From a reader:

You were right, many of us were too harsh on DB in his first 2 columns. Today, Fred Barnes was referenced on the NYT editorial page. FRED FRICKING BARNES!! Now read that sentence again, and imagine Ms. Dowd this morning having coffee with Naomi Wolf and Gail Sheehy, Dowd awkwardly staring into her latte as Gail disapprovingly clucks: “Fred Barnes? Treated like a (eye roll) serious journalist on the editorial page? How could Punch let this happen?”