Sometimes a column features such unmitigated, unmerited nastiness that it requires an answer for the record. Such is the case with the latest outpouring of poison from the pen of veteran pundit Margaret Carlson, who manages in just one column to spread gratuitous calumny in myriad, unrelated directions.

The putative target for Carlson’s ire was vice president Mike Pence’s decision to stay at President Trump’s resort in Doonbeg, Ireland rather than in Dublin, 180 miles away, where Pence was to meet with Irish leaders. Pence’s decision was indeed misguided, but it was hardly worthy of Carlson’s level of bile.