I can't let this Maureen Dowd thing go

An Open Letter to Maureen:

Why are you being such a jerk to Sen. Clinton? Did she switch your Coke with a Pepsi or something? And if being a jerk is the only real qualification for your job (and it seems that way), can I have it? Because you're kind of a hack. In the writerly sense. You're also a total hack in the partisan sense, but that only puts you further into the "jerk" category. I wouldn't even bring it up, but I was volunteering for Hillary Clinton the other day and an Obama supporter called me trailer trash. Gotta be honest, it hit a little close to home. I used to live in a modular. But the point is that never in my entire life have I, merely for being a vocal supporter of a particular political figure, been subject to such an amount of just pure nastiness, and by fellow Democrats, at that. You know, they say over and over that Hillary's supporters are the ones planning to defect en masse to John McCain in the general should Sen. Obama become the nominee. I wouldn't put myself into that camp quite yet (I'm waiting for some son of a bitch to offer me a mayonnaise sandwich or a Guns n' Roses tee shirt), but I'd be lying if I said that people like yourself and my judgemental new friend (MODULAR) aren't slowly nudging me in that direction. I don't care who you support. You're not a journalist; you're a living, breathing version of the guy on The Simpsons who shits all over everything he doesn't like ("Worst...Hillary...Ever.") You're not the only professional sophist in the United States who fancies yourself some sort of political tastemaker, and you certainly aren't the only one I can think of who seems to pick your political stances the way most people pick out blue jeans. But there's no need to act as if by merely existing, Hillary Clinton somehow fucks you up personally. And if you do feel that way, which I can certainly understand, there's no need to act as if Hillary Clinton is the one dividing the party when the only thing that springs into your head when your fingertips hit keyboard is rancor.