I know you are but what am I

Why so nasty, Mr. Brooks? ("The Harry da Reid Code", NYT today.) There's really no call to launch such sophomoric, ad hominem attacks on your political adversaries. You know that's Maureen Dowd's job.

[For those not foolish or desperate enough to have paid the Times for access to the online op-ed page, here's an excerpt:

Harry Reid sits alone at his kitchen table at 4 a.m., writing important notes in crayon on the outside of envelopes. It has been four weeks since he began investigating this conspiracy and three weeks since he sealed his windows with aluminum foil to ward off the Illuminati. Odd patterns now leap into his brain. Scooter Libby was born near a book depository but was indicted while at a theater. Karl Rove reads books from book depositories but rarely has time for the theater. What is the ratio of Bush tax cuts to the number of squares on a frozen waffle? It is none other than the Divine Proportion. This proves that Leonardo da Vinci manipulated intelligence on Iraq and that the Holy Grail is a woman!

The thrust of Brooks' argument is that allegations of a GOP conspiracy to muddle the facts on WMD in Iraq are ridiculous, since even Clinton administration officials had gone on the record with such concerns. Perhaps his argument is valid, but the method in which he presents it is a turnoff and cheapens the debate. This is the type of column you file at 3 am under the influence of too much cognac and self-righteousness.]