Was Maureen Dowd kidding about having called Tim Russert to ask if VP Cheney washed his hands after his Meet the Press appearance this Sunday? By all indications she was not, making one fear the Times columnist is slipping ever deeper into Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Dowd writes in her pay-to-read column of today, Vice Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work, "I called Tim Russert to ask if Dick Cheney had washed his hands after their interview on Sunday. Any sort of scrubbing, I wondered? Antiseptic wipe, Purell, quick shower on the way out?"

Russert reportedly replied in the negative.

Dowd was prompted to ask after reading a recent Times' health section article about a new study on the “Macbeth effect," which concluded that people who washed their hands after contemplating an unethical act were less troubled by their thoughts than those who didn’t.

Her hatred for the Vice President unfettered, Dowd:

• claimed Mr. Cheney holds "malignant sway" over President Bush
• labelled him "The Lord of the Underworld"
• compared him to the murderess Lady Macbeth,
• accused him of "ruining America"

Dowd later claimed that "Bin Laden has become the Willie Horton of the midterms." Perhaps someone should remind Maureen that Horton really was a killer, and that when a previous Bush brought that home to the American people, he crushed his weak-on-crime rival.

Mark Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net