Maureen Dowd, Seriously Inane

The pundits have acted especially stupid near the Iowa primary. Joe Klein wrote a New Year's Eve post titled “Hukabust” about Hukabee’s poor chances in Iowa. Robert Novak and kindred nitwits declared McCain as the big winner for coming in 4th place. Maureen Dowd added to the stupidity with a column about how Obama and Hillary act as if they’re entitled to the presidency. It’s the same “They trashed the place and it’s not their place” Broderesque crap.

Melissa McEwan posted a delicious, deeply satisfying, and well-deserved tackle of the lame column titled "Shut Up, Maureen Dowd." As she explained, Dowd “cobbles together a jumbled mélange of folksy anecdote, selective quoting, and indiscriminate smears, held together with her usual adhesive of smug judgment and crazy.” It also zeroed in on Dowd’s racism and sexism; Obama is uppity and Hillary is a self-righteous bitch who doesn’t deserve to hang out with the cool kids. In the comments, McEwan characterized Dowd as someone who was “exceedingly representative of people who are "liberal" in theory, but not in practice, especially when it comes to cultural issues.”

I trawled the comments only to see how many people used “vapid” to describe Dowd (three), but I stuck after I found my heart warmed by all the reasonable negativity directed at Dowd. Some sought to account for her writing style. DBK said "My take on Dowd is that once she comes up with what she thinks is a good line, she builds her articles around it.” Arkades wrote that “she lazily opts for the cheap shot whenever it's available - in some cases, shoehorning some rather awkward arguments into her narrative framework, just to make sure the cheap shot can be used.” Others complained about her abuse of her position: She “seems to take great pride in being one of the few women allowed in the boys' clubhouse” (Arkades) and “I'm tired of such shallow people having such power” (Battochio the vagabond scholar). One commenter debuted an unpopular psycho-sexual theory regarding Dowd, and a troll ran about, but friendly consensus characterized the thread.

Tart offered McEwan’s favorite line of the thread: “It's almost as though she always needs to shut up.” I think it’s cool that she highlighted a favorite. I will, instead, highlight the most resounding defense of Dowd on the thread (from AMM): “I've never noticed that Maureen Dowd was any worse than any of their other writers.”

-- temperance