Maureen Dowd, Professional Narcissist, Trashes Entire Democratic Party

[McCamy Taylor]

When does the woman find time to do her hair? It takes a lot of work to trash an entire political party. Most corporate media pundits limit themselves to attacking the candidates one at a time. A little Hillary bashing here. A little Obama smearing there. Or they trounce Pelosi for not being firmly committed against the War. Or Carter for not being tough enough. Or Al Gore for being Al Gore.

Maureen Dowd goes beyond the call of duty. She goes whole hog. In "Haunting Obama's Dreams" she says something offensive about everyone

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/opinion/23dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

OBAMA "Even swaddled in flags, Obama is vulnerable on the issue of patriotism." "South Side Black Panther"

REV. WRIGHT "wackadoodle"

HILLARY (Dowd has always hated Hill so you just know this is going to be good) "The Terminator" who will "regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave, crawl through the Rezko Memorial Lawn and up Obama’s wall, hurl her torso into the house and brutally haunt his dreams." (Oops. She slipped the knife into both Obama and Hillary with that one.)

BILL "Sean Hannity without the finesse" "McCarthy" (no, not Gene)

THE CLINTONs “'stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.'”

AL GORE Bill Clinton's "girl friend" and Hillary Clinton's love rival for the Big Dog's affection (That's right. Dowd did "Gore is a Liar", didn't she.)

JIMMY CARTER little man with big chip on his shoulder "who felt he was not treated with a lot of respect by the Clintons when they were in the White House, favors Obama." (it could not be because he thinks Obama is a better candidate)

NANCY PELOSI "appalled by Bill’s escapades with Monica" so she is bashing Hillary by siding with Obama, too (Dowd absolutely refuses to admit that anyone could ever support a Democratic candidate because they actually like that candidate. Nope, it must be because they hate Bill and Hillary).

The world according to Dowd. The Democrats have nothing to offer the world except Hillary, the anti-Hillary, petty squabbling over sex, race and power. This, in a nutshell, is what the entire mainstream media has been saying for months, however Dowd does not just hint at it. She gives us the whole package deal.

And I do not think that she attempting to criticize her own industry. I think she is having fun wallowing in the muck.

[joeybee12]

1. sometimes she's witty and clever, but most of the time she's so

negative I can't read her.

[MarjorieG]

2. Both Rich and Dowd wanted longer Bush books-impacted 2004

[sallyseven]

3. In the whole scheme of things

she is irrelevant.

[redqueen]

4. Dowd did a lot of Gore-smearing.

She's a proud clown.

[cenacle]

5. I'm confused by your post...

Some of the lines you put in quotation marks are actually Dowd quoting other persons. And your reference to Jimmy Carter as a "little man with a big chip on his shoulder" is neither Dowd's words nor anyone she is quoting. I get that you don't like Dowd, but your summing of her article here is somewhat misleading.

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Dowd is the one who misleads--with a poison purple pen. She quotes

the ugliest, most divisive stuff she can find. And the part about Carter is the subtext that might as well be written in big bold red letters across the page.

[cenacle]

10. your reply to me does not answer my concern

your original post makes obvious your opinion about Dowd. What it also does is confuse what she is saying, what she is quoting, and what you are adding in terms of your opinion. Because not everyone shares your opinion, or even necessarily knows Dowd, it's important to be careful to critique her precisely, where there is no question that what she is saying is what you are opposing. If someone you admire was given the same treatment, you would perhaps raise questions too.

[McCamy Taylor]

11. I link her article. Everyone here can read. You carry water for Dowd, I will critique her.

Why don't you start a thread in which you talk about what a great columnist she is and see how many people agree with you. Most people at DU already know what she does. I am just pointing out that she is now claiming that Obama doesn't really have supporters. He just has a bunch of people who hate Hillary.

That is offensive.

[cenacle]

16. inaccurately quoting an article...

is not justified by simply providing a link. Your critique fails on its own, regardless of who Dowd is or what she says. My pointing this out does not amount to "carrying water" as I've not offered my opinion of Dowd, nor have you asked for it. Further, invoking the idea of peer pressure at this site as justification for your careless references reduces this site to the level of a high school cafeteria, and forming opinions to whether or not they are popular. You went to great lengths to point out items in her article, as opposed to simply linking to it, but in doing so you made careless use of attribution. Then, because I pointed this out, you decided that I must be some kind of advocate for Dowd, whom you clearly dislike.

Everything in the world does not reduce down to taking a side. I would have pointed out the same sloppy use of attribution if the writer had been someone else.

My point in carrying on this discussion is that it's not just Republican operatives, or Karl Rove, or neo-con evil doers, or religious fundamentalists who distort, and distortions are not always purposefully conceived. Sometimes emotions trump care for precision. Your assumption seems to be that everyone who posts and reads at DU shares your opinion, and will happily pile on to any attack on her. This is a false assumption, and if you had been so sloppy in discussing a story about Bush himself, I would have said the same thing. If we don't want Obama misquoted, or Clinton, or whatever progressive anyone cares to name, and wish to have the high ground to call out anyone who does, we better be damned sure we are not doing the same thing

This is a community of discussion, by passionate, intelligent people, of which you are no doubt one. I don't feel intimidated by your telling me that I "carry water" nor that by voicing my opinion, it falls outside of some assumed norm at this community. I return to my original point: when you cite comments in an article, or quotations within an article, or make comments of your own on an article, you, I, we, all need to be careful.

When the fall election heats up, the battle will be conducted mostly in words, and in attributions, in this one quoting that one remembering a conversation he had with a third one who was talking about a fourth one. Neither now nor then nor ever is there a time to let emotions trump over clearly defined and sourced thoughts.

If the mainstream press did more of this kind of thing, if it was simply the standard, there would be less need to worry over it so much. So we need to set the standard ourselves, and hold ourselves to it.

[wrando]

6. howdy dowdy

this woman is a bitter middle aged spinster,she takes out her own delusional pathologies on everyone else

she needs a long look in the mirror

bill from ct

[defendandprotect]

7. The neo-NY Times suffocated her column when she became so popular bashing Bush . . .

I guess she prefers success --- no matter how she gets it???

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. Maureen Dowd is the Official Mean Girl of the NYT Oped page.

WTF the Pulitzer commission was thinking in awarding her for that panty-sniffing series of catty gossip columns about the Lewinsky scandal I will never understand.

[McCamy Taylor]

12. Gregory just quoted Dowd on his show as if she knows SHIT about the Democrats

and now all his talking heads are talking about her article.

Since when is Maureen Dowd the ultimate authority on the Democratic Primary? Her thesis---that Obama is only viable because everyone hates Hillary and so they are flocking to him as the Anti-Hillary---is just plain offensive.

[Zynx]

13. I will call her something I only call people who deserve it, male or female:

A bitch. To Hell with her.

[lark]

14. Dowd is a hack and a liar

I quit reading her back when Al Gore was her favorite target. She's sickening.

[Orsino]

15. Ivory-tower elitist.

Dowd is worthless, like most of her kind.

[RememberWellstone]

17. Senility

It's a terrible thing to watch.

[Uzybone]

18. Dowd and Rich...both are complete scum

They are both idiots. Thier target now is Clinton. Once she drops out they will turn full force on Obama. They will caricature him and make him seem like a total clown.

Oh, and once McCain wins the presidnecy then theyll start writing bad shit about him too. Like they do now with Bush.

The corporate media (all of them including MSNBC) is not our friend.