I was having a drink yesterday with E.J. Dionne and Todd Gitlin (I'm so liberal sometimes I actually scare myself) when E.J., who in another life probably wrote headlines for Joseph Pulitzer, suddenly, and apropos of nothing much, said of Sarah Palin, "She's a hockey imam!" This was, of course, pure genius. At first I was going to steal it, but we are in the intermediate days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, so no stealing. I was left with a problem, however: What does it, in fact, mean? We couldn't figure that one out; she's a fundamentalist, and so are many imams? Hockey, of a sort, is big in Pakistan? She's a particularly judgmental hockey mom?

No matter. I'm reasonably sure Palin will say something, to the extent that she says anything, in the coming days that will fit the label.