Dick Cheney's "Reign of Terror"
In her Wednesday column, "Sweet onCaroline," Maureen Dowd defended Caroline Kennedy's troubled attempt to be appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, saying that Kennedy would be better than the cowardly congressmen who let Dick Cheney get away with a "reign of terror." 
I know Caroline Kennedy. She's smart, cultivated, serious and unpretentious. The Senate, shamefully sparse on profiles in courage during Dick Cheney's reign of terror, would be lucky to get her.
And believe me, she talks a whole lot better than the former junior senator from New York, Al D'Amato, who once wailed that he was "up to my earballs" in some mess, and another time complained to me that those "little Jappies" bring over boats full of cars and then take the boats back empty.
Anyhow, it isn't how you say it. It's what you say. Hillary Clinton is a great talker, but she never stood up in the Senate to lead a crusade against any Republican horror show, from Terri Schiavo to the Bush administration's dishonest push to war.
