Maureen, my friend!

Yeah, I know, what other reversals might I have in store? I suddenly loooove cleaning and making my bed? My new pasttime is XFL football reruns?

But seriously, folks, MoDo: TOTALLY on target in her column about Ahmadinejad:

"New York’s hot blast of nastiness, jingoism and xenophobia toward its guest, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, only served to pump him up for his domestic audience."

Exacto-fucking-mundo.

My take on Ahmadinejad (see Monday's post for more): A hateful, cruel autocrat, but one who ultimately cares more about looking like a powerful opposition leader to the U.S. and a hero in his own country than about pretty much anything else.

Much as I liked Bollinger's take-no-prisoners (unlike Iran, ha...cry) speech - I mean, damn, he laid it DOWN, and no one likes a cathartic verbal ass-whooping more than I - that too completely served Ahmadinejad's favorite pasttime: playing gotcha with inconsistencies in American values and rhetoric about freedom and democracy.

Mo, buddy, care to weigh in?

"[The] schoolyard name-calling of Lee Bollinger...only managed to elevate the creep sitting on stage with his thugs. Once you’ve made the decision to invite a tyrannical leader, you can’t undo it by belittling him in public."

Bollinger had to cover his ass in a major way (hello Jewish students, alumni, and donors!) so I get why he did it, but again, Ahmadinejad has constructed the scenario such that if you stoop to play his game, you automatically lose.

Meanwhile, I'm going to buy Maureen a kiss-and-make-up drink, and she can tell me about the relative merites of Bill Keller vs. Aaron Sorkin.