Though Maureen Dowd says he’s “perfect,” it was apparent there still was plenty to pick on with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
The best-selling author was roasted Friday night in Washington by his colleague Dowd and friends including “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer and Golf Digest’s Jerry Tarde, upon winning the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award, a distinction past given to Walter Cronkite and Bob Novak.
Friedman was teased about his love of golf, daiquiris, metaphors, black turtlenecks and his solar-powered house, “which looms so big on Google Earth that Sarah Palin mistook it for a continent,” Dowd said.
He also was given a special musical treat by Schieffer and Diana Quinn, who paid homage to the columnist using honky tonk.
“He’s on a crusade and spreadin’ it wide and far,” Schieffer sang, accompanied on the guitar by Quinn, who plays in Schieffer’s band, Honky Tonk Confidential. “He won’t be happy till we’re drivin’ windmill cars,” they continued, before transitioning into the chorus of “It’s Hot, Flat and Crowded.”
Schieffer later told Yeas & Nays the song took several days for him to write.
After the performance, Friedman expressed appreciation to his friends, former teachers and the Gray Lady herself.
“It is still the most fun you can have legally,” he said of his heralded career.
