One snark-free column doesn't make a trend

Well, will wonders never cease? Maureen Dowd has managed to write a column about Hillary Clinton that seems to be completely snark-free.

 Dowd had become notorious over the years for her hatred of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Whenever she mentions either of them in a column, it is only to damn them. Her inability to give them credit for anything good has been just one of the symptoms of a columnist who has lost her perspective and has become more and more irrelevant. I mean, who even reads her anymore? But when I happened to read the first two sentences in today's column, I thought, "Hey, this is something different!" Dowd had written:
Hillary Clinton has fought for women’s rights around the world. But who would have dreamed that she would have to fight for them at home? 
She goes on to quote from Clinton's impassioned speech at the Women in the World summit that took place last Saturday in New York. Clinton said, “Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn’t matter what country they’re in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress. They want to control how we act. They even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies. Yes, it is hard to believe that even here at home, we have to stand up for women’s rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us, because America needs to set an example for the entire world.”  Moreover, Dowd reported the statement without irony or her usual dismissive comments.

 When Maureen Dowd begins to take seriously the attacks against women in this country and to align herself with her most-hated nemesis Hillary Clinton, you begin to suspect that a sea-change has happened.

 Women all over the country are angry and outraged over the Republican war against women. Republicans are famous for repeating the Grover Norquist quote that they want to shrink government to the size that it can be drowned in a bathtub. But these guys have proved again and again in the last two years that what they really want to do is shrink it to the size that can fit in a woman's vagina.

 They are all for small government, except when it comes to women. Then, as Hillary said, they want to control us. They want to control the choices we make about our health and our bodies. They will not be satisfied until they have completely marginalized one-half of the human race.

 Dowd seems to be belatedly aware of the danger in which we find ourselves here in the 21st century(!), and she seems ready to join the resistance army, even if that army is led by General Hillary Clinton. But I won't be making any bets just yet. One snark-free column does not a trend make.

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