What's Important: MoDo Hair Edition

Daily Howler: At first, we were drawn to Gregory's world by those Nantucket nuptials

"...She’s one of our most influential pundits. And needless to say, she quickly began to recite the Bush camp’s jibes. Darlings, it was simply delicious! Indeed, this sort of thing is right up her alley; she has trafficked in such mindless drivel for year after year after year. How big a fool is Maureen Dowd? She was still reciting the “Breck Girl” insult in the column she wrote last Saturday! (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/23/07.) You know? The column where she reinvented (lied about) basic facts to help you swallow her nonsense?

But then, Dowd is part of our dumbest professional cohort—she’s one of our millionaire pundits. She’s vastly overpaid and over-praised—and she’s dumb as a bunch of old rocks. This morning, a rational person from out in the world commented on her vast dumbness:

LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (4/24/07): While Maureen Dowd hints at hypocrisy by denouncing presidential candidates for building fancy houses or spending big money on haircuts, we should all remember how weak the connection is between personal wealth and public policy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was among our richest presidents. He wore elegant suits, lived in the mega-mansion of Hyde Park, and was no stranger to the social life of the richest in the nation—during the depths of the Depression. Yet no president before him and none since have done as much for the poor, the hungry, the neglected.

What mattered then, and what matters now, is what the president does for the people. The rest is a monumental distraction.

Katherine S. Newman
Princeton, N.J., April 21, 2007
The writer is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.

We agree with every word..."