:00Mean Girls<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMcnIyg439fSjSrhNrFfjETVPvuADMJDoRXDCxmiyBWLjx_tlFxnnxln1yDA51UdeVWjt6gddC8S2dA6dw-ArFcpoyP2OTPAQZdJjCb8ICDi8bOBC6AjIt78ECDZ315t6z6pxwiBqo3c/s1600/mean-girls+%282%29.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 312px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMcnIyg439fSjSrhNrFfjETVPvuADMJDoRXDCxmiyBWLjx_tlFxnnxln1yDA51UdeVWjt6gddC8S2dA6dw-ArFcpoyP2OTPAQZdJjCb8ICDi8bOBC6AjIt78ECDZ315t6z6pxwiBqo3c/s400/mean-girls+%282%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529142521849468386" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17dowd.html?ref=maureendowd">Playing All the Angles</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: October 16, 2010<br /><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">We are in the era of Republican <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mean Girls</span>, grown-up versions of those teenage tormentors who would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your locker and, just for good measure, spread rumors that you were pregnant.<br /><br />These women — Jan, Meg, Carly, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sharron</span>, Linda, Michele, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Queen Bee Sarah</span> and sweet wannabe <span style="font-weight: bold;">Christine</span> — have co-opted and ratcheted up the disgust with the status quo that originally buoyed Barack Obama. </blockquote><br />Really nothing more to say.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-17482128586820829212010-03-07T04:00:00.000-08:002010-03-07T04:30:18.872-08:00Deja Vu DiplomacyIn reading Maureen Dowd's dispatch today from Saudi Arabia, I had the strongest sense of deja vu as the image of a NYT columnist discussing peace initiatives sent my mind reeling back to 2002 when the <a href="http://mustacheofunderstanding.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="external">Mustache of Understanding</a> was making the circuit of oil shieks.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="10"><tbody valign="top"><tr><td><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thomas Friedman</span></span></td><td><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Maureen Dowd</span></span><br /></td></tr><tr><td><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/opinion/an-intriguing-signal-from-the-saudi-crown-prince.html" target="_blank" rel="external">An Intriguing Signal From the Saudi Crown Prince</a><br />Published: February 17, 2002<br /></td><td><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/opinion/07dowd.html" target="_blank" rel="external">Arabia: Inshallah, Obama</a><br />Published: March 6, 2010<br /><br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">I took the opportunity of a dinner with Saudi Arabia's crown prince, and de facto ruler, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud</span>, to try out the idea of this Arab League proposal.</span><br /><br /></td><td><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">“[Obama] said all the right words in his speech,” said <span style="font-weight: bold;">Prince Saud al-Faisal</span>, the Saudi foreign minister. “But the implementation took traditional roads.”</span><br /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">So I asked, What if Mr. Sharon and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire before the Arab summit?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">"Let me say to you that the <span style="font-weight: bold;">speech</span> is written, and it is still in my drawer," the crown prince said.</span><br /></td><td><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Actually, the president didn’t say all the right words in his <span style="font-weight: bold;">speech</span>. He created an obstacle for himself by demanding that Israel stop expanding settlements when it was not going to do so — even though it should — and when that wasn’t the most important condition to Arabs.</span><br /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">As for the "axis of evil" and reports of a possible U.S. military strike against Iraq, the Saudi leader said: "Any <span style="font-weight: bold;">attack</span> on Iraq or <span style="font-weight: bold;">Iran</span> should not be contemplated at all because it would not serve the interests of America, the region or the world, as there is no clear evidence of a present danger. Iraq is contemplating the return of the inspectors, and the U.S. should pursue this because inspectors can determine if Iraq is complying with the U.N. resolutions."</span><br /><br /></td><td> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">If anyone deserves to be paranoid, of course, it’s Israel. But Israel can’t be paranoid because paranoia is the mistaken perception that people are out to get you.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Asked about the possibility that Israel could <span style="font-weight: bold;">attack Iran </span>with its new drones, Prince Saud said dryly: “Talk about changing lifestyle. I think this would change lifestyles at once, forcibly.”</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Next week: Maureen Dowd shares the wisdom obtained on her taxi ride back to the airport.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-3410451910104235512010-02-07T03:21:00.000-08:002010-02-07T03:53:49.265-08:00Ford and Food<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6HMHlQX8kbJv2sjToS5Iqq90pn71vg6eFcsxptBLilifXsgwrFDvu2R2sE3Z47x4p4C-qKOFWqxlF1IBeoK2mVb_NJJF3b99GsZWoy-iAXSX2in_kVerYxGFefYcTuLy8V3WzbK0zAY/s1600-h/Coffee+Shop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6HMHlQX8kbJv2sjToS5Iqq90pn71vg6eFcsxptBLilifXsgwrFDvu2R2sE3Z47x4p4C-qKOFWqxlF1IBeoK2mVb_NJJF3b99GsZWoy-iAXSX2in_kVerYxGFefYcTuLy8V3WzbK0zAY/s400/Coffee+Shop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435464800358968786" border="0" /></a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/opinion/07dowd.html" target="_blank" rel="external">A Scrubbed Toe in the Race </a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: February 6, 2010<br /><br />While not one of her more common extended metaphors, sometimes Maureen Dowd gets the munchies. She starts today's nugget with some scene setting.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Between bites of an <span style="font-weight: bold;">egg-white garden omelet</span> at a bistro in his Union Square neighborhood, Harold Ford Jr. defended himself on pedicures and flip-flops.</blockquote>She interviews him and he protests just a little too much that he is just a common Joe despite getting limosened to Morning Joe.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">"It’s so unfair how it’s been characterized. I <span style="font-weight: bold;">eat</span> at places like the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffee Shop</span> more than I eat uptown.”<br /><br />We had stopped in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Coffee Shop</span> before deciding that, despite its <span style="font-weight: bold;">greasy-spoon name</span>, it was a hub of hip, too noisy for an interview.</blockquote>Just to fact check the hipster claim here is the <a href="http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/coffee-shop/#ixzz0eqfr0io7" target="_blank" rel="external">New York Magazine</a> capsule review of the diner doppleganger:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">Even though it carries a high risk of poor service and unpleasant encounters with attitudinal (but often pretty) people, The Coffee Shop sometimes seems unavoidable. When it comes to the Union Square area, this loungey pseudo-diner’s varied, inexpensive menu and sidewalk seating make it one of the best casual options in the neighborhood. There’s hardly ever a seat at the bar, which serves up surprisingly good drinks (including milkshakes and mojitos); and there’s usually a wait for a table at peak times, so plan to hang out on the corner of 16th and Union Square for a bit if you go.</blockquote>Sounds like the kinda place a pretty boy Senatorial aspirant would hang out. As for cheap, perhaps it is by Manhattan standards but the Barbequed Chicken Sandwich with a low fat cilantro lime mayonnaise goes for $10.95.<br /><br />And while she uses the word 'slick' elsewhere to describe Ford, Maureen comes up with a more culinary comparison.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">But he has a <span style="font-weight: bold;">buttery</span> way that suits brash New York. He charms everyone, from waiters who drop cutlery to customers who drop into his conversation.</blockquote>And she finishes with a cryptically ambiguous vignette.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The guy at the next table was staring at Ford’s plate. “The <span style="font-weight: bold;">garden omelet</span>,” Ford said, with a grin.</blockquote>Real men don't eat quiche but aspiring senators that get mani-pedis can definitely scramble some eggs.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-7719499640169915682010-01-30T20:05:00.000-08:002010-01-30T20:30:58.800-08:00Betwixt and Between<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbf09yoa-bK2N8vBsuLj4SbpszdE8yT8E0LfiknO0NsQ24q3yGOFkxSrQ4-1dxlPymhz9yiUeTOK0P8oPmUvNaisudx7xmLybSDY8jatco4e4Gdb0AEYTJtZkZvN8n5cT_4VrCVOqqeA/s1600-h/camus.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbf09yoa-bK2N8vBsuLj4SbpszdE8yT8E0LfiknO0NsQ24q3yGOFkxSrQ4-1dxlPymhz9yiUeTOK0P8oPmUvNaisudx7xmLybSDY8jatco4e4Gdb0AEYTJtZkZvN8n5cT_4VrCVOqqeA/s200/camus.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432755976143996178" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FjX2NYM4QRvbQLzLtczIVnp8ukMFFiKcuCPQew9YtbwrEtppQbriB-JLsWLWIEgBIggf7gTmKn00hqrCyw5wc0NaMn0K7ziELIcnr89vyAiaXwBgfjuyqnGOThXqtS2USV_qLGNwBe4/s1600-h/obama+cigarette.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FjX2NYM4QRvbQLzLtczIVnp8ukMFFiKcuCPQew9YtbwrEtppQbriB-JLsWLWIEgBIggf7gTmKn00hqrCyw5wc0NaMn0K7ziELIcnr89vyAiaXwBgfjuyqnGOThXqtS2USV_qLGNwBe4/s200/obama+cigarette.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432755877670294962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/opinion/31dowd.html">Camus Fired Up</a></span><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: January 30, 2010<br /><br />One of Albert Camus's works is translated into English as either<span style="font-style: italic;"> Betwixt and Between</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Side and the Right Side</span>. The latter would seen to be appropriate for the recent upbraiding President Obama gave congressional Republicans.<br /><br />In today's post-mortem of Barack's foray into Baltimore (where yours truly spent a half hour stuck in traffic as the motorcade went by) Maureen Dowd gives us a double dose of Alliteration Alerts™:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">He may lapse back into his <span style="font-weight: bold;">Camus coma</span> at any moment. But on Friday he dropped the <span style="font-weight: bold;">diffident debutante</span> act and offered, as he did at the State of the Union, some welcome gumption.</blockquote>And if that second phrase sounds familiar, it's because she originated the phrase in <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/eight-ball-barry.html">May of 2008</a>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Obama is acting the <span style="font-weight: bold;">diffident debutante</span>, pretending not to care that he was given a raspberry by a state he will need in the fall.</blockquote>And while it is a stretch to call it true alliteration, we do get a plethora of p's in this passage:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">When <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter</span> Roskam of Illinois complained that they’d been “stiff-armed” by Speaker Nancy <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pelosi</span>, the <span style="font-weight: bold;">president promised</span> to bring the Republican and Democratic House leadership together for more <span style="font-weight: bold;">play</span> dates.</blockquote>Say "promised Presidential play dates" three times fast.<br /><br />And Maureen liked the show so much, she suggested making it a regular series.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Obama’s advisers must wish they could do this every week for the cameras.</blockquote>Perhaps NBC can give them a slot at 10 p.m. I understand they have some dead air to fill.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-71094569710341993882010-01-27T04:26:00.001-08:002010-01-27T04:40:12.033-08:00The New One<a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/opinion/27dowd.html">Bringing Sexy Back </a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: January 26, 2010<br /><br /><table cellpadding="10"><tbody valign="top"><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The One</span><br /></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The New One</span><br /></td></tr><tr><td><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBR4QsE__XMZW-3XtMshAB3YJQekAOHjJuHsubg0ErbnOyK6iYh4b22C7RnmcC1pTabXeJE0sPxtRLPliW4E5k4TAlqCSp6xTMt-VzIg_5YYU_pQuUCdK17TfYRrYLI9RbpU_nmq751E/s1600-h/Obamatopless.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 148px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBR4QsE__XMZW-3XtMshAB3YJQekAOHjJuHsubg0ErbnOyK6iYh4b22C7RnmcC1pTabXeJE0sPxtRLPliW4E5k4TAlqCSp6xTMt-VzIg_5YYU_pQuUCdK17TfYRrYLI9RbpU_nmq751E/s200/Obamatopless.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431395193603519186" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></td><td><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOd89g9DJ0I6HoqHXGwYhdZI99xQQt-x_TTrZnhEkI0tr8aPoyBzAx5A33RqthEBwJYC2r1cL8mQQhyphenhyphenHQu_cNI17VAZdmhrLlHJZg8lre2_zELiThU1erX6b02lXf_5SiEqfYoIzmY_xE/s1600-h/ScottBrown.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOd89g9DJ0I6HoqHXGwYhdZI99xQQt-x_TTrZnhEkI0tr8aPoyBzAx5A33RqthEBwJYC2r1cL8mQQhyphenhyphenHQu_cNI17VAZdmhrLlHJZg8lre2_zELiThU1erX6b02lXf_5SiEqfYoIzmY_xE/s200/ScottBrown.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431395654193246738" border="0" /></a><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">gloomy populism<br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">sunny populism<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Ivy League cool<br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Cosmo hot<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">a professor who favors banks, pharmaceutical companies and profligate Democrats<br /><br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">an Everyman who favors banks, pharmaceutical companies and profligate Republicans<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">48-year-old, 6-foot-1, organic arugula<br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">50-year-old, 6-foot-2, double waffle with bacon<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">plastic and hidden<br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">warm and accessibly all-American<br /></td></tr><tr><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">6-foot-5 body man Reggie Love<br /></td><td style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">“American Idol”-star daughter, Ayla<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-27716275966500546592010-01-14T05:56:00.000-08:002010-01-14T05:58:40.510-08:00Happy Birthday!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUwJU2T-AoNG9AwZ8K89Shf3SlC3qYZoLYg7dcFItL-jda9frzCDgoYUNgbWjJVx6D_T0Wpp4Zt2ia04o_eKzAe8IVmxqr1bxPRT4kQvzmzcHuDgd3Ar2oGVtnVxo5DGIknnwILImFRBk/s1600-h/birthday-cake2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUwJU2T-AoNG9AwZ8K89Shf3SlC3qYZoLYg7dcFItL-jda9frzCDgoYUNgbWjJVx6D_T0Wpp4Zt2ia04o_eKzAe8IVmxqr1bxPRT4kQvzmzcHuDgd3Ar2oGVtnVxo5DGIknnwILImFRBk/s400/birthday-cake2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426594469874529954" /></a><br />Maureen is 58 years young today. Thanks to NPR for reminding me.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-14812941709316909052009-11-23T09:15:00.000-08:002009-11-23T10:01:21.887-08:00Maureen Versus The ChurchNearly a <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2009/10/ratting-on-ratzi.html">month ago</a>, Maureen Dowd took Pope Benedict and the rest of the Catholic hierarchy to task for her perception of the treatment of nuns as well as women in general. And she did it in her inimitable style. Here is but one example:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Nuns need to be even more sepia-toned for the über-conservative pope, who was christened “God’s Rottweiler” for his enforcement of orthodoxy. Once a conscripted member of the Hitler Youth, Benedict pardoned a schismatic bishop who claimed that there was no Nazi gas chamber. He also argued on a trip to Africa that distributing condoms could make the AIDS crisis worse.</blockquote>Needless to say, this did not sit well with Church leaders. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, took issue with a great deal of recent bad press coverage, including Dowd's piece, and submitted it as an over-the-transom Op/Ed piece. When the Times rejected it, he published an expanded version of the screed on <a href="http://blog.archny.org/?p=42" target='_blank' rel='external'>his blog</a> (how very high tech of them). While it takes shots at a lot of targets, here is the part directed against Dowd personally:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Finally, the most combustible example of all came Sunday with an intemperate and scurrilous piece by Maureen Dowd on the opinion pages of the Times. In a diatribe that rightly never would have passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue, she digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription — along with every other German teenage boy — into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.</blockquote>Yikes. To call Maureen Dowd, a product of parochial schools and Catholic University in her native DC, an "anti-Catholic...nativist" is nothing short of reprehensible slander. This tone was captured on many Catholic blogs including <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTRmMWIyNjNhN2NjNTMzYmVkNmQ1N2UxYWIwMjVlNGU=" target='_blank' rel='external'>this bit</a> from NRO's Kathryn Jeal Lopez:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">The Benedict whom Maureen Dowd scorns speaks a different language than the New York Times typically does. But it’s a liberating one — much more liberating than the tired and angry gender politics that offers little hope to the anxious men and women of our time.</blockquote>About the only person to come to Dowd's defense was Kelly Fincham of <a href="http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/col/kellyscorner/Why-Archbishop-Dolan-is-wrong-to-call-Maureen-Dowd-anti-Catholic-68070062.html" target='_blank' rel='external'>Irish Central</a>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dowd's crime? She had the temerity to question why women religious — nuns — are still treated as second-class citizens by the Church. She could have widened the discussion to ask why the Church treats all women as second-class citizens, but she confined it to nuns, saying the Vatican was trying to herd this elderly population back into their "old-fashioned habits and convents."<br /><br />She pointed out how nuns, for the most part, were ministering to the poor and vulnerable, while a plague of pedophilia ran unchecked through the Church.<br />{snip}<br />Dolan calls Dowd's column "anti-Catholic," but what on earth is anti-Catholic about asking the same questions that women have been raising in the Catholic Church for generations — if not centuries?<br /><br />Why are women second-class citizens in the Church? Why can't we become priests? Why can't priests be married?<br /><br />And how can the Archbishop of New York accuse Maureen Dowd of damaging the Church, when the greatest damage ever inflicted on the Church has been done from within — by its own male priests?</blockquote>The drumbeat reached Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor (read ombudsman) of the New York Times who has been very critical of Dowd in <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-watch-feeding-frenzy.html">the past</a>. His <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08pubed.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1258893238-I8Vob6zVp3WEOxo1SwsQGg" target='_blank' rel='external'>verdict</a> is that she was well in the realm of valid punditry.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dowd said the issues she raised went to what she sees as the pope’s extreme conservatism and his judgment. “Should I blandly express outrage at the church continuing to treat women as second-class citizens?” she asked. Bland is not what Dowd does. I thought she was well within a columnist’s bounds.</blockquote>Appealing further up the chain, Hoyt in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22pubed.html?_r=1" target='_blank' rel='external'>an online item</a> gets Andrew Rosentahl to explain what an "opinion" piece is allowed to do.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">While columnists must adhere to The Times’s high standards of factual accuracy, they are allowed great latitude in characterizing events, people or issues in a way that expresses an opinion. They are free, for example, to say that they believe that the Catholic Church’s hierarchy treats nuns unfairly, even if the members of that hierarchy deny it. They are not even required to include that denial in their columns. Columns are not required, or intended, to be fair and dispassionate accounts of events. They are by nature one-sided. Columnists may find it useful to give the opposing views on any position they take, or they may not, and it’s entirely up to them.<br /><br />A columnist can be tough, acerbic, playful, joyful, angry, chagrined, outraged or anything else — within the general bounds of decency that are embodied in the values of The Times.</blockquote>Maureen is definitely most of those. Since this controversy is still raging a month after the original item, it is clear that she rattled some cages. And perhaps they need to read some of those Bible verses about motes in eyes or turning the other cheek, or perhaps most of all, going and sinning no more.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-849256167139700600.post-58513676611818087852009-11-11T02:09:00.001-08:002009-11-11T02:30:10.637-08:00Oh Really?<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/4afa8d3f49662b21/4727a2501a2a0f59/8ff6c799/widget.js"></script><div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; width: 300px; margin-top: 3px;"><a href="http://www.nbc.com/Video/library/" target="_blank">Video Recaps</a> | <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Video/library/full-episodes/" target="_blank">Full Episodes</a> | <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Video/library/webisodes/" target="_blank">Webisodes</a></div><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11dowd.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Virtuous Bankers? Really!?! </span></a><br />By MAUREEN DOWD<br />Published: November 11, 2009<br /><br />Maureen Dowd picks up the pitchfork and goes after greedy bankers once again.<br /><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">“Saturday Night Live” was tougher on Goldman Sachs than the government, giving the firm flak about commandeering 200 doses of the swine flu vaccine — the same amount as Lenox Hill Hospital got — while so many at-risk Americans wait.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">“Can you not read how mad people are at you?” demanded Amy Poehler. “When most people saw the headline ‘Goldman Sachs Gets Swine Flu Vaccine’ they were superhappy until they saw the word ‘vaccine.’ ”</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Seth Meyers chimed in: “Also, Centers for Disease Control, you sent the vaccine to Wall Street before schools and hospitals? Really!?! Were you worried the swine flu might spread to the Hamptons and St. Barts? These are the least contagious people in the world. They don’t even touch their own car-door handles.” </span></blockquote>And she goes goes and takes the CEO of Goldman Sachs (or Goldmine Sachs as she calls it later) to task on ethical and spiritual grounds.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Whether [Lloyd Blankfein] knows it, he’s referring back to The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism — except, of course, the Calvinists would have been outraged by the banks’ vicious — not virtuous — cycle of greed and <span style="font-weight: bold;">concupiscence</span>.</blockquote>Which also gives us the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Crossword Clue Of The Week®</span>. According to Wikipedia,<span style="font-weight: bold;">concupiscence</span> is <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">selfish human desire for an object, person, or experience.</blockquote>This is strong theological concept she uses perhaps to rebut the many Catholic critics of her <a href="http://dowdreport.blogspot.com/2009/10/ratting-on-ratzi.html">recent column</a> about the Church's treatment of nuns.<br /><br />And just to prove she paid her dues in CCD, she makes one last allusion to a Bible story.<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">And as far as doing God’s work, I think the bankers who took government money and then gave out obscene bonuses are the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple.</blockquote>She thinks that maybe it is time to make some changes among the moneychangers.Mo MoDohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05727343667874455512noreply@blogger.com1