After the heaps of scorn dumped on Maureen Dowd following her lame assault on chick lit, I have to admit taking a perverse delight in finding out that media analysts like Eric Boehlert also believe Dowd's full of it. Boehlert digs into the column Dowd wrote immediately after the chick lit fiasco, in which she questioned whether Barack Obama is ready for the national political stage, and concludes that she brings nothing substantial to the discussion. So why did she write what he describes as "the first real Obama hit piece of the season"? "Celebrity Beltway journalists don't like to be upstaged in public," he explains, "especially not by newcomers... The problem is Dowd has established a record of being untrustworthy, particularly when painting unflattering portraits of prominent Democrats."