Maureen Dowd's latest on Dean and Judy

[kstewart33]

Squished Cupcakes and Polls
By MAUREEN DOWD


NASHUA, N.H.

Howard Dean's bark was missing its bite. And his socks were missing their warp. Not to mention their woof.

He was flashing his ankles, his old black socks threadbare above the heels, showing beneath the same old gray suit he wears day after day.

Speaking hoarsely to an appreciative overflow crowd at Martha's Exchange restaurant here on Friday, the doctor was doing his usual dancing on the head of the president, charging Mr. Bush with fighting the wrong war, appealing to the worst in Americans, dividing the country by fear, etc.

But he looked a bit sheepish and hangdog at his drop from larger-than-life to smaller-than-life. He seemed lost without his manic Jack Nicholson eyebrow-arching anger and devilish smile, an Oreo cookie without the filling, not sure how to proceed in a race where suddenly everyone was acting so nice, so measured, so blah.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/opinion/25DOWD.html

[joeybee12]

1. Didn't care for this--she should save her venom strictly for Dumbo

[Frederic Bastiat]

2. I'm a Clark fan but it's sad to read hit peices like this

I've just about lost all respect for Dowd these days.

[jonoboy]

3. Ms Dowd is writing about socks and soldiers are dying ..??

[patricia92243]

4. I don't think she and I saw the same interview - ugh on her.

[bearfartinthewoods]

5. why do you use dean for howard dean yet use the familiar,

judy for judith steinburg. has she suddenly lost the right to be respected for her own worth?

[JI7]

6. i think her last name is officially dean

but she kept steinberg for work since they worked together and it would be confusing with two people named dr.dean.

[kstewart33]

9. That wasn't my intent

As a retired working woman (business college professor), that wasn't my intent at all. But we know her best as Judy just as we call Ms. Clinton Hillary. And don't we often call Dr. Dean, Howard?

[bearfartinthewoods]

12. i know it wasn't intentional. but this is the second dean and judy thread

and it bugs me to see his wife 'diminished' buy the use of her first name. it never happened until she started appearing with him. prior to that she was dr. steinberg or dr dean or even mrs. dean. then she goes on tv and suddenly she is judy. it just feels like a demotion to me somehow?

[spooky3]

19. yes, you're right; we should use parallel forms. So Howard & Judy is ok

or Steinberg & Dean or Dean & Dean.

[KoKo]

7. Dowd should join the "Hardball" crew. She and Tweety with their fingers

held to the wind to see which way it's blowing that day.

[baby_bear]

8. I thought a couple weeks ago that Dowd seems to have lost relevance

It's kind of sad. She can be a brilliant wit at times, but it seems to have escaped her, consistently, of late, regardless of her target du jour. She comes across as trying too hard to be clever.

s_m

[rfranklin]

14. You pegged it...

Trying to hard to be clever. Her role model is probably Dorothy Parker and the other drunks at the Algonquin. Over the years they produced a few memorable witticisms, but it must have been torture to sit through the years of alcohol fumes, cigarette smoke and haltitosis to receive a few gems.

[baby_bear]

20. Yes, but Dowd is no Parker!!

Personally, I would have loved to have sat at the table at the Algonquin with Dorothy, sipping a few martinis.

Dowd is not in her class.

s_m

[lastknowngood]

10. Five more dead yesterday

and so called reporters are doing hate Dean crap. You people aren't near mad enough. Go to bartcop.com and see some real reporting with a little bite.

[kstewart33]

11. Hey, don't be so thin-skinned

If Kerry gains the big mo, Maureen will be going after him soon enough. And she's done a great job dissecting Bush and his cronies. She won the Pulitzer for her work, and it's easy to see why.

[RetroLounge]

13. Who cares what this media whore has to say?`

She changes direction more than a bumper car driven by a drunk.

[farmbo]

15. So she's conflicted about Dean...Big Deal, we all are...

But the general tone of the article is that she misses the old, unscripted Dean and regrets the inevitable new "made for TV" Dean. She also decries Diane Sawyer's ham-fisted interview but had glowing words for Judy.

And that about sums it up for me too.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. Lighten up, it's hardly a hit piece! Dowd was saying it's

too bad Howard Dean has had to restrain his exuberance and dash around doing interviews and Letterman's Top 10; she found Judy Dean "charming" and suggested that if she becomes First Lady, she should open a medical office in the East Wing and Martha Stewart should be pardoned in order to act as White House hostess so Mrs. Dean wouldn't have to be bothered.

Negatives? Howard's socks were threadbare over the heels, he wears the same old gray suit all the time -- isn't that one of the reasons Dean supporters like him, that he's cheap and not very concerned about appearances? I seem to remember him bragging about being cheap, people loving pictures of him in their messy kitchen.

Negatives? Dowd was a bit suspicious of Judy's claim that Howard never loses his temper at home? As a long-married person, I'm a bit suspicious of anyone who's married and claims their spouse never loses his / her temper. It doesn't seem possible. But what else could Judy Dean have said?

Negatives? Dowd observed that Judy and Howard Dean seem to be living in two different worlds, without much knowledge of each other's world. Didn't we know this? Haven't they been doing this for most of their marriage? And isn't it their business? All marriages are not the same.

I think some Dean supporters expect the wrong things of people in the news business. It's not Dowd's job to write a puff piece or a campaign flier for Dean. She should put some criticism as well as positive statements in columns about candidates, no matter which candidate she write about. Do you think she'd write about Dennis Kucinich without talking about his being divorced? Or pointing out he's a vegan (often viewed as being a negative or at least an oddity in this country.) But that's part of who Dennis is.

The responses posted so far would make anyone who hadn't read her column think that Dowd absolutely ripped the Deans to shreds. I thought she made them sound pretty likable. Maybe you should read it again?

[zulchzulu]

17. Dowd is still miffed that Dean stood her up a couple weeks ago

Let just say it wasn't a good move on Dean's part.

[Democrats unite]

18. How appropriate for the media to do something like this...

With all the problems in America! I use to defend the media saying news is news. Boy they have proved me wrong, over & over & over...