Say Good Night, Maureen!

Gail Collins gave us one of her best today in her discussion of the Higgs Boson and how it will impact the coming election.  As usual, she was particularly amusing in her comments on Romney, although she also skewered Obama.  In the same week Maureen Dowd wrote a column, "Gaelic Guerrilla" on the Irish initiative to build a memorial to Che Guevara in Galway City, where some of Che's ancestors were born.  The column meanders quite a bit but essentially it was discussing how a Miami Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, managed to put an end to the monument by protesting vigorously to Prime Minister Enda Kenny, calling Che a “mass murderer and human rights abuser."  Yes, he abused the rights of those who for centuries kept the masses down through state terrorism. Unfortunately, the Irish didn't have the courage to go against the chairwoman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and backed away from their earlier votes to support the monument.  And where do you think Maureen Dowd came down on this issue.  I quote from the end of her column:

And therein lies the rub with the bizarre idea. Just because Che became a chic brand for the capitalism he tried to destroy, it doesn’t mean he’s worth honoring on Galway Bay. And just because Ros-Lehtinen can be grating, it doesn’t mean she’s wrong this time.

Yes, she is wrong, Maureen.  Very wrong.  Che is worth honoring on Galway Bay (I was delighted to learn he had Irish ancestors).  More important, even if he were not, an American congress woman has no business interfering in another nation's decisions about whom it should or should not honor.  Obviously, if the Irish had a say about U.S. memorials there be a lot of statutes that would disappear tomorrow.

But back to Dowd.  Reading her columns of late is a huge waste of time.  She is completely passe as a political columnist. Today her column is on John Ford the director and his Irish film, "The Quiet Man."  This in the middle of one of the most important elections in American history. When will the Times acknowledge this and give someone else a chance. Maureen has joined her brother Kevin on the political right, and on the wrong side of history.  Say goodnight, Maureen.