October 17, 2010

Maureen Dowd on the Sharron Angle/Harry Reid debate.

I smell a whiff of anti-feminism in this focus on laundry and food:
The senator began the debate with a gentle reminiscence about his mother, who took in wash from the brothels in scruffy Searchlight, Nev.

Angle could have told the poignant story of her German immigrant great-grandmother who died trying to save laundry hanging on the clothesline in a South Dakota prairie fire, which Angle wrote about in her self-published book, “Prairie Fire.” But instead the former teacher and assemblywoman began hurling cafeteria insults. “I live in a middle-class neighborhood in Reno, Nevada,” she said. “Senator Reid lives in the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C.”
I thought "Prairie Fire" was William Ayers's "forgotten communist manifesto." Lefties are poetic"A single spark can start a prairie fire" — but apparently Sharron Angle wrote a book about an actual prairie fire. Literal. Righties are so concrete. Dumb as a block.

But, so... Dowd's point is that Sharron Angle is a high-school "mean girl." Hey, I wonder if she read my October 8th piece answering Slate's question "Who gets to be a feminist?" I wrote:
So what am I supposed to care about here? You don't get any special rights or privileges for being a feminist, so what difference does it make? "Who gets to be a feminist?" Is it some high-school clique with mean girls deciding who gets in? Are there guardians at the entrance? The entrance of what? Nothing hinges on it. One woman says, "I am a feminist" and another says, "No, you're not." This is political polemic of a very dull sort.
I see the liberal women as having the exclusionary "mean girl" attitude, but Dowd is trying to pin that stereotype on Angle. How does Angle's failure —  in a political debate — to rhapsodize about an ancestor exclude anyone? I can see that Reid might wish things had stayed sweet and gentle, but how is a political debate a time for hugs? If women are to be in politics, we need to rise above the socialization toward niceness and not hurting anyone's feelings.

And how is it "hurling cafeteria insults" to question Reid about how he got so rich when he's spent nearly his whole career in politics? It certainly wasn't saying my neighborhood is better than yours — which might be mean-girlish. He lives in the Ritz-Carlton in Washington!

Dowd is hot to flip everything around. If you want to talk about mean girls, she's the mean girl! But look at how she portrays herself:
... I was getting jittery....

As the politicians droned on and my Irish skin turned toasty brown, I worried that Governor Brewer might make a citizen’s arrest and I would have to run for my life across the desert. She has, after all, declared open season on anyone with a suspicious skin tone in her state....

After the debate was over, Angle scurried away and so did I — in a different direction. I was feeling jittery again. If she saw me, she might take away my health insurance and spray-paint my locker.
Dowd is my age — nearly 60. Isn't there something really awful about presenting your emotional life in adolescent terms when you are that old? Especially when you're cozily situated on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Here's Dowd's description of Sharron Angle:
Even sober and smiling beneath her girlish bangs, the 61-year-old Angle had the slightly threatening air of the inebriated lady in a country club bar...
Now, click over to Dowd's column and see how she looks: sober and smiling beneath her girlish side-swept bangs, the 58-year-old Dowd has a slightly threatening air. Which is just fine! Don't get me wrong. A columnist should feel threatening. But she's not a timorous girl. Or maybe she is when she gets out in the world, out of her comfort zone. If so, that's not fine. And it's not Sharron Angle's flaw.

80 comments:

Chase said...

If Maureen Dowd has influence over even one voter beyond herself in the United States, that is one stupid voter.

Anonymous said...

This is MoDo at her best. Read inbetween her lines:

Democrats will win this election: 224+ in the House and 54+ in the Senate.

Obama/Biden will win in Nov. 2012.

What can the GOP and Tea Party do? Nothing at all.

These are serious times. There are serious problems. We need serious thinkers in leadership. Ergo, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Reid.

There is NO GOP who can match up with Obama/Pelosi/Reid. Also, not the GOP kill their own. Do you want people like that? See in DE, O'Donnell is rejected by GOP leadership. She will lose to Coons, but she is already lost to GOP.

So, why go for GOP? It is the party of dead.

Instead, go for Stayin' Alive. Go for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid.

This election is going to show the voters, those who are alive (us in Democratic Party) and those that are not relevant at all (the GOP).

Trooper York said...

Isn't it time for Maureen Dowd to get a bunch of cats and leave the rest of us alone.

Fen said...

Maureen Dowd has been assigned to write attack pieces on female conservatives and TPers.

Anything coming from her pen till election day should be viewed as DNC propaganda.


Not that it makes much difference with her - she sold her soul a long time ago. The ONLY reason she has a job is because she sucks off anyone who can affect her career.

...she does do this *wicked* thing with her hips though. Definately worth the $10.

Wince said...

Isn't there something really awful about presenting your emotional life in adolescent terms when you are that old?

...Now, click over to Dowd's column and see how she looks...


Dressed in shorts and sucking on a big plastic straw?

wv - basesol = "basesol been berry, berry good to me"

Michael said...

The lefties are very confused and confusion is not a comfortable state of mind for these the smartest of us all.

chickelit said...

We can absorb another Dowd attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even after 11/08, the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.

MayBee said...

Dowd: "just for good measure, spread rumors that you were pregnant."

Oh, the irony.

roesch-voltaire said...

Let see Dowd say Angle is a mean girl ,but Althouse says Dowd is a mean girl who presents her emotional life like a teenager while Althouse wonders if some high school clique of mean girls decides who is a feminist.?And if you mention laundry or food, well that smells of anti-feminism--defined by which mean girl? This all seems very catty.

Unknown said...

MoDo can't deal with the fact Angle, who's supposed to be as big a wacko as Christine O'D, nailed Dingy Harry's hide to the barn door, as O'Donnell did to Coons.

Those hippie dippy days of Lefty supremacy are going a-gleaming and she can't handle it.

Mean girls? She's been one of the queen bees, and all the nice girls she hates are about to go to the Prom while she and her friends sit home dateless.

PS That AP thinks MoDo is channeling some Demo victory tends to make me believe he was playing center for the Badgers yesterday - without a helmet.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Maureen Dowd is the ultimate liberal feminist mean girl; and that liberal gimmick has sailed.

I have to hand it the ultimate mean liberal girl; Bitter Maureen is great at bending reality to fit her narrow world view.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Ann states: "I see the liberal women as having the exclusionary "mean girl" attitude, but Dowd is trying to pin that stereotype on Angle."

That.

Trooper York said...

Maureen Dowd is the prototypical cold Irish bitch who can't have a warm and loving long term relationship with a man.

They used to become nuns. Now they become feminists.

It is easy to see why she hates Palin.

She needs to go to the North Shore Animal League and adopt about thirty or forty cats so she has something to think about instead of the guys who fucked her and dropped her boney ass for a normal woman.

Sprezzatura said...

" Literal. Righties are so concrete."

Then, Althouse goes on to interpret MoDo completely literally. She even thinks that MoDo imagining herself as a Mexican is MoDo literally presenting her emotional life in adolescent terms.

I'm sure that Althouse thinks this post is insightful. Never mind that it's a con's literal interpretation of a lib's figurative blather. Fail.

Sprezzatura said...

Trooper,

Don't you think MoDo has a nice bit of turf staked out in her hood, and her circles?

I'm not sure she's suffering as much as you would like to believe.

Fen said...

Mean girls? She's been one of the queen bees, and all the nice girls she hates are about to go to the Prom while she and her friends sit home dateless.

Yup, you nailed her.

Jason (the commenter) said...

People are so used to trolls now-a-days, I don't see how people like Dowd can hope to have very much influence. I think she's spent too much time in isolation. She's gotten lazy and is no longer insightful or truly clever. She's just something you get with your NYT subscription that you'd never pay for otherwise.

Fen said...

I'd give you a club patch, but we're all out. Again.

Fen said...

Don't you think MoDo has a nice bit of turf staked out in her hood, and her circles?

She relies on the "kindness" of strangers.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I also wonder: How is it that Harry Reid became so rich while working as a Senator all the years?

Ah - best not to ask such questions about our liberal betters. That would be mean.

Fen said...

She needs to go to the North Shore Animal League and adopt about thirty or forty cats so she has something to think about instead of the guys who fucked her and dropped her boney ass for a normal woman.

Women like Maureen Dowd never get this - even the incredible sex is not worth having to put up with your bullshit on a daily basis.

And I imagine Maureen has been discarded in this manner more than most. So she kinda has a right to her bitterness.

Walter said...

Wonderful, Ann!

Trooper York said...

"even the incredible sex is not worth having to put up with your bullshit on a daily basis"

Dude, you could never have incredible sex with a stone cold nasty Irish twat like Maureen Dowd.

You would have more fun sticking your dick into a warm loaf of soda bread. Just sayn'

Opus One Media said...

dowd is dowd. angle is (unfortunately) angle.

next.

Opus One Media said...

hey trooper...

long time no see. you ok?

and Ms. Dowd is in my private email list..please take back your comment. i know her and can vouch for her.

Fen said...

Dude, you could never have incredible sex with a stone cold nasty Irish twat like Maureen Dowd.

I have. Next time you're near a beltway fundraiser, and have $10 burning a hole in your pocket, I'll introduce you to her.

That thing she does with her hips is worth every penny.

But for now, Maureen needs to do her dance as Obama's little attack poodle - so that just maybe he'll allow her to write off all that Viagra she's got stocked.

Fen said...

HDHouse: Ms. Dowd is in my private email list..please take back your comment. i know her and can vouch for her.

Ah how sweet! The little brownshirt leftists is calling for civility.

Fuck off Libtard.

Ann Althouse said...

"while Althouse wonders if some high school clique of mean girls decides who is a feminist"

Read it again. I'm being sarcastic. I write a question that works as the assertion that there obviously is no such thing.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Sharon Angle is mean.
Sharon Angle hates brown people.
Sharon Angle spray-paints lockers.
Sharon Angle is coldhearted.
How dare Sharon Angle question the superior Harry Reid.

I've never heard these liberal arguments before. They sound so refreshing and smart!

*snore*

Unknown said...

AprilApple said...

I also wonder: How is it that Harry Reid became so rich while working as a Senator all the years?

As Ann observed, "The senator began the debate with a gentle reminiscence about his mother, who took in wash from the brothels in scruffy Searchlight, Nev.". So it runs in the family.

HDHouse said...

dowd is dowd. angle is (unfortunately) angle.

next.


Unfortunately only for MoDo and HD. Miss Sharron is winning.

Ann Althouse said...

"She even thinks that MoDo imagining herself as a Mexican is MoDo literally presenting her emotional life in adolescent terms."

The word I used was "portraying" which makes your comment inapt.

Big Mike said...

That AP thinks MoDo is channeling some Demo victory tends to make me believe he was playing center for the Badgers yesterday - without a helmet.

No, he was on the OSU side of the ball. You're right about forgetting to wear his helmet, though.

;-)

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Maher and Dowd. Bitter, angry, nasty, vituperative, depressed, lashing out, in denial.

Looks to me like we have them right where we want them.

wv:outies-- a class of navel.

Fen said...

Barack Obama is in my private email list..please take back your comment. i know him and can vouch for him.

*snicker*

Opus One Media said...

@fen....

up on the wrong side of the bed i see. .. just as well in case the pet rabbit has to go out and pee in the middle of the night.

ricpic said...

Leave the laundry, take the cannoli.

Fen said...

HDHouse: up on the wrong side of the bed i see.

Hardly. I just think its hysterical to see calls for civility coming from someone like you.

You made your bed, now sleep in it.

Fen said...

BTW Libtard, can we ridicule Bill Maher? Or is he also in your private email list...

Trooper York said...

Now for something completely different.

Hd here is a serious question for you.

How did Harry Reid get so rich on the government payroll? Shouldn't somebody....oh I don't know...like the New York Times demand an answer ....not like they asked the same question about Charley Rangel who has six apartments and villa's in the Islands while being in Congress all these years.


Why can't the scumbag mainstream media ask that question.

Not just of Harry but McCain or anyone else.

Now if they married money like McCain or Kerry that's one answer.

But what about Harry and Charley?

Email that to Mo and lets see what she has to say.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Can Ms. Dowd really have this complete lack of self-awareness? Of herself and her liberal feminist colleagues?

Last month she excoriated (correctly) Dinesh D'Souza and Gingrich for their risible thesis that Obama's anti-western and anti-US views (as they saw them; I don't) came from Obama's father's experiences in Kenya under British colonial rule.

It's a simplistic and tendentious accounting not worthy of much discussion.

But this came from the same Dowd who regularly called Bush the "boy emperor" who was motivated by his desire to revenge his father's failures in Iraq. Or some such filial need.

Please, Ms. Dowd, you do exist!

Anonymous said...

I'm Irish and we don't turn "toasty brown" in the sun. We turn pink and then blistery red.

This woman can't even make up a story that sounds even the faintest bit true.

ndspinelli said...

Dowd's biggest problem is vodka. And, as the wise Trooper York states; this woman needs to accept her destiny as a spooky, old, cat lady and remain in her Manhattan condo, sipping vodka all day that she has delivered along w/ single DiGiorno pizza from the corner market, petting her 12 cats, and leave us the hell alone.

Sprezzatura said...

"I smell a whiff of anti-feminism"

"Who decides who is an anti-feminist?" I wrote:
So what am I supposed to care about here? You don't get any special rights or privileges for being an anti-feminist seeker, so what difference does it make? "Who gets to decide who is an anti-feminist?" Is it some high-school clique with mean girls deciding who is an anti-feminist? Are there guardians at the entrance? The entrance of what? Nothing hinges on it. One woman says, "You're an anti-feminist" and another says, "No, I'm not." This is political polemic of a very dull sort."

William said...

I'll continue to read Dowd. She really is witty and, if you are patient, she will direct her beam at a liberal two or three times a year. That said, her accusing Angle of being a mean girl is like Liberace picking on Elton John for being too outlandish.

Opus One Media said...

Trooper York said...
"Hd here is a serious question for you."


You know TY, i don't know. I don't believe him that he was just a wise planner but my parents lived in Strom Thurmond's district and by chance in the 1980s he bought about 3000 acres of crap land south of Aiken, SC near the Savannah River Plant for something like $5 million. Now he had worked in the Senate for something like 50 years at that point and how he scraped together $5 million was a mystery. How he knew that the DOE was going to sink $10 billion a year for a decade into the plant was a mystery since we were essentially not at war and how he cashed out was also a mystery.

i don't like Reid much at all. i think he has been a whimp. i get your point and it is well taken and accepted. Just don't go off the deep end thinking you guys have a lock on virtue in office. you don't.

LonewackoDotCom said...

This post and the comment are a great example of why the tea partiers need to be kept as far away from power as possible.

Neither Althouse nor her commenters are capable of presenting a logical argument against Dowd (not that Dowd presented much of an argument to begin with). And, Althouse's fans went even further: anti-Irish slurs, anti-female slurs, and vile and libelous claims. I'm only surprised one of Althouse's fans hasn't started screaming about papists.

Now, of course, since this comment points out yet more reasons to oppose the 'partiers, expect them to lie and smear about me as they've done in the past: that's about all they know how to do. Ask the teaparty "patriots" why they almost completely ignored immigration for over a year.

Trooper York said...

Hd, I never said that the Republicans are any better. I asked why the vaunted Modo and the rest of the scumbag mainstream media never askes that question. Of both parties. That is what they should do.

Not be obsessed about Palin's vagina or if Christine was a witch.

Trooper York said...

If you really do have her email...why not ask her that question.....why not ask Harry how he made all that money.

That is a much better question.

But she would never do that. Not in a million years.

She is part and parcel of the inside beltway mindset.

chickelit said...

How he knew that the DOE was going to sink $10 billion a year for a decade into the plant was a mystery since we were essentially not at war and how he cashed out was also a mystery.

One word Benjamin, just one word: tritium

Trooper York said...

As much as I hate to notice Lonewackoff's existence...he is a moby who wants to throw sand in your eyes....and by the way...I am half Irish and I know a nasty Irish twat when I smell one.

Trooper York said...

If intelligent people on both sides started asking questions about our permanent overlord’s maybe we can get somewhere.

Why should it be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton? Why is Andrew Cuomo anointed when his father was on of the major reasons why New York State is so fucked up? How does Lisa Murkowski get appointed to the Senate by her father and then think it is her birthright?

It’s time their feet were held to the fire. They all have to go. Now.

LonewackoDotCom said...

Trooper York: how exactly am I a "moby" in your little mind?

For instance, before the election, I posted 20 non-partisan reasons to oppose Obama. That got no support from r/w bloggers, despite how making those points could have peeled off independent voters. Instead, r/w bloggers spent their days in echo chambers, trying to convince those who'd already been convinced. Now, that's stupid.

Also, before the election, I sent an open letter describing how to block Obama in a highly effective way. Once again, I got absolutely no help with that. FYI, here are the r/w bloggers I sent it to:


Glenn Reynolds
Charles Johnson/LGF
Patrick Frey/patterico
Ace/ace.mu.nu
Tom Maguire/justoneminute
Jeff Goldstein/proteinwisdom
Dan Riehl/riehlworldview
Rob Port/sayanythingblog


Now, they're (all but one) promoting their fellow dolts in the 'parties.

Plus, during the year+ that the partiers were almost completely ignoring the area where their opponents are most vulnerable, I posted dozens of posts that they could have used to effectively oppose those they claim to oppose. Yet, they did not. And, instead of helping me help them, teaparty dolts like Trooper York lie about me.

As I've repeatedly said: I've never seen a dumber political group than the teapartiers. But, it goes beyond that: they lie, they have no interest in accuracy, they're lowering the already low level of debate in the U.S., and they exhibit a host of emotional problems. They need to be shunned by those who want good government, regardless of their ideology.

Trooper York said...

You know you convicnced me Lonewacko.

You're not a moby.

You're a dick.

All the best,
Your pal,
Trooper.

hombre said...

HDH wrote: Just don't go off the deep end thinking you guys have a lock on virtue in office. you don't.

That's right, Trooper, everybody's doin' it.

You can see how that is relevant to your question about Reid and the media, can't you? Can't you?

Oh.

Fen said...

LoneWacko the Soros Stooge said: This post and the comment are a great example of why the tea partiers need to be kept as far away from power as possible.

Neither Althouse nor her commenters are capable of presenting a logical argument against Dowd (not that Dowd presented much of an argument to begin with).


1) Althouse commenters are not members of the Tea Party, idiot.

2) Dowd doesn't deserve a counter-argument. We don't take her seriously enough to even read her propaganda. She's a shill working for the Dems, thats all the refutation thats needed.

3) You are an idiot.

Michael said...

HD: Your exchange with TY is both civil and interesting. I long for the day when a liberal (or conservative) can answer a question directly without giving an example of how the other side has done something similar or worse. It doesn't help.

Fen said...

HD's "morality" is symptomatic of the larger and more dangerous problem Leftists have - they devolve from justifying their behavior with "everyone does it" to *pretending* everyone does it.

Opus One Media said...

@ty

my wife is convinced that if i would ever leave her it would only be for MD....i wouldn't of course but as much as you crazy folks n the right hate her the more i admire her....she is really some pumpkins.

Synova said...

That is bizarre.

MoDo is utterly bizarre.

She found Angle threatening? She found Angle threatening because she passed up a perfect opportunity to tell a heart-rending story to pull at emotions?

But MoDo reacts emotionally anyway. She starts feeling nervous or even frightened that Angle is going to go after her?

I'm embarrassed to be female.

Fen said...

Which means they are capable of whatever henious act they can imagine the other side doing.

Fen said...

Hey HD, you should leave your wife for Dowd... "everyone does it" so it must be okay.

Fen said...

Frickin Lemmings.

Trooper York said...

Seriously hd.

Everybody knows you would leave your beautiful wife in a minute for Katrina vanden Heuvel!

Trooper York said...

Or Betty White.

Just sayn'

Sprezzatura said...

"Althouse commenters are not members of the Tea Party"

Meade sort of is. He certainly invested a decent amount of time attending one of these things. Of course he also (sort of) went to a BHO rally.

And, one of y'all noted that they'd been to multiple TPings. Was it Lem?

Trooper York said...

I for one am not a member of the Tea Party.

I will admit to having attended a few meetings of the Toga Party.

But that was in the misspent days of my youth.

JAL said...

Even sober and smiling beneath her girlish bangs, the 61-year-old Angle had the slightly threatening air of the inebriated lady in a country club bar...

Snide-ness?
Mean-ness?
Ad hominem-ish?

This is a shining progressive light?

Do core issues matter to anyone on the left?

Unknown said...

MoDo needs some Feminiagra for her limp schtick.

JAL said...

... I was getting jittery....

So does this mean Maureen is a, um, hysterical female?

Because if not there must be a reason to be jittery. It might mean Sharron Angle is a real threat.

wv ressess
Time for the "progressives" to take a multiple year ressess and let the unwashed masses and bitter clingers create our uniquely American future.

Mutaman said...

"Hey, I wonder if she read my October 8th piece answering Slate's question "Who gets to be a feminist?""

Ann, do you honestly believe that Maureen Dowd has ever even heard of you? Seriously?

Jon said...

I notice that MoDo's lengthy list of GOP "Mean Girls" includes only non-Hispanic white women. Nikki Haley, the next governor of South Carolina, and Susanne Martinez, the next governor of New Mexico, escape mention. Is it that MoDo couldn't find any meanness in those two? Or does their existence not fit the narrative.

Fen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fen said...

Katrina vanden Heuvel!

Heh. "PRAH..cess" I will never forget the way she enunciates the word. So much oral potential there..

AST said...

Sure. Harry was born in a log cabin in Podunk, split rails and walked uphill both ways to school. I think people are getting fed up with this kind of folksy faux charity: "Vote for me because my poor mother worked her fingers to the bone to bring me up." Harry "Non-sequitur" Reid.

I always enjoy AP's posts. They're such wonderful parodies.

Eva said...

How come when some men disagree with a woman they feel the need to start talking about fucking her? If she gets fucked, when, how good it is, she can't keep a man, etc. Just ridiculous.

Never mind, I know the answer to my own question.

Fen said...

How come when some men disagree with a woman they feel the need to start talking about fucking her?

Huh? You're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. What you describe is very rare, and I've never seen it myself.

As for Maureen, we don't disagree with her. We don't even read her. We already know she's a whore. My comments about her sex life relate only to how she's managed to keep her job.

You don't need to come to her rescue. She's a mean bitter bitch who distorts and lies about good people every day. Let her be damaged by the same standard she plays by.

Did you know there's even a word for her shady tactics? Its called Dowdism. Here's an example of what she does to earn that title:

Eva said: How come when... she gets fucked...she can't keep a man...ridiculous.


Never mind, I know the answer to my own question

Really? In the two second pause between your sentences you had an epiphany, but went ahead and posted your question anyway? Try to find another passive-aggressive device to express your unsubstantiated assertions. It makes you look stupid.

John Richardson said...

If Sharron Angle can handle a .44 Magnum revolver she is entitled to tell Harry Reid to "man up".

Not that she would ever do it, but can you imagine a YouTube of MoDo trying to shoot a .44 Magnum? One shot and she'd probably be babbling more than usual.

Patm said...

Whenever I read Dowd, I remember my father telling me never to date a gin-drinker, because "gin-drinkers are mean."

Trooper York said...

Hey Eva. How's Blondi?

bokehbrian said...

Forget for a second if you are conservative or liberal....can we at least all agree that airing an ad that is blatantly filled with lies and made up information is not OK?
Sharron Angle must think the citizens of Nevada are stupid, how else can you explain her putting up ads that EVERYONE agrees are filled with made up information and expects people to be ok with her lying to their face?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfohBvj824