The Defiant Ones

The Alpha Dogs Bark
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: September 19, 2008

Normally, here at Dowd Central, we don't pay a lot of attention to other New York Times columnists unless Maureen is on vacation or battling the flu on Air Force One. Why settle for hamburger when you can smell the steak sizzling? But today's column by Gail Collins has a pitch perfect Movies With Maureen® metaphor in it.

The Republicans have discovered that McCain can’t draw a crowd without Palin, and the dangers of letting her float off by herself are apparent. So the two are manacled together these days like Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in that old escape-from-a-chain-gang movie.

Truly worthy of the master. Maureen must be proud. I just want to know which is Tony and which is Sidney.

Dowd-Free Digest

To save time and since there was no new Dowd column this weekend, here's a guide to the other NYT columnists from the past couple of days:

Digest David Brooks: Dubya has so screwed up Iraq and the economy, there is no way the Democrats can fix it, so you might as well just stay the course.

Digest Bob Herbert: Obama's got the momentum, but it's still a long, long battle.

Digest Roger Cohen: Obama is not Muslim. He just acts that way sometimes.

Digest Bill Kristol (from yesterday): Stop voting. Obama won.

Digest Paul Krugman (also from yesterday): Obama isn't playing nice and says mean things about Hillary.

Digest Frank Rich (from Sunday): If you think the Democratic primary race is ugly now, wait until Hillary starts playing the race card.

Digest Nicholas Kristof (from Sunday): Women make better leaders when we don't bother electing them.

Digest Gail Collins (from Saturday): We don't have Mitt Romney to kick around anymore.