Stirring up trouble is what she’s all about. Think Ann Coulter without the bestsellers and the cable talking head slot on Fox, but with a splashy news outfit behind her to add legitimacy.
But Maureen Dowd isn’t an unrepentant right winger. She simply whispers her poison pen politics, fed in part this season, no doubt, by the unhinged fringe. To appreciate Maureen Dowd when she gets into her dirt dishing rants, you have to understand that her blasts come from sources she simply channels into clever bursts that are meant to sound definitive. She did the same thing with her book Are Men Necessary?, which basically boiled down to her walking around to a bunch of cubicles at the New York Times to get her friend’s opinions on whether women should bother with males. Never mind most of us answered a loud “affirmative” to that question a long time ago. Not Ms. Dowd, who is throwback to the pearl wearing, little black dress clinging, 1950s clutching media queens who make a living in elevating the “daddy” party, Republicans, while rhetorically shooting the “mommy” party, Democrats, for sport, all compliments of her schizophrenic feelings about feminism. The “liberal” reputation of the New York Times simply gives her cover. And nothing gets her imagination flying faster than a chance at using Bill and Hillary Clinton as targets. So, when Joshua Green dumped the emails people handed over on an ask, Dowd was in tabloid heaven. It was, once again, a dish-rich environment, only this time she could enjoy a bank shot to strafe “Beanpole Guy,” aka Barack Obama, aka Mr. Darcy, the presumptive Democratic nominee. Real men aren’t “beanpoles,” you see (never mind Michael Phelps), especially when you’ve got Hillary Clinton plotting in the background to supposedly ruin “Beanpole Guy’s” convention. What a patsy, that presumptive nominee! Can’t even control that woman. From Dowd’s Yes, She Can:
Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior. …
Hillary feels no guilt about encouraging her supporters to mess up Obama’s big moment, thus undermining his odds of beating John McCain and improving her odds of being the nominee in 2012.
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever, coming from my sources and personal experience, that Clinton is doing anything of the sort.
Marc Ambinder is getting the exact same message.
Reports of strife between negotiators for Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are exaggerated and the two sides are nearing an agreement on how Clinton’s delegates will participate in the formal nominating process at the Democratic National Convention, according to advisers to both Democrats.
Let’s face it, for people like Dowd there is just no fun in it if Hillary Clinton is seen to be working with Barack Obama on the convention. Bob Somerby nails Dowd:
The basic techniques were all in place: Obsession with certain central characters. The undisguised ability to read their minds — to “almost hear her mind whirring.” The ability to psychoanalyze them (describe their primal screams), based on this access to their inner thoughts. And the endless denigration of “Barry,” who has now become “Beanpole Guy.” Final technique: There are always strained references to high culture, like Hamlet, as Dowd hides the fact that a column like this is the work of a disordered mind.
The “Hillary’s busy planning her convention” theme has one goal. To sow further Hillary hatred, as well as make Obama’s loyal fans doubt that HRC is behind the nominee, both of which aid John McCain, something that Dowd has no problem doing considering she long ago fell in a swoon over John McCain’s biography. As laudable as it is, which no one is doubting, it doesn’t make him qualified to be commander in chief, which we’re finding out first hand with his “we are all Georgians” rattling.
However, Dowd isn’t done until she weighs in on Hillary’s gals, dragging in Chelsea, with the exclamation being more of her analytic air headedness pointed at the Big Dawg.
She said she thought it would be good for party unity if her gals felt “that their voices are heard.” But that’s disingenuous. Hillary was the one who raised the roll-call idea at the end of May with Democrats, who were urging her to face the math. She said she wanted it for Chelsea, oblivious to how such a vote would dim Obama’s star turn. Ever since she stepped aside in June, she’s been telling people privately that there might have to be “a catharsis” at the convention, signaling she wants a Clinton crescendo.
Bill continues to howl at the moon — and any reporters in the vicinity — about Obama; he’s starting to make King Lear look like Ryan Seacrest.
Ah yes, can’t miss a chance to equate William Jefferson Clinton with a wolf. Dowd yet again revealing her rescue fetish over all things male.
But Dowd’s evisceration of Hillary is always personal, which even prompted the New York Times public editor, Clark Hoyt, to weigh in on Dowd’s “over the top” primary coverage in late June:
Even she, I think, by assailing Clinton in gender-heavy terms in column after column, went over the top this election season.
Ya think? Dowd’s never ending attacks on Hillary include a defeminizing characteristic that is used repeatedly by the right, including a “Mommie Dearest” swipe that she’s all about scaring the children, even when she’s talking about keeping America safe. This toughness on terrorism is okay for the guys but not for Hillary. Commander in chief stuff is men’s work. Not even during the debates when Clinton showed her policy prowess did Dowd give her her due. It was simply a twofer. Hillary was the “debate dominatrix,” with Obama christened “Obambi.” Democrats never make the grade for Dowd, but explaining her sexual spin on things would take hours, even with my years of research on the subject.
Dowd’s cover is that she always postures that she’s got some nugget of truth about the Clintons, even when she actually has none. Hillary having her name put in nomination was Dowd’s worst nightmare.
“I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton’s historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion,” said Senator Barack Obama. — Statement from the Obama and Clinton Press Offices
Poof! There goes Dowd’s Democratic drama confection. What next web will she weave? We won’t have to wait long, because Denver is fast approaching.
Everyone knows there is great disappointment about Hillary not winning the nomination among her supporters. People like me also contend she’s the best vice presidential pick for Obama. But in the end, the majority of Clintonites simply want to honor what Senator Clinton has achieved and mark it in Denver. Clinton’s “18 million cracks” in the toughest glass ceiling of them all is now set in language of the DNC platform, which Obama basically controls. Events are also being planned, including through Emily’s List, as well as other venues, that honor Hillary’s historic campaign, including a primetime speech at the convention commemorating the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote.
Facts will not stop MoDo from spinning her rhetorical web of Democratic drama. Nah, facts have nothing to do with it when it comes to the Democrats, the Clintons and Barack Obama. So, she really ought to give Ann Coulter a call. If nothing else maybe the right-wing diva can give the doyenne of Democratic dirt dishing some pointers on how to turn her poison pen print items into blockbuster bestsellers.
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