MAUREEN DOWD: A Vice President Without Borders, Bordering on Lunacy

[kevinmc]

WASHINGTON

It’s hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month.

Harry’s cloak of invisibility would be no match for Vice’s culture of invisibility.

I’ve always thought Cheney was way out there — the most Voldemort-like official I’ve run across. But even in my harshest musings about the vice president, I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet — a separate entity from the White House.

I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it’s quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution.

Dr. No used to just blow off the public and Congress as he cooked up his shady schemes. Now, in a breathtaking act of arrant arrogance, he’s blowing off his own administration.

Henry Waxman, the California congressman who looks like an accountant and bites like a pit bull, is making the most of Congress’s ability, at long last, to scrutinize Cheney’s chicanery.......

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/06/maureen-dowd-vice-president-without.html

[tularetom]

1. Sounds good but I'm not fooled

Dowd hates Clinton (both of 'em) and Gore a lot worse than she hates good ol' penis cheney. Once in a while she'll have one of these lapses and get everybody jazzed. But she'll revert for sure. I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw rush.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Go MoDo!

One of the greatest writers of our time.

[springhill]

12. I happen to agree with the Daily Howler.............

She is a disgrace.


Wow! Clinton is “so power-hungry that she can justify any thuggish means to get the prize!” In that way, she’s like Tony Soprano—Tony Soprano, a mobster! No doubt, Dowd’s editors made her give examples of this sort of “thuggish” conduct; surely, you aren’t allowed to make statements like that without backing up what you’re saying. But no, Anastasia gave no examples this day; she only offered her latest insult. Hillary Clinton’s a gangster, she said. Or rather, she said it again.

Because yes, this is the latest narrative from the circle which gave you George Bush. A few weeks back, Dowd’s friend, Chris Matthews, chaired a discussion in which Clinton was compared to Luca Brasi—and directly called “the godfather.” (These remarkable insults stemmed from a ginned-up reading of an innocuous passage in Carl Bernstein’s new book.) And then, this past Sunday, Dowd offered a column in which she said that Clinton “employs a staff of hit men” and “moves like a shark;” as she closed, she wittily linked Clinton to Al Capone. In that column, Dowd hadn’t failed to offer examples; instead, her examples were built on cracked logic. Clinton had been compared to a mobster because she had been attacked by someone else. Yes, we know—that doesn’t make sense. But darlings, remember the writer! And remember how much is at stake!

Dowd and Matthews are disturbed, strange, unwell; today, we laughingly see that Dowd’s such a nut that she thinks of herself as an aesthete. That’s right! Dowd, the dumbest rock in the box, still recalls the time when her Irish prince brought the brilliant Casals to our world. And now, when she thinks of Celine Dion, the outrage of the Kenny G era floods back. Why not misstate the facts of the case when such an outrage is being furthered? And why not compare these people to mobsters? Darlings! They enjoyed Kenny G!

That column by Dowd was a living disgrace—a blast from a ruling clique’s infernal regions. And make no mistake—these are the people who gave you George Bush in a vicious, two-year campaign against Gore. Indeed, this group will rule all our lives until we decide to unseat them.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh062107.shtml

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Didn't Mrs. Clinton Say...

That you have to "deck" your opponents? Didn't her corner (pathetically) claim that Dean had had lost the 2006 elections? (A loss of "Rumsfeldian" proportions, they said.) Didn't the Washington Post refuse to print her oppostion research? Does she not support torture?

I think that your protests are a bit stronger than is called for.

[Joe Bacon]

14. How can you apologize for such a partisan liar as Whoreen Dowd?

Bob Somerby has carefully documented all the Republic propaganda that liar has written at the Daily Howler

http://www.dailyhowler.com

Go through Bob's archives and come back here and explain how you can be duped by such a sleazy liar as Dowd.

Until that liar apologizes to Al Gore, the Clintons, Wesley Clark (remember how that liar tore Clark apart over his sweater) and yes this wonderful writer has also tore Obama apart. Always, she is much more vicious to Democrats than she is to Republicans.

[MannyGoldstein]

17. Huh? Wha?

More vicious to Democrats than Rethugs? Is this an alternate planet that you're reporting from?

She's definitely tweaks Dems - in particular, she has a keen eye for phoniness, which is found in virtually all politicians to one degree or another. But she could not possibly be more vicious to Rethugs than she is, unless she had them sent to Abu Ghraib.

[tblue37]

16. She is a Heather, pure and simple.

She writes like a snarky high school student most of the time. I can't believe you think that this Paris Hilton of prose is "great" writer.

She also deliberately trashed Gore, the Clintons, and Kerry all through the campaigns.

Read her incredibly dumb review of Gore's latest book. Basically, her review can be summed up as "Gore's a fatty-fat-fat-fat."

[eleny]

3. I feel about Maureen Dowd the way some feel about Ralph Nader

[smtpgirl]

4. I think Maureen is smoke & mirrors herself

[rodeodance]

5. Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington.--te he. good one!!

.......But gall is the specialty of Addington, who has done his best to give his boss the powers of a king. He was the main author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects, and he helped stonewall the 9/11 commission. He led the fights supporting holding terrorism suspects without access to courts and against giving Congress and environmentalists access to information about the energy industry big shots who secretly advised Cheney on energy policy.

Dana Perino, a White House press spokeswoman, had to go out on Friday and defend Cheney’s bizarre contention that he is his own government. “This is an interesting constitutional question that legal scholars can debate,” she said.

I love that Cheney was able to bully Colin Powell, Pentagon generals and George Tenet when drumming up his fake case for war, but when he tried to push around the little guys, the National Archive data collectors — I’m visualizing dedicated “We the People” wonky types with glasses and pocket protectors — they pushed back.

Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington.

[murielm99]

6. Arrant arrogance?

Nice alliteration, but a bit overblown for my taste.

[bvar22]

9. What about "Cheney’s chicanery"

I like that one.

[madrchsod]

7. once again mo proves she can write

she is like the drunk at the bar, she`ll dazzle you until she has one to many. then you realize she`s become annoying..

[Joe Bacon]

8. You gave him to us, Whoreen. Live with it.

There ain't a nickels worth of difference between this liar and Ann Coulter.

[stillrockin]

10. Dowd played a role

in putting Cheney in office. I have not forgotten how she made fun of Gore in 2000, ridiculing his appearance and his intelligence. She has been dead to me since.

[kaygore]

11. I agree--like all the rats, with the ship sinking, she's trying to desert.

[Canuckistanian]

18. Yup. Dowd parroted all the Gore sliming points

"Alpha male" "Earth Tones" "Gore doesn't know who he is!"

She's sickening.

[cassiepriam]

21. Bingo, she is one of the ones who put him in office. Hope she is happy.

[monmouth]

15. I think perhaps Mo is pre-menopausal, no meds....eom

[badgerpup]

19. She used to be a good writer, too.

I read Bushworld; Enter At Your Own Risk a couple years ago.
Was impressed, depressed and horrified...knew something was rotten, but didn't know HOW rotten.
:wow: :grr: :argh:

Her book Are Men Neccessary?...man, I do NOT recommend that to anyone who doesn't have a dominant Pollyanna gene. :scared:
Some interesting information, but so hopeless and depressing in outlook and observations it'll have ya lookin' for the razorblades. :hide:

[PurityOfEssence]

20. If he's not part of the executive, why is the White House Press person answering questions?

She should have said "he's not part of our organization; you'll have to ask him".

This man is one of the greatest living assholes.