Karl Rove and Maureen Dowd

Karl Rove absolutely unleashes on Maureen Dowd in reaction to parts of her column, "Can the One Have Fun?"

Dowd writes:

The fun police are patrolling Pennsylvania Avenue.

Given the serious times, the chatter goes, should Barack Obama be allowed to enjoy date night with Michelle in New York, sightseeing in Paris, golf outings in D.C., not to mention doing a promotion for Conan O’Brien and a video cameo for Stephen Colbert’s first comedy show from Iraq?

With two wars and G.M. in bankruptcy proceedings, shouldn’t the president be glued to the grindstone, emulating W.’s gravity when he sacrificed golf in 2003 as the Iraq insurgency spread?

Actually, what sends the wrong signal is going to war with a phony justification, inadequate troop levels, insufficient armor, an inept Defense secretary and an inability to admit for years, deadly ones, that you needed counterinsurgency experts.

...So some respite from the pressure is clearly a healthy thing. Not as much respite as W. took, bicycling and vacationing through all the disasters that President Obama is now stuck fixing — spending a total of 490 days in the tumbleweed isolation of Crawford and rarely deigning to sightsee as he traveled the world.


...What a relief to have an urbane, cultivated, curious president who’s out and about, engaged in the world. Not dangerously detached, as W. was, or darkly stewing like Cheney. Not hanging with the Rat Pack like J.F.K. or getting bored and up to mischief like Bill Clinton.

It was lame of critics on Capitol Hill to carp that the Obamas could have taken in a play in D.C. I’m a native, but it’s not the same. And it’s nice to see them tending to their marriage. According to Richard Wolffe in “Renegade,” his new book about the Obama campaign, it has taken effort to get the relationship this strong.

...Mixing play with intense work is not only a good mental health strategy; it’s a good way to show the world that American confidence and cool — and Cary Grant romantic flair — still thrive.

Date on and tee it up, Mr. President. It’s O.K. if they’re teed off.

Dowd's perspective, of course, is so slanted. The hate for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney oozes as does the blind love for Obama.

Perhaps a "Middle Way" approach is more in order, both for Dowd and the Obamas.

Karl Rove doesn't hesitate to be extreme when he offers his opinion on some particularly ugly passages of Dowd's column, though he does say he agrees with her position on The One being allowed to have fun.

KARL ROVE: I think Maureen Dowd is a bitter, twisted, deranged columnist for the New York Times, who misses no opportunity to show her disdain for anybody on the conservative side of the aisle.

I actually went to an editorial board meeting at the New York Times and wasted a couple of bucks on some flowers to give Maureen Dowd at the meeting so it would give her a smile on her face, and that didn't even work. This is a dour, downbeat liberal.

And it was an entertaining piece. I, frankly, agree with her that President Obama is entitled to go to New York and entertain his wife. I suspect I would have done it maybe just a little bit later in the year than now, but he's entitled, and you do not want a president who feels confined to the bubble. But why she felt so compelled to go out and trash somebody who did our country a great service for 8 years, and handled himself in an admirable fashion is just typical of Maureen Dowd's twisted, bitter, little heart.

...I admire her writing, but she is a very nasty, snarky person. And we saw it in this column today.