On his incomparable site, The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby once again targets The New York Times op-ed page for devoting valuable real estate to the columns of Maureen Dowd. From the sublime -- the “striking report,” by Dexter Filkins on the front page about heroic Afghan girls enduring torture and its continued threat just to go to school -- to the ridiculous -- the “typical mess” that is Dowd's column today - Somerby highlights the Times at its best and worst all in one section of one day's paper.

Specifically, Somerby called attention to this tripe - what Somerby calls Dowd's “latest novel” -- about Hillary Clinton in today's column:

She will easily intimidate the world's dictators, just as she often intimidated Obama in the primaries. But it remains to be seen whether she can put aside her tendency to see disagreement as disloyalty. Can she work at the State Department with those who deserted her to support the usurper Obama? Can she manage Foggy Bottom better than she managed her foggy campaign?

Obama and Hillary continue to be engaged in an intense tango.

The new president is confident enough to think he can do what has never been done. He thinks he can pull out - like a diamond from carbon - the sparkling side of the Clintons that can make them exceptional public servants, extracting it from the gray side of the Clintons that can make them tacky, greedy, opportunistic and ethically shady.

Cleaning out the Augean stables was nothing compared to this task, with Obama trying to bend Hillary and Bill to his will, while they try to bend him to theirs.

In what way is Obama having to “try[] to bend Hillary and Bill to his will” or vice versa? Maybe Dowd doesn't have to say. She did after all write a “novel” under the guise of a New York Times column.