The lady doth admit too much, methinks

Caroline Seipp wrote back in 2003, "Maureen Dowd can be funny when writing about movies or fashion. But she should stay out of politics." I'm still trying to figure out why the New York Times accepted this column from her. Printed in the Travel section, it's 700 words wasted on Spring Break nonsense, even worse than her usual columns about nothing. But she did relate this, among other anecdotes:

Another year we went to Tampa. It was so awful that my only memory is of a local guy complaining to his friends about me: "You tell this girl dirt's brown, she's gonna argue with ya."

And what do you know, she grew up and eventually got a job, "paid to be a baby curmudgeon" -- where it turned out "growing up" isn't even a job requirement. Let's not forget, Dowd imagines herself "as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit" (Dowd is known for being private about her personal life, then she goes to the extreme and gives us far too much information). She also described in another column how President Bush gave her a Clark Gable wink. Maybe she's thinking of him as Rhett Butler? She might be Irish, but she's no Scarlett O'Hara. Besides, whatever "Gone with the Wind" fantasies she may harbor, I'd cast President Bush as Leslie Howard's character: Ashley Wilkes, the good and decent man, admittedly not perfect, whom Scarlett wanted but could never have.

And by the way, Ms. Dowd: Paul Wolfowitz is eminently qualified to head the World Bank. After decades of "economists" and UN lackeys, it's time for a diplomat to sort out the mess. I have wished him good luck.