Aaron Sorkin, Times Columnist by Proxy

Yesterday in her New York Times op-ed column, Maureen Dowd presented one of her signature imaginary dialogues. But instead of imagining her own little Sunday morning playhouse production about the head of Lehman Brothers talking to the Monopoly Guy on a bread line or whatever, she outsourced the effort to her ex-boyfriend, West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin.

This isn't the first time Ms. Dowd has relied on someone else to write her column: On October 14, 2007, she had Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert write I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!) for her.

Mr. Sorkin, who must've taken a break from his hectic Facebook movie writing schedule, turned in the sort of far-reaching, speechifying, slightly heavy-handed script that fans of his shows enjoy and detractors enjoy mocking, in which he imagined a conversation between his idealized President Jed Bartlet and Senator Barack Obama. (Let's hope it was written by Aaron Sorkin and not The Times's Andrew Ross Sorkin, whom New York Magazine's Ariel Levy reported in 2005 was the unwanted recipient of "randy" emails from Ms. Dowd intended for the similarly named TV writer-producer.)

Here's a sample: