Does Maureen Dowd moonlight at MSNBC as Andrea Mitchell's writer? Here's how for, purposes of defending Caroline Kennedy in her NYT column today, Dowd mocked former New York Republican Senator Al D'Amato [emphasis added]:

[B]elieve 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.

Now check out Mitchell's comments made during her 1 PM time slot on MSNBC today:

ANDREA MITCHELL: [Bob] Shrum, let you ask you about Caroline Kennedy.  The New York tabs and New York Times--everybody--having a field day with her speech patterns: you know, um, you know, and all of the attacks against her now: the Times today has a story about families: Cuomo versus Kennedy.  What is going on up there, and what is going on up there?  You've been close to the Kennedy family over the years.  First of all, in a state that has elected Al D'Amato to the Senate, is it fair to have a new test for senators that they be articulate?

Shrum and Mitchell can be heard sharing a good laugh at Al's expense.

Say what you will about D'Amato, but he was a smart and wily politician who pulled himself up by his Brooklyn bootstraps, defeated a sitting senator in a GOP primary, and got himself elected to the Senate in heavily Dem New York. No one appointed Al to nuthin'. But his earthy Brooklyn lexicon makes a good target for the liberal media elites circling the wagons around one of their own.

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.