The American Spectator : The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Maureen Dowd

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The Unbearable Whiteness of Being Maureen Dowd

By Jeffrey Lord on 7.21.09 @ 6:08AM

Columnist brings attention to white-run Times, media's racial double-standard.

(Page 3 of 3)

Perhaps White Mo takes the time to ponder these problems while secluded in the upscale white enclave of a city that the last census figures reported was 61% black. White Mo's white Georgetown precincts, according to census data from 2000, were a Klavernesque 3.8% black. Heaven forbid that she'd have her house parties in the 'hood over in Anacostia (97% black) or even Capitol Hill, which was 46% black in the same year all those hated Bushies began flooding the neighborhoods to get down with the even more despised Reaganites still there from the 1980s. Reaganites living side-by-side with African-Americans? Stop the white liberal presses! Call the stereotype police!

In fairness it really isn't fair to single out White Mo on matters racial, even though she has led us there. White Mo's white woes are in fact emblematic of the mainstream media in general, a place where judging people by skin color is a cherished value as long as it's New Haven firemen under the microscope. But not so much -- actually not much at all -- if it's their white media job, their white paper, their white television network or their white Internet site that is to be subjected to this scrutiny.

What do you see on your television or computer screen when you watch some of the prime-time news and commentary shows?

Here's a test. Think of these faces as promoted on the liberal cable networks MSNBC and CNN: Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Dylan Ratigan, Joe Scarbrough, Mika Brzezinski, Chris Matthews, Anderson Cooper, Larry King. Wolf Blitzer. John King. Lou Dobbs. Think of the faces reading you the news on the broadcast networks -- Charlie Gibson at ABC, Katie Couric at CBS and Brian Williams at NBC. A PBS fan? That would be the estimable Jim Lehrer. Sunday news shows? George Stephanopoulos at ABC, Bob Schieffer at CBS and David Gregory at NBC. Quick: what color are the faces attached to these names?

Ahhhhhhhh…right on white. You got it.

Seventeen mainstream media news shows -- hosted by eighteen very white faces. To do the percentages, that's 100% of these shows being hosted by whites. For that matter , the next time you catch a live feed of the white White House press secretary's daily briefing, count the non-white faces in the White House press corps staring back at the white man on the podium. You have one hand, don't you? Fox is not included in this line-up because of the obvious: as its liberal enemies love to point out, Fox is not liberal. Whether you believe Fox to be "conservative" or "fair and balanced" -- in either case, racial quotas are neither. Fox is the place where Latino Geraldo Rivera stars in his own prime time show. Shockingly there are lots of people out there in the Fox audience who think of Geraldo as -- brace yourselves -- Geraldo. Just Geraldo. Not Geraldo Hispanic. Not Geraldo Latino. Just Geraldo Rivera, journalist. Imagine that.

If the rest of these white media stars mentioned above were treated the way Sonia Sotomayor treated the white firemen in New Haven, they would have spent the last few years suing just to keep their jobs. And losing.

Which brings us back to White Mo Dowd. White Mo, the white girl who won the white prize for writing for the white paper with the white owner, the white editorial board and the white columnists. White Mo, who parties in a white neighborhood of a black city with white movie stars, white journalists and lots and lots of white guys .

Why, this white boy wonders, is this very white woman still writing this very white column for the very white Times in the first place? Why isn't her column given to some hot young aspiring-to-be-wise and very liberal Latina instead of White Mo? Why do white guy columnists get most of the column inches at the white run Times? Why not replace all of them -- maybe all but one, just to be quota-ish -- with black guys and dolls, Latinas/Latinos and an Asian or two to liven things up for poor Black Bob? If the Times were really up to its own imaginary standards, it would hire a gay black or Latina/Latino to replace the Frankly White Rich, he who tries hiding his whiteness by writing volumes on gays. Heck, why not just throw anti-gay bigotry under the bus and give Frankly White's white column to the straight-forwardly gay if unfortunately white Andrew Sullivan, he who brought Tone to White Mo's? Wouldn't that be Rich!

Why is the idea of ceding her column to a young Latina presumably a "no go" with White Mo? Why no gay Sullivan for straight Rich? The answer is the same as it has always been from -- white liberals: do as I say, not as I do.

White Mo will be staying at the New York Times because there is not the slightest intention to quota her out of her job in the same way White Mo and her white buds at the Times wanted to quota white fireman Frank Ricci and his white colleagues out of theirs. If one is to adopt White Mo's standard of judging by race, there is at the Times precisely what White Mo professes to see elsewhere but curiously not in her own work place: a white "code" and a white "club." The white guy owning the paper will hold on because his white family, the white heirs and heiresses of Adolph the White, want it that way. The white guy running the white editorial board will not be running a less than majority white board, the list of columnists will never be all non-white, and the blindingly white Bill Keller and Jill Abramson will still be two things: white and in charge. Forever and ever, 'til death do them part, white yesterday, white today and white through all of white earthly eternity as long as the Times shall live. (Which may be less than eternity, but that's another story -- sort of.) To adopt White Mo's take on life, it's the New York Times rendering of the white code of the white club. And White Mo not only knows that white code -- as with a lot of pretty white girls who know that code -- she's captain of the white club's cheerleaders.

Put this way, all this sounds crazy, no? While I may not agree with White Mo and her white pals, they are experienced journalists. You'd have to be crazy to just sweep in and deny all these white people in the Times and the wider media their jobs just because of the color of their skin.

Isn't that right, Lieutenant Ricci?

Page: < 1 23

topics:
New York Times, Race

About the Author

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (98) | Leave a comment

Michael L. Hauschild| 7.21.09 @ 7:05AM

Thankfully the credibility of the “paper of record” has been lost to inflation (it is like pennies, being worth more as cellulose scrap than its cost). The glossier weekly’s have also become nothing more than a left wing screed with less circulation than a supermarket checkout tabloid. Yet some still cling to and demean themselves by bothering to read the likes of someone who fantasizes about Rush Limbaugh. “Apprehend” them all you want, they will continue to get away with these “hate” crimes due to the fact that they are pleading insanity to a very sympathetic jury, and knowing full well their trial will be probably be adjucated by a very wise latina judge.

El Rey| 7.21.09 @ 7:14AM

One of the dirty little secrets of Leftists is that they actually do believe that blacks and Hispanics are inferior. But then again, the liberals also think that they are superior to anyone who even disagrees with them.

So naturally, the burdens of affirmative action & racial quotas and other dysfunction social policies (school busing, failed public schools, etc. ) should fall on the middle class, never them.

It is no wonder then that the favorite form of government of the Left -- or if you will, the liberals, the progressives -- is rule by the elite, namely themselves.

stuart reed| 7.21.09 @ 7:29AM

Hypocrisy is a way of life for liberals/progressives. Check your history: eugenics, civil rights, etc.
I have long since stopped wasting my time with the fish wrap formerly known as the paper of record. "All the bilge that's fit to spit"

Keith| 7.21.09 @ 7:47AM

One of the funniest "deconstructs" of hypocrisy and of liberalism's real racism I think I have ever read. May this Jeff Lord article gain much wider distribution.

ray bob| 7.21.09 @ 8:04AM

thanks, Whitey .... now get back in the front room and, well have a spot of tea ...

Jay Zee| 7.21.09 @ 8:05AM

Give credit where it is due. He may be flawed in other ways, but at least Elliott Spitzer put his money where his mouth is. Unable to tolerate racial injustice, he voluntarily relinquished his job in favor of an equally unqualified disabled Black man.

moron| 7.21.09 @ 8:11AM

Dowd et all don't have to play by their own rules---because their liberals!!! Busing your children across town for school---liberals vote yes, send theirs to private schools. They are for the death tax---but inherit their wealth through pass through trusts. Latinas for Supreme Court yes, stuff their Latino in committee--a threat. Endless.

I Conner Klast| 7.21.09 @ 8:31AM

Still Black and White and Red All Over!

Mattled| 7.21.09 @ 8:33AM

Mr. Lord,

When I see a "blue bag", (the NYT gets delivered in a blue plastic bag on driveways) in a neighbors front yard, I consider them 1/3 newsers.

They only get 1/3 of the news----that appeals to democrats only.

I have a relative who works at CNN and they are always saying "why don't you give CNN a chance" or "How do you know they are biased if you don't ever watch".

EVERY time I tune in, I get re-affirmation of their incredible bias. Here was the Sotomayor (The Wise Lie-tina) discussion board:

Wolf Blitzer
Candy Crowley
Gloria Borger
Jeffrey Toobin
John King
Some lady from CAP--former Clinton staffer--isn't CAP, Podesta's firm part of the Soros cabal.

and last but not least, a guy who produces commercials for republican candidates.

It was like watching a DNC meeting with EVERY DNC talking point being thrown out there.

I watch a lot less Fox News than I used to because I got bored with one network.

IF CNN really wanted to get back to "real journalism", they would start with investigating where Obama's college transcripts went.

Or why he has two hospitals listed as his "birth place".

How about finding our how he got his cocaine?

How about asking him why he sought the New Party support in 1996?

How about asking him about Frank?

How about interviewing the two candidates for state senate he had removed from the primaries?

How about reporting on his Czars and Czarina's?

*Yawn*.

How can we make the NYT disappear faster? ABC TV News (watching Stepphie and Diane pimp O's Healthcare this morning--blech--not an ounce of truth but a 16 pound bag of White House excrement talking points)?

I believe targeting local news is the answer. The $700,000 Phoenix Social Security bash was uncovered by a local Phoenix ABC station.

Let's call it the local General Manager Project. Since we are already boycotting network news, we are in essence boycotting the local affiliate. Let it be know to the GM's. MAYBE, they will send someone to Columbia University to find someone, anyone who remembers this fraud-in-chief.

Other than that, I just got back from Canada---maybe I'll try purchasing a NYT out of a box with those Canadian coins.

Timothy L. Pennell| 7.21.09 @ 8:39AM

This is no different than what is going on, right now. Our Birth Certificate Sealed In A Vault by order of the Governor of Hawaii President, and his sychophantic, sleazy, money grubbing minnions, in the Congress, want to ram their Soviet Style Medical Plan down our throats. They, however, will keep their gold plated, super fantastic, it's for ME and not for THEE, Health Care Plan. Anybody want some cake?

frost| 7.21.09 @ 8:39AM

She's simply gotta be the most Unhappy person I've observed in decades. Got a case of the Terminal Blahs...

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 8:47AM

I love White MoDo's comment that a "Latina" would "spice up" the Supreme Court. No doubt White MoDo has already extended an invitation to "Spicy Sotomayor" to White MoDo's next White Georgetown soiree, where the darling little Latina will no doubt regale the White A-list Guests with a wonderfully spicy rendition of La Cucaracha.

I understand White MoDo will supply the sombrero and castinets if "Spicy Sotomayor" agrees to make authentic salsa before the party and then clean the kitchen afterward.

I also have it on good authorithy that White MoDo asked "Spicy" Sotomayor if, since she'll be in a White neighborhood anyway, she could do maybe something with the unruly hedges out front.

Great piece and CLASSIC liberalism on display. Kudos to you, Mr. Lord, even if you are white.

I have one white bone to pick: White Modo ain't pretty. First off, I'm guessing that, despite her dance card always being whitely filled, her, uh, heart is mustier, danker and emptier than Al Capone's secret vault. Second, she's beginning to look like a Jack-O-Lantern left on the porch well into November, if you get my drift. Third, her voice is, without a doubt, the whiniest, nasalist, most ennui-marinated twang I have ever heard. Fingernails on a blackboard have nothing on MoDo.

But I understand. It's a white thing.

Lamont Cranston| 7.21.09 @ 8:57AM

Fox News is conservative but they seem to have the white face problem as well. Not a lot of minorities there either, though they do have Juan Williams.

Geoff| 7.21.09 @ 9:05AM

Uh, Lamont - who know that evil learks in the hearts of men - - now you've got me wondering just when Juan Williams "works" for National Public Radio, if, indeed he does...
For those who continue who call Fox a "conservative" network, please, an observation: Why do liberals such as NPR's Mara Liasson and the aforementioned Juan Williams continue to appear as "regulars"? Why does self-described Democratic voter Chris Wallace get to host his own Sunday show, one of the most important among cable and network news programs? Ditto Greta Van Susteren, and Geraldo: how do liberals get their own gigs? And how about Bob Beckel, Susan Estrich, Terry McAullife, David Corn, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Mort Kondracke and the many, many other liberal Democrats who regularly appear on Fox news and commentary programs? How’bout Bill Clinton’s buddy Lanny Davis, Eleanor Clift of Newsweek? If Fox is so biased, why do these people, as well as Democratic congressmen and senators, appear as guests? And why have the Clintons and others (McAullife among them) praised all pre-election coverage, while surveys found that Fox was, indeed, the fairest of ‘em all?
It’s the CONTRAST between Fox and the others that makes Fox APPEAR more conservative – the others are so blatant. And thoroughly sickening.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 9:14AM

Geoff:

Right on the money.

Not to mention Fox's biggest prime-time ratings grabber, Bill O'Reilly - he puts his right-wing foot in, he pulls his right-wing foot out, he puts his left-wing foot in, he pulls his left-wing foot out, he does the "outrage" hokey pokey and he turns himself around.

That's what he's all about.

tonypal| 7.21.09 @ 9:30AM

Lamont:

Apart from the fact that you're wrong - try watching Fox News for a day and you'll learn something - perhaps Roger Ailes hires people based on competence rather than skin color. Now there's a novel idea.

Geoff| 7.21.09 @ 9:38AM

Just wish all those blondes at Fox would use a different "rinse" or something on their hair -- they all look so alike....
Yet, as Tonypal so properly observed, there is quality in the people at Fox (although O'Reilly makes me wanna barf sometimes with his miserable conduct) - - Megyn Kelly and Jane Skinner are just two great examples of super-sharp women who just happen to look great. It's almost a liability.

anon.| 7.21.09 @ 9:58AM

What ever happened to Laurie Dhue, all 6' 3 1/2" of her...?

Old Texican| 7.21.09 @ 10:01AM

Bill Oreily drives me crazy on one issue...oil companies earning a profit...arghhhhh!

He NEVER points out the percentage gubmints take off the top...5 times the profit the oil companies EARN!

Steve| 7.21.09 @ 10:28AM

All right, Mr. Lord: spill the beans. What were you drinking when you wrote this piece? Whatever it was, please continue imbibing; that was the funniest piece I've read in a long time. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 10:33AM

Yes, Old Texican, that's probably O'Reilly's biggest sop to liberalism, but his whole attitude to Obama has been to ignore the obvious drumbeat of Marxist retribution in order to "give him a chance" in the interest of "fairness." I agree with O'Reilly on some issues, but on others it's like his populist wagon train has run off without a driver. The times I can stand him, my jaw too often ends up on the floor.

I think he's a baffoon. I don't mind when commentators aren't necessarily pointy-headed intellectuals, but he too often resembles the cringe-inducing rabble. Anti-intellectualism isn't the answer, either.

I loved how the other day he held up a WSJ article that PROVED! PROVED! he was right about oil speculators - as if the news pages of WSJ haven't been every bit as liberal as the NYTimes for years and years.

I hate to say it, but the guy proves that in America, truly ANYONE can end up a millionaire.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 10:37AM

By the way, my guilty pleasure was always Kieren Chetry. Cute as all get-out and a TON of personality.

I know, she was always kind of a lightweight (and Fox does have its share). But it saddened me when she went over to the dark side (CNN).

Anthony| 7.21.09 @ 10:49AM

Poor, poor, Mo Do. What's a shanty Irish lass with a big leftist chip on her shoulder to do?? It must be hard each day, wishfully looking in the mirror and secretly hoping to see Sarah Palin, as opposed to that pasty white face with ruby red lips. Too bad, no Harry Potter magic mirror for you MoDo!!
But there is some good news. At least when MoDo looks in the morning mirror, she doesn't see the bitchy face of Frank Rich or the vacant paranoid stare of Paul Krugman.
It's no wonder Sarah Palin drives them all crazy; she's more woman than the entire Wonder Bread Time's editorial board.

Robert Rosencrans| 7.21.09 @ 10:49AM

Thought for the day, courtesy of Ayn Rand:

The "liberals" are guilty of the same contradiction, but in a different form. They advocate the sacrifice of all individual rights to unlimited majority rule -- yet posture as defenders of the rights of minorities. But the smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

WR Jonas| 7.21.09 @ 11:02AM

The "white mans " last stand made it onto the evening news in my hometown last night. A very dramatic video of two evil white guys jumping into an inferno which was an SUV laying on its side blazing with people inside. I think it was Milwaukee and the people risking their lives were either firemen or police.
I didn't see Sonia or Maureen around dispensing wisdom or praise .
Maybe those white guys aren't that useless after all. The Democratic liberal left is the most shameful disgrace this country has ever spawned.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.21.09 @ 11:02AM

Democrat = Racist

Liberal = Racist

Liberal Democrat Maureen Dowd = Racist

Liberal Democrat NY Time = Racist

Black liberal Barack Obama = Token Racist

Geoff| 7.21.09 @ 11:02AM

Concerning Fox the very pretty Heather Nuart was a very lightweight lightweight, but she hasn't been seen in a while. Shepard Smith IS a wiseass lightweight who should stick to the TelePrompTer and stop ad-libbing (but he sure does those stolen-car-on-LA-freeway bits well; give me Trace Gallagher or Julie Bandaris any day!). O'Reilly has an insufferably huge ego and gets in his own way 'way too often with the many interruptions of guests (and, no, not just to keep them on the subject, but 'cause HIS opinion counts more...); he takes himself 'way too seriously! Hannity's a carbon-copy of himself, repeats the same stuff over 'n over.
On radio, the brilliant (yet supercilious) Michael Savage is the most petty paranoid hypocrite around - - sez he values "free speach" but wants the writers/producers of "Hostel II" tossed in the slammer because he doesn't abide horror flicks.
Methinks the guy's suicidal. And, so petty.... he really is pathetic sometimes.

Old Texican| 7.21.09 @ 11:11AM

Geoff
I can't listen to Savage. He gives me chills. I fear people like him.
"Survivalists in camo" like him though.

Robert: Timely reminder. Thanks.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 11:14AM

Yes, the eye candy comes and goes on Fox with alarming regularity. Heather was beautiful.

As for Shepard, the guy is a snarky moron. He embarrassed himself with his Katrina coverage - on-site "reporting" that was nothing more than a lachrymose tirade against FEMA and Bush wholly uninformed by facts - amateur hour's apotheosis. The guy lost all credibility - as if he had any.

He can't even read a prompter, for chrissakes; he stumbles over words on just about every sentence. I don't know how he got his job or why he keeps it. He must have some video of Roger Ailes doing unspeakable things to ruminants.

I also agree that Sean Hannity is kind of an empty vessel - he parrots conservative dogma too often without the benefit of having it go through his brain. Don't get me wrong - I'm a conservative - but I like it when people arrive at conservative values as a result of thought and empirical experience, not because it's how they were raised.

I can't bring myself to watch Huckabee. That kind of Phil Donahue-esque crap really gets on my nerves.

I haven't listened to Savage in a while - he's a pretty hearty stew of dysfunction and misanthropy, but he does make great points with regularity (or used to - as I say, I haven't indulged in a while).

Overall, I think Fox does do a pretty good at "fair and balanced. But it would never be confused with WFB's old Firing Line show.

Seek| 7.21.09 @ 11:23AM

The tragedy of Maureen Dowd is what could have been. Here is a gorgeous Celtic woman whose very existence sets any normal white male's heart racing, and she turns out to be a self-hating shrew.

I'm not concerned over whether the New York Times lives up to the quota mentality that it prescribes for others. I am concerned, however, about the possible extinction of whites. "Conservatives" like Jeffrey Lord who want newspapers to adopt a Diversity system so as to avoid the taint of hypocrisy aren't my type any more than Dowd.

Marc Jeric| 7.21.09 @ 11:27AM

Let us concentrate on La Dowd - forget those ACORN brownshirts infecting these conversations. I have one question for La Dowd and her alike-thinking confreres: If Sarah Palin is so stupid, vapid, never read a book, ignorant of politics, history, geography - why did you spend so much venom and invective on her?
As for the various self-serving names they give themsleves - liberal, progressive, socialist, Democrat; I simplify by calling them all communists and ec-nazis.
Now O'Reilly - he believes in globaloney warming and excessive oil company profits; there he lost me. He has become just another ignorant bloviating gasbag, no better than Joe Biden. On the other hand Fox has Krauthamer and Hannity, even Beck from time to time - so I will keep watching them.

Geoff| 7.21.09 @ 11:34AM

Thanks, Mark! For mentioning the most brilliant of them all, Dr. Krauthammer, without a doubt, the very best.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 11:45AM

I miss Brit Hume.

But yeah, Krauthammer is great - he has wobbled a couple of times, however. But 98% of the time, he's got the goods.

anon.| 7.21.09 @ 11:48AM

And, Grzmlyk, the late Tony Snow.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 11:49AM

Yes, Tony Snow is greatly missed.

Paul from SA| 7.21.09 @ 12:21PM

Maureen Dowd is one of the most unattractive and unapplealing women on the planet. I understand completely why no man ever proposed to her. She turns my stomach. The same goes for Janeene Graflola and Rosie Odonnald.

One thing that bothers me about Fox News is that they bend over backwards to include the Democrat talking points into almost every clip, just to be balanced. The Democrat talking points are pervasive, they're everywhere in the news, entertainment, advertising.... Unless you live a cave, you cannot escape their anti-conservative message. One has to work to get the conservative message.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 12:55PM

Good point, Paul from SA.

Fox is certainly somewhat of a port in the liberal storm, but I'd love to see more intellectual rigor and, as you say, less of a fetish for always providing the liberal point of view - especially given what hacks some of the liberals they have on are.

I mean, they revere Al Sharpton and treat him like a VIP, instead of the race hustler he is.

Lanny Davis has no brain, Geraldine Ferraro was - until she got burned in the Hillary inferno of election 2008 - just a democrat talking point parrot, Ellis Hennican is intellectual helium, Mike Farrell lives in La-La-land in more ways than one, Charles Rangel is a hack extraordinaire, Alan Colmes never seems to have matured past his college Western Civ class, and on and on.

Liberals who claim Fox News is ultra right-wing have never watched it.

Bob| 7.21.09 @ 12:57PM

A++++. But please no more Jeffrey Lord columns. I'll never get any work done. I'll spend my entire day laughing, reading, laughing, reading....

Jeffrey Lord| 7.21.09 @ 1:09PM

Seek...

"Conservatives" like Jeffrey Lord who want newspapers to adopt a Diversity system so as to avoid the taint of hypocrisy aren't my type any more than Dowd. "

Seek, my friend. Jeffrey Lord believes no such thing. He believes in a clorblind America where people get ahead based on their skill, work, character, opportiunity. "Diversity" isn't. Perhaps you misread?

Jack Olson| 7.21.09 @ 1:14PM

A few years ago, MoDo wrote a book titled "Are Men Necessary?" Since at age 57 she has never married, I gather she has concluded the negative. Since the newspaper she writes columns for is losing readers faster than Fannie Mae has been losing money, I also gather that millions of Americans have concluded that the NY Times isn't necessary, either.

Grzmlyk| 7.21.09 @ 1:25PM

Hey El Putzo Bobbo! C-------

How nice to see you slithered out from under your rock. Always a pleasure to watch slugs sunning themselves. But I insult slugs.

Let's just refer to you as the human detritus you are, then.

You do know what detritus us, don't you?

What's the matter, sweetheart? Couldn't find a homeless person to urinate on this morning?

Hey bobby: I have some bad news: There is no "Troll of the Year" award.

So no need to lobby for it. Maybe you can fashion yourself one out of a GDP chart.

Richard Baker| 7.21.09 @ 2:22PM

Frost:
Good description of a very tedious and unhappy human being. The sad thing is the constant counting of colors and races. If folks are that unhappy, then they should go start their own networks. When I hear all the info regarding the gazillions of dollars in buying power that Blacks and Latinos have, I always wonder why they don't go and just start their own TV and Radio networks?

Liberal Reader| 7.21.09 @ 2:35PM

Fair enough, Mr. Lord.

I'll concede each point you make here.

However, I just want to be sure we're none of us refusing -- even for a moment -- to see the irony of a panel of white men "judging" a "wise Latina" about her comments about a wise Latina.

The irony was stark, and Senator Sessions brought it to a rare height.

Now -- having spent this one moment enjoying that irony -- we'll return to a more pragmatic sense of fairness, and again: I concede your points.

stephanie| 7.21.09 @ 2:52PM

Mo Dowd: Pretty is as pretty does. hence, UGLY
Tony Snow: was truely kind, a gentleman and I
sorely miss seeing him on air.
Charles Krauthammer: brilliant
Megan Kelly: Gorgeous and smart
Sheppard Smith: BARF!!!!!
Bill O. : I quit watching him.

ds80| 7.21.09 @ 3:13PM

MoDowdy-do-dah seems to have a big white plantation matriarch chip on her l'il shoulder.

joseph| 7.21.09 @ 3:15PM

Really, really funny and white article and so so true ! I am still laughing .

As a bi racial man who "passes" as white but grew up and lived all my life in black societies it is so funny operating with those white liberal hypocrites who absolutely have no real connection with minorities. They live in their west and east coast ivory towers, pontificating about moral issues and the economy while all the time their postioning is busy destroying America. They have no realistic idea of the strengths or weaknesses of minirity societies but pander to them through mendicancy. The Maureen Dowds continue the enslavements of blacks by her political posturing that promotes the Al Sharptons of the world instead of the Bill Cosbys.

These people are the death of America with their hypocracy and it is so funny seeing them operate in their unreal white New York Times world.

Fred| 7.21.09 @ 3:18PM

"The values of the weak prevail because the strong have taken them over as devices of leadership" (Nietzsche)

Jeffrey Lord| 7.21.09 @ 3:28PM

Liberal Reader...

"However, I just want to be sure we're none of us refusing -- even for a moment -- to see the irony of a panel of white men "judging" a "wise Latina" about her comments about a wise Latina "

Well thanks! But to make the point again...you and I saw the same event and had very different interpretations.

You saw a "panel of white men" and a "Latina." I saw a panel of duly elected US Senators - every one, including those liberals that drive me crazy - duly elected. Everyone from Jeff Sessions to Diane Feinstein forced to run the electoral gauntlet of their states, where any man or woman of the constitutional age of 30 can challenge them. Heck, you can even be a comedian and be elected! These elected officials were questioning a duly appointed sitting federal judge for a position that has no qualification listed in the Constitution beyond the occupant holding the job for the duration of "good Behaviour."

Their race and gender, along with hair color, sexual preference, religion, private sector jobs, absolutely irrelevant to me. But not to you. Once upon a time my position was the "liberal" position, yours - judging by race and ethnicity - seen as the position of a TV character like Archie Bunker (actually, that's being charitable.) Really! This is why a lot of people who grew up thinking they were liberal at 20 find themselves cast as rightwingers today. And at least on issues of race - they haven't moved an inch from what they felt was the moral center. To wit: Dr. King's point of being judged by the content of their character.
Then and now, I would submit MLK got it right.
Thanks for reading!

FN| 7.21.09 @ 3:30PM

The values of the weak prevail," wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, "because the strong have taken them over as devices of leadership." This brief and rather cryptic remark contains virtually all we need to know about why contemporary movements like multiculturalism, feminism, homosexualism, and anti-white racism are such powerful trends in modern American and other Western societies.

ds80| 7.21.09 @ 3:30PM

Liberal Reader: "irony of a panel of white men "judging"... about her comments as wise Latina."

No irony at all. They made no claims about their white-male-ness. Sotomayor herself made "female-Latina-ness" an issue - like Barbara Boxer, in her recent condescension to Harry Alford, in making "blackness" an issue.

Skin color, gender, and ethnic heritage have no bearing on the root matter of any particular law or violation thereof - except perhaps to Liberals in their attempt to deconstruct the concept of "equal justice". That's why the notion of a "hate crime" is such a farce.

It seems the only group that keeps injecting race as an issue is the Left.

Robert Rosencrans| 7.21.09 @ 3:53PM

Education against liberalism, once again courtesy of Ayn Rand:

It does not merely demand special privileges on racial grounds -- it demands that white men be penalized for the sins of their ancestors. It demands that a white laborer be refused a job because his grandfather may have practiced racial discrimination. But perhaps his grandfather had not practiced it. Or perhaps his grandfather had not even lived in this country. Since these questions are not to be considered, it means that that white laborer is to be charged with collective racial guilt, the guilt consisting merely of the color of his skin.

But that is the principle of the worst Southern racist who charges all Negroes with collective racial guilt for any crime committed by an individual Negro, and who treats them all as inferiors on the ground that their ancestors were savages.

The only comment one can make about demands of that kind is, "By what right? -- By what code? -- By what standard?"

That absurdly evil policy is destroying the moral base of the Negroes' fight. Their case rested on the principle of individual rights. If they demand the violation of the rights of others, they negate and forfeit their own. Then the same answer applies to them as to the Southern racists: there can be no such thing as a "right" of some men to violate the rights of others.

Liberal Reader| 7.21.09 @ 4:15PM

Again, fair enough, Mr Lord.

My point perhaps needed a little more fleshing out.

Sotomayor judged over 3,000 cases. She's been on the bench for over 15 years. She has decided mind-boggling, complicated business-related cases that are actually far, far more difficult than the Ricci case.

And what did the duly elected senators choose to discuss?

Well, naturally, they chose to discuss easy-access controversies generated by the "wise Latina" remark.

They declined -- for the most part -- to discuss the very real legal issues that might have been discussed.

To be fair, the nominee refused to engage those legal issues that were raised. This is a tradition, upheld by all nominees since Bork, and it makes me think we should cancel the whole charade.

There is no point to these hearings, and they unwittingly reinforce inaccurate ideas about the SC and the Constitution.

The notion that SC justices simply "apply the law" is ridiculous. The Constitution is written in a general, really almost transcendent language and must be applied to a society that is constantly changing. This is why we have JUDGES in the first place.

Patriot| 7.21.09 @ 4:32PM

Liberal Reader/Jeremiah doesn't understand that Sotomayor judged white men as wanting many years ago and the real irony is that LR/Jeremiah doesn't see himself and Sotomayor as the real bigots. But liberals never see themselves as they really are.

Maureen Dowd is a gorgeous Celtic woman? Thin lipped and bloodless she's anything BUT!

I just thank God that she never passed her shrewishness on to any offspring.

Jeffrey Lord| 7.21.09 @ 5:02PM

Liberal Reader

"They declined -- for the most part -- to discuss the very real legal issues that might have been discussed."

Bingo. And the source of this was the Bork episode. I was there, and just appalled. It turned these things into what you quite correctly call a charade. They have become "gotcha" games ever since. One misstep and you are toast. By now both sides participate, but I can tell you the down side of "winning" these things is that you prepare as if this were a game of Jeopardy, not a serious discussion of legal issues. It is very, very bad. Worse, the whole thing has worked itself down the line from Supreme Court confirmations to appeals court and even some district court appointees. For awhile, Specter was in reform mode, but eventually let the mood pass.

My personal view is that most of this is because of abortion. Which to me says that if the Court had just stayed out of the issue and let the 50 states work their will or pass a Constitutional amendment (same applies to gay marriage) instead of trying to jam Roe down everyone's throat, the issue would have resolved itself long ago. There is a reason for letting everyone have a vote - people need to vent, to have a say. Whether directly or through legislatures or Congress, where there is some sense of accountability. When you cut that off, it's like holding a lid on a pot of boiling water. It will keep trying to blow - and at some point it will succeed. In the meantime, among many other things, abortion has had the incidental effect of corrupting these judicial confirmation hearings and everyone who participates in them. Not good.

KansasGirl| 7.21.09 @ 5:24PM

It is so good to finally be heard.

jr| 7.21.09 @ 5:24PM

My compliments to the posters - quite a bunch of heady comments with lots of good sarcasm and wit tossed in. Excellent twist Jeff Lord, a very good one. But from one poster: "..Constitution is written in a general, really almost transcendent language and must be applied to a society that is constantly changing. This is why we have JUDGES in the first place. " Do not buy this version of the role of a judge. The judges' role is to interpret the law, not change it or draw different conclusions. The Ricci case was very simply judged according to whims and biases of Sotomay--or, sort of ACORN-like which is why Obamamama picked her. She is a loser and you shall see by the votes she casts. Any bets? This was one of Obamamama's paybacks for the votes from wetbacks, illegals and know-nothing of the traditions and heritage of the US. One more nail in the coffin.

Liberal Reader| 7.21.09 @ 5:27PM

There we go, Mr. Lord. Complete agreement.

There is no reason why the Senate committee can't review the qualifications of nominees at a distance. If nominees are going to hold to this absurd idea that they can't discuss any issue that may have relevance to cases they may one day decide, why should they be asked any questions at all?

The Senate should confirm basic competence and qualifications in the best of faith. It is for the president to make this nominations, and "advice and consent" should be a generous, very liberal process.

OR -- We could have testimony after confirmation. Let the senate vote on a nominee, again giving the benefit of the doubt to the president, and then let the nominee, if confirmed, testify -- just once -- before the committee. Let the American people hear the new justice and the senators actually, publicly discuss or debate issues.

I wouldn't have any problem with abortion being relegated to the states. (I think the Republican party would suffer terribly if Roe were overturned, but that's a discussion perhaps for another thread.)

Don Henderson| 7.21.09 @ 5:45PM

That was the best piece of commentary I've read in months. Thank you for putting the pompous liberals in their place in such a hilarious way.

ds80| 7.21.09 @ 6:06PM

Liberal Reader: "I wouldn't have any problem with abortion being relegated to the states. (I think the Republican party would suffer terribly if Roe were overturned"

... to the states, as it should be (we agree). But.

Abortion - an issue of life vs. death - should transcend political calculation. I would trade political suffering for the suffering of the innocents any day.

Rita| 7.21.09 @ 6:50PM

Fox is the only channel I can watch, even though it is sometimes to the left, but they have to be. I discount that and do my own thinking. Maureen Daud is a very frustrated woman, her brain is scrambled. She does come up with some good words but that doesn't make up for her venum! I wonder what made her hate white men, maybe she was molested as a child or beaten. Our President has all but ruined our country in 6 short months. If you can't see that you are deaf and blind, or because of your staunch Democratic mind, most people are socially conservative. Think about it!

Lisa| 7.21.09 @ 7:41PM

My comment isn't much, but reading this article and all the comments posted, I am happy to say, this is all so refreshing. I'm glad I found the American Spectator. Nice work.

Donna| 7.21.09 @ 7:58PM

Jeffrey Lord, thank you so much for this column. I laughed so hard I almost cried. I will print this and keep it to read when despair at the daily news overwhelms me, which unfortunately is occurring all to frequently these days.

Bob Cooksey| 7.21.09 @ 8:08PM

Liberal Reader--while the "Wise Latina" remark was annoying and I'm frankly tired of hearing about it, there is a very evil undercurrent at work in her case. Sotomayor has been a zealous proponent of a legal idea that most people have probably never even heard of--the idea of Disparate Impact.

What Disparate Impact refers to is the notion that any required employment test that results in "not enough" minorities being hired must be rejected--thrown out. No matter how fair the test, no matter how important that test is to the eventual performance of that job by the applicant--it must be thrown out if " enough" blacks, for instance, do not pass it.

This idea of Disparate Impact is the most insidiously disastrous idea ever to slither out of our legal system. If proponents of DI get their way, minorities will never be expected to study, work hard or achieve real accomplishments. I am a minority myself and find it infuriating that I am constantly sent the message that liberals have to coddle me (and I would rather deal with Al Sharpton than a white liberal like Barbara Boxer) and make excuses for me if I fail.

When that firefighter comes to my home I don't give a damn what color he is as long as he took that test and PASSED IT. Same with my doctor, lawyer, whatever. The legal idea of Disparate Impact strikes at the very heart of our system of self-reliance, respect for education, and equality in the PURSUIT of opportunity.

I find it astonishing that people are harping on Sotomayor's stupid Latina comment while ignoring the mindset that produced it. She can think her race is superior all day long for all I care, but the second people like her start trying to dismantle our system by rigging the odds and throwing out test results they don't like--well let's just say it's one more step to the Third World hell most of us escaped from.

Mark Morrissey| 7.21.09 @ 8:24PM

New York Times Barbie.

Jeffrey Lord| 7.21.09 @ 8:41PM

"I laughed so hard I almost cried. I will print this and keep it to read when despair at the daily news overwhelms me.. "

Come back Donna. That's why we're here!! Remember Lincoln..he said if he didn't laugh he would cry. Are you guys related? :)

Violette| 7.21.09 @ 8:42PM

FemiNazi Barbie.

Susan| 7.21.09 @ 9:10PM

Jeffery Lord....thank you for one of the funniest columns I've read in a long time! I needed a good laugh. What a bunch of hypocrites......

E.McFarland| 7.21.09 @ 9:24PM

OMG.....the best Expose on Mo Dowd and the NYT yet!!! BRAVO. Hey....the EMPRESS has NO CLOTHES. Suprised we didn't notice before!!

HOWEVER.....Apparently Maureen finds it comfortable there, workin' on the Ol' Plantation....BUT If she REALLY wants to put her money where her MOUTH is at the NYT, she will of her OWN VOLITION, put her job up for bid by minorities of all kinds....NOW THAT WOULD MAKE NEWS!!

Georgetowner| 7.21.09 @ 9:57PM

My young children haven't a clue who Maureen Dowd is. (They scarcely know what the NYT is.)

But as MoDo is a neighbor, they do know who *she* is, at least by sight.

They call her "the crazy lady."

(I keep very quiet when they do this, for fear of discouraging the development of their astonishing capacities of discernment.)

Liberal Reader| 7.21.09 @ 10:13PM

Mr Cooksey --

I hate to break it to you, but the "concept" of disparate impact is enshrined in the civil rights law Sotomayor was applying in the Ricci case.

It was put there by CONGRESS and to ignore it for some extra-legal reason would be called "activism."

I'm pleased as punch that the Supremes overturned the lower court's decision. But remember, that's why they call them the High Court: they get to apply new legal theories or tests or interpretations of standing law.

And by the way ... NOT ONE of the conservative justices on the Supreme Court sought to overturn disparate impact, which is statutory.

Al=Ozarka| 7.21.09 @ 10:42PM

Just wanted to say -Jeffery Lord's column is absolutely dead-on accurate and should be read by every person in America who truly seeks truth and logic.

Cathy| 7.22.09 @ 12:03AM

This article was FABULOUS!!!

RockyTop| 7.22.09 @ 12:18AM

Mr. Lord, thank you for the delicious dish.
I enjoyed every humorous ironic bit. It was very good.
I hope we shall look forward to dessert.

Ctmom| 7.22.09 @ 12:44AM

I laughed til I cried - thanks Mr. Lord. I am going to try and e mail it to her, if her e mail address is on the website.
Georgetowner - children always know, don't they?
Maybe we should spare a moment od sympathy for La Dowd- a shanty Irish girl from Catholic U., she must know that her liberal elitist colleagues look down their patrician noses at her. ... Ok, I am over that.

Pocono Joe| 7.22.09 @ 1:02AM

Mo Do, shanty Irish, I haven't heard that expression in years. I guess I've been away from any overwhelmingly Irish enclaves for too long. Of course my family was lace curtain.

Bdub| 7.22.09 @ 1:15AM

Scathing brutalization of "The Old Red Lady". Oops, I guess she's "The Old White Lady" in Lord's new-speak.

She deserves every bit of it and more.

Squatch| 7.22.09 @ 2:08AM

That may be the first time I've seen a defenstration in words.

drjohn| 7.22.09 @ 7:29AM

"Do as I say, not as I do"

Someone ought to write a book about that...

gopmom| 7.22.09 @ 9:41AM

Funny and insightful in it's irony. Sadly, not only will those caricatured here never see the truth but those "kept down" by such elitism will continue to suffer the consequences of their undying devotion to those who do them the most harm. Meanwhile, I am a hate-filled bigot precisely because I judge by content of character.

Jack| 7.22.09 @ 11:46AM

That was an epic beat down. More please.

Angel| 7.22.09 @ 12:57PM

Absolutely brilliant--and hilarious.

SouthPointeView| 7.22.09 @ 2:58PM

WOW!! Great article - thanks for putting it all in perspective for everyone. Such talent, Jeffrey Lord, can't wait to read more from you.

Mark Boabaca| 7.22.09 @ 4:44PM

I wonder how many (besides myself) sent Maureen Dowd a link to this hilarious piece.

Thank you, Mr. Lord!

timothyJ| 7.22.09 @ 4:53PM

First of all: Never again put the idea of a naked MoDo in my mind again. That is absolutely forbidden. Secondly, I have an idea as to why lefty liberals want to envoke socialism here, even though it has never worked anywhere else: WE weren't in charge there.

don christner| 7.22.09 @ 6:53PM

white on

ColorlessRalph| 7.22.09 @ 8:14PM

Thank you Jeffrey Lord! Another fine example of why reading the American Spectator is such a joy compared to bland self-righteous crap that passes for "serious" journalism today.

Whitey Ford| 7.22.09 @ 11:28PM

Excellent column, even though it may be difficult to parody such an icon of self-parody, you have pulled it off.

Hoppy| 7.23.09 @ 7:02AM

To be the most liberal is to be the least tolerant. Strange, isn't it?

Goetz| 7.23.09 @ 1:09PM

Who cares if lefties think they're superior, or that some citizens are fixated on race. Let them whirl! It's a free country, thanks to some very smart and brave people along the way.

Occam's Razor| 7.23.09 @ 6:00PM

It's really very simple,
It's obvious, you see,
Liberals are vermin,
As plain as ABC.

Mazzuchelli| 7.23.09 @ 6:23PM

You are hilarious. I hope to God White Mo got a glance at this column.

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i hpe you love this too

Bobby Walia| 9.21.09 @ 10:39PM

Thank you for writing this article. I had realized that about nine years ago when I was going through my academic training and that is when I first saw true liberal colors. They like a colored man but only his/her true place (beneath and subservient to them)

Danny| 1.20.10 @ 4:27PM

That is a long list of white guys. George Stephanopoulos is a pretty white looking Greek guy. I googled pictures of him to see if I could find a hole in your argument, but no doing. If you hire Greeks you gotta make sure you hire a brown one.

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AnnMarie| 6.21.10 @ 12:23PM

This article, especially the last parts in which you "brought White Mo home" is FIERCE Chile. I've spent some time in both San Francisco and NYC and both cities reek of Liberal Racism. And no one sees it. Well no one on the Left that is. I'm a year late, but I am forwarding your article to err'one. Because yes, you guess it, my liberal friends of color LUV MoDo. She is their great White leader...everything she writes is coveted. Yes, she is talented, but her pieces are sometimes riddled with liberal racism and liberal intollerence. No one listens to me, but I am sure they will listen to you..therefor I am forwarding this well written article, with respects to racism at the NYT, to EVERYONE.

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