Maureen Dowd's Previous Visit to Albany

Maureen Dowd last visited the New York State Writers Institute on September 14, 2004.

Here's Elizabeth Benjamin's article from the Times Union that appeared the following morning:

"The woman who routinely eviscerates America's leaders in print, leading President Bush to nick name her "The Cobra, " charmed a packed-to-capacity hall Tuesday with her self-effacing remarks and insight on today's often bewildering political landscape.

"Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd had the crowd of some 1,000 fans eating out of her hand the moment she admitted, from behind a lectern that dwarfed her petite frame, to being "frightened" by her biweekly task of writing for the paper's influential op-ed page.

"Usually I wait until the last minute to start because I'm so afraid," Dowd said. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I go, 'Oh my gosh, how did this happen? Why would anyone want to listen to me?' "