Maureen Dowd: Hillary Clinton 'Not Angry Enough'

Bush-bashing New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is warning that Hillary Clinton may not turn out to be her party's next presidential nominee unless she finds a way to combat charges that she's "too angry."

But instead of calming down, the flame-haired scribe suggests bizarrely that Mrs. Clinton needs to lose her temper more often in public.

"Hillary's problem isn't that she's angry," insists Dowd in her Tuesday column. "It's that she's not angry enough."

The tart-tongued Timeswoman complains: "From Iraq to Katrina and the assault on the Constitution, from Schiavo to Alito and N.S.A. snooping to Congressional corruption, Hillary has failed to lead in voicing her outrage."

Chatting with radioman Don Imus Tuesday morning, Dowd said Mrs. Clinton's leadership meltdown may cost her the 2008 presidential nomination.

"It's just interesting what's happening in the Democratic Party in the last few weeks," she declared. "I think people are realizing that she's not the inevitable candidate."

Democrats are starting to fear "that it would be kind of a lemming situation if they just go with her," Dowd said.

And while GOP claims that Hillary is too angry are unfair, the Times scribe acknowledged they have her boxed in.

"Republicans are doing this really blatantly misogynistic thing and painting her as 'Angry Woman' because then that puts her in a box," Dowd told Imus. "Because if she criticizes [Bush] she's a shrew, you know. And if she doesn't she's timid and girlie."

Despite her defense, Dowd blasted Hillary for nodding along as she stood beside her husband as he spoke at Coretta Scott King's funeral on Tuesday.

"She shouldn't have been up there," the Timeswoman said. "That bobbleheaded thing was annoying."