Here’s something I don’t often say: Don’t miss Maureen Dowd’s column today.


It’s great because it’s her conservative brother Kevin’s annual take-over of his sister’s New York Times real estate, early this year in honor of the recent midterms.  What happened to his sister? Kevin comes across as a good-natured conservative, whereas sis…


Kevin is fabulous as usual. Good lines:



To Chris Van Hollen: Pickett was not promoted after Gettysburg.



To Jimmy Carter: You make my hair hurt.


Kevin also summed up my feelings towards Ms. Palin better than I could have.



To Sarah Palin: Mirror, mirror on the wall, you’re the fairest of them all. You don’t need to run for the presidency.


On Hillary for veep:



I once had a Jesuit English teacher who asked for an example of irony. A classmate raised his hand and wondered if Othello mistakenly killing Desdemona qualified. The old priest shook his head, noting, “That is not irony, bud, that is tragic irony.” So it is with the idea being floated that Hillary might join Obama on a dream ticket as V.P. to save his presidency. Hillary, the only member of the cabinet with any political savvy, saving the guy that jumped line on her. I don’t think so.


Kevin also captured the meaning of 10/2 in a way that probably escaped his petulant sister:



On Nov. 2, voters across every spectrum loudly stated their preference for a return to American exceptionalism, self-reliance, limited government and personal freedoms. They delivered a message that they would demand that their representatives start reflecting their wishes. They showed their muscle to shocked elitists who had dismissed their dissent as ignorance, bigotry or racism. It is probably a product of the revisionist history we now teach in our schools that the Tea Party, a replica of the beginnings of the American Revolution, was marginalized and mocked as a lunatic fringe group by a dismissive news media.


 It was generous of Maureen to allow her brother to have her column for the day. Thanks, Maureen. You should do it more often.