Sarah Palin has launched a bitter attack on Maureen Dowd after Dowd described her as "Queen Bee" of the "mean girls" in the Republican Party this election season.

"That's so funny, because I don't think I've ever met that gal, Maureen Dowd -- O'Dowd -- whatever the heck her name is Palin told a Fox News reporter when asked about Dowd

"I don't think I've ever met her, and I don't think -- she probably hasn't met Jan Brewer or some of these other wonderful, pleasant, gracious, nice, hard-working mama grizzlies who are wanting to turn this country around.

So Maureen can say whatever she says. I encourage the other mama grizzlies and liberty-loving Americans to just keep smiling."


Dowd responded in an interview with the Huffington Post saying it was the McCain campaign that stopped Palin meeting her when they kept her off their airplane.

"I was eager to travel with her and interview her when she first got appointed by McCain," said Dowd. "I think she's a fascinating figure in the history of politics. But I was immediately barred from their campaign planes by the same McCain aides Palin later "escaped" from."

Dowd claimed that Palin and others were setting out to emasculate Democrats this election season.
"We are in the era of Republican Mean Girls, grown-up versions of those teenage tormentors who would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your locker and, just for good measure, spread rumors that you were pregnant.

These women — Jan, Meg, Carly, Sharron, Linda, Michele, Queen Bee Sarah and sweet wannabe Christine — have co-opted and ratcheted up the disgust with the status quo that originally buoyed Barack Obama. " Dowd wrote in her New York Times column