The New York Times piece from Dowd is worth reading:<\/p>\n
August 20, 2008
\nOP-ED COLUMNIST
\nTwo Against The One<\/p>\n
By MAUREEN DOWD
\nWASHINGTON<\/p>\n
In the dead of night in a small hideaway office in the deserted Capitol, a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal.<\/p>\n
They grin at each other as they lift their celebratory shots of brutally cold Stolichnaya.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur toast to The One,\u201d they say in unison, \u201cis that he\u2019s toast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObama should have picked you, Hillary,\u201d John McCain tells her. \u201cIt isn\u2019t fair, my friend. But it just makes it easier for me to whup him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry, John, I\u2019ve put it behind me,\u201d Hillary replies. \u201cI\u2019m looking toward the future now, a future that looks very bright, once we send Twig Legs back to the back bench.\u201d<\/p>\n
They chortle with delight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a bright young man, but he got ahead of himself,\u201d McCain says. \u201cHe needs to be taught a lesson, and we\u2019re the ones to do it. Have you seen the new Bloomberg poll? Obama\u2019s dropped and we\u2019re even again. The Bullet\u2019s getting all the credit, but you and I know, Hillary, that it\u2019s these top-secret counseling sessions we\u2019re having. And thanks again for BlackBerrying me the Rick Warren questions while I was in the so-called cone of silence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, John, you know I love you and I\u2019m happy to help,\u201d Hillary says. \u201cThe themes you took from me are working great \u2014 painting Obama as an elitist and out-of-touch celebrity, when we\u2019re rich celebrities, too. Turning his big rallies and pretty words into character flaws, charging him with playing the race card \u2014 that one always cracks me up. And accusing the media, especially NBC, of playing favorites. It\u2019s easy to get the stupid press to navel-gaze; they\u2019re so insecure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all pinko Commies,\u201d McCain laughs. \u201cEspecially since they deserted me for The Messiah. Seriously, Hill, that Paris-Britney ad you came up with was brilliant. I owe you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking pleased, Hillary expertly downs another shot. \u201cHis secret fear is being seen as a dumb blonde,\u201d she says. \u201cHe wants to take a short cut to the top and pose on glossy magazine covers, but he doesn\u2019t want to be seen as a glib pretty boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCain lifts his glass to her admiringly. \u201cIf I do say so myself, while the rookie was surfing in Hawaii, I ate his pupus for lunch. Pictures of him pushing around a golf ball while I\u2019m pushing around Putin. Priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a little secret to tell you about that, John. Bill made it happen. He loves you so much. He called Putin and told him that if he invaded Georgia, he could count on being invited to the Clinton Global Initiative every year for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow. Should I call him? I saw your husband\u2019s kind words about me in Las Vegas on Monday, saying I\u2019d be just as good as Obama on climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019d like that,\u201d Hillary smiles. \u201cHe\u2019s still boiling at Obama. And you don\u2019t have to worry about my army of angry women. We\u2019ve spread the word in the feminist underground \u2014 as opposed to that wacky Obama Weather Underground \u2014 that \u2018catharsis\u2019 is code for \u2018No surrender.\u2019 My gals know when I say \u2018We may have started on two separate paths but we\u2019re on one journey now\u2019 that Skinny\u2019s journey is to the nearest exit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Obama\u2019s says he\u2019s finally ready to hit back,\u201d McCain says, frowning. \u201cHe\u2019s starting a blistering TV campaign and attacking me for attacking his patriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, John, you know that every time he tries to get tough, he quickly runs out of gas. Sometimes in debates, he\u2019d be exhausted by the third question. He must use up all his energy in the gym. He doesn\u2019t have any stamina, and he certainly doesn\u2019t have our bloodlust. Besides, you can throw that Mark Penn stuff at him that I couldn\u2019t use in a Democratic primary about how he\u2019s not fundamentally American in his thinking and values. While he\u2019s up on his high-minded pedestal, you\u2019ll scoot past him in your Ferragamos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can I ever thank you, my friend?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can announce that you won\u2019t be running for re-election because you\u2019d be 76, and you can pick somebody really lame to run with, like your pal Lieberman. That means one term for you, and two for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a deal,\u201d McCain says, sticking out his hand to shake on it. \u201cThat was inspired to snatch his convention away \u2014 makes him look so weak. Listen, why don\u2019t you stop in Sedona on the way to Denver? Wear a black wig and I\u2019ll spirit you up to the cabin for the night. I\u2019ll catch a catfish in the mill pond and grill it for you. It will be an adventure.\u201d There\u2019s a knock on the door. Jesse Jackson sticks his head into the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it over?\u201d he asks his co-conspirators.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he\u2019s over,\u201d they respond in unison.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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The New York Times piece from Dowd is worth reading: August 20, 2008 OP-ED COLUMNIST Two Against The One By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON In the dead of night in a small hideaway office in the deserted Capitol, a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal. They grin at each other as they lift their celebratory shots of brutally cold Stolichnaya. \u201cOur toast to The One,\u201d they say in unison, \u201cis that he\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kHSD-Mp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}