The second half of today's Maureen Dowd column concerns Christine Quinn, New York's city council speaker and likely next mayor. In an interview published in yesterday's New York Times, Quinn discussed her past struggles with bulimia and alcoholism -- which brought out the Mean Girl in Dowd:
Quinn ... wanted to sprinkle some humanity on an image that took [a hit] ... when she was skewered in an article in The Times in March about her screaming fits and volatile bursts of wrath and retaliation. [Quinn] has a bloody penchant for threatening to cut off the privates of those who get on her bad side....I bring this up because -- in the two paragraphs immediately following -- Dowd writes this:
"I hope that what I share in this book is helpful, particularly to young women and girls who feel stuck," Quinn said.
And she certainly hopes the book is helpful to one 46-year-old woman who feels stuck, castigated as an arrogant bully....
With Chris Christie, his admission that he had lap-band surgery under an assumed name to curb his obesity is a second-tier story. The first-tier story is that he's a Jersey guy who takes no guff.Notice what Dowd doesn't consider as a possible "first-tier story" for Christine Quinn? The fact that she's a New York gal who takes no guff. Chris Christie regularly yells at people and threatens them -- and that means he's a charming tough guy. Christine Quinn yells at people and threatens them -- and that makes her an evil, unlikable bitch.
Christine Quinn needs a first-tier story.
Jesus, Mo, at least pretend that you hold men and women to a single standard.
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And while we're on the subject of Dowd, let's turn to the Dowd reference in that damn Politico story about how all the Kewl Kidz hate Obama now:
The dam of solid Democratic solidarity has collapsed, starting with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s weekend scolding of the White House over Benghazi....Maureen Dowd as part of a "dam of solid Democratic solidity" in support of Obama? Seriously?
Do you know when Dowd first sneeringly referred to Obama as "Obambi"? In 2006. Shortly afterward -- nearly a year before the '08 Iowa caucuses -- Dowd was showing her Obama solidarity thus:
Yeah, she's always had Obama's back, hasn't she?
In all fairness, Steve, MoDo ALWAYS had and has Obama's back - as long as she's got a knife handy.
ReplyDeleteThe only columns she EVER wrote that were worth something more than fish-wrap, or to serve as pooper-paper for a birdcage, were about W, Cheney, and the abuse of children, mostly boys, by the Catholic Church.
The rest of the time, when she looks in the mirror, and thinks about the futures, she's a Noonan-wannabe - an articulate hack, who hasn't had an original idea in years, but who's still paid to opine, so, opine she must.
MoDo is a slightly more Liberal Bobo, or Douthat, without the pretensions.
Let her report DC gossip - she would be GREAT at that!!!
That archive list of topics and its even more embarrassing sub-heads should be enough to cause the author to quit writing and kill herself.
ReplyDeleteIf Maureen Dowd is part of the "dam of solid Democratic solidarity", whatever that is, then, to reprise an old saying, I'll be a monkey's uncle. As far as I can tell Maureen Dowd has never had a single positive thing to say about the president. So if that's our evidence that Obama's support system is collapsing around him I'm not too impressed.
ReplyDeleteMolly Ivins she ain't. Jennifer Rubin, maybe.
ReplyDeleteJaaaaayCeeeee
ReplyDeletec'mon, MoDo earns her wordgurl pay:
1. she's not a Friedman unit of measure, nor a self-plagiarizer.
2. way too smart to theorize/fail in a newspaper publishing Krugman, like the guys.
3. Distr-hack-ting infotainment keeps democracy safe for the villagers.