A Case of Hearing Without Listening---By MAUREEN DOWD

[rodeodance]

http://wealthyfrenchman.blogspot.com/2007/01/case-of-hearing-without-listening.html

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A Case of Hearing Without Listening
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

Madame Speaker didn’t lean over and boink the president on the head with her gavel, or garrote him with her red pashmina.

No one was gelded or cuckolded or left to bleed on the floor of the Senate, as in HBO’s “Rome,” that other gory saga of a declining empire with people who can’t stop talking.

Still, the nation’s capital had the aroma of treachery, as former allies brutally turned on one another. Despite W.’s attempt to salvage his presidency last night by changing the subject and going all domestic-sensitive, Washington was more consumed with betrayal than substance.

The city was riveted by opening statements in the Scooter Libby trial, where the aspens were turning but not in clusters. Scooter’s lawyer claimed that the White House had made his client a scapegoat in the Valerie Plame case to protect Karl Rove because “Boy Genius,” as W. calls him, was critical to keeping the Republican Party in power.

In light of the 2006 debacle, the White House might have been better off saving Scooter and making Karl the fall guy. ...........

[Tin Man]

1. Ooooh, MoDowd !

Yummm. Can't get enough of her fabulous stuff...

[Norrin Radd]

2. Someone needs to tell MoDo that it's "bonk" not "boink." n/t

[Veronica.Franco]

3. Poetic license ... to boink or not to boink ...

I'm no Dowd, but the one thing that does bug writers is when readers miss the point that they are using their own style ... which sometimes includes their own words or expressions ... I had a few short opinion pieces published and it infuriated me to pick up the newspaper and see that some editor had changed my piece ... wanted to march into his office and DOINK him on the head! ... ;-)

[Norrin Radd]

4. I understand that, but

most people will immediately associate "boink" with sex, not a loony toon sound effect. I was being facetious pointing this out. Subtle humor is my style.