Mo Dowd is “the most influential columnist of our time”

Michael Kinsley bows to the altar of MoDo:

Dowd wisely ignored me and proceeded to reinvent the political column as a comedy of manners and a running commentary on the psychopathologies of power. It is the first real innovation in this tired literary form since Walter Lippmann. Eighty years ago, Lippmann developed the self-important style in which lunch with a VIP produces a judicious expression of concern by the columnist the next day about developments in danger of being overlooked. Most of today's columns are still variations and corruptions of this formula. But Dowd is different, and she is the most influential columnist of our time.

Dowd at least was smart enough to ignore you, Mike. For an example of MoDo's brilliance, read this.

Well, I'm floored by the deep, deep thoughts MoDo expresses. I mean, when I read a Krauthammer column, I think he's smart, and a doctor, but he doesn't quite capture the nuance of MoDo and he doesn't even use nicknames so how influential can he possibly be.