There has always been a mutually beneficial element to Sarah Palin's relationship with the political press, from which she earns copious coverage despite routinely chastising the "lame-stream media."
So it was mildly amusing, though not wholly surprising, when Palin took a sharp jab at Maureen Dowd on Monday for a column in which the New York Times' scribe called her the "queen bee" of the "mean girls."
"That's so funny, because I don't think I've ever met that gal, Maureen Dowd -- O'Dowd -- whatever the heck her name is," Palin said. "I don't think I've ever met her, and I don't think -- she probably hasn't met Jan Brewer or some of these other wonderful, pleasant, gracious, nice, hard-working mama grizzlies who are wanting to turn this country around."
To argue that Dowd's column lacks authority because it was written without first-hand sourcing is to be seemingly unacquainted with the job description of a columnist. But if a face-to-face meeting with Dowd is what Palin wanted, she could have had it.
As Dowd reminded the Huffington Post, it was the McCain campaign that kept her from then-Vice Presidential candidate Palin when they chose to kick her off their airplane.
"I was eager to travel with her and interview her when she first got appointed by McCain," said Dowd. "I think she's a fascinating figure in the history of politics. But I was immediately barred from their campaign planes by the same McCain aides Palin later "escaped" from."
As for Palin's flubbing of Dowd's last name, that might be more excusable. The Dowd family surname used to be O'Dowd before the O was dropped for purposes of assimilation.