Tom Friedman and Me - Or - Calling Friedman out Near the Coat Check at Sardi’s

So I’m walking out of Sardi’s tonight after a nice corporate dinner and while I’m waiting near the coat check for my companion to come back from the bathroom I realize that I’m standing right next to Tom Friedman.  

I know I shouldn’t say anything but I feel compelled to call Friedman out about something so I open my big mouth and say, “Paul,…you are Paul Krugman right?”

(Okay. I had a couple of drinks and was feeling a little nervous about that I was going to do, so I flubbed the beginning.)

Freidman says, “No, I’m Tom.  Paul is the guy with the beard.”    He was very affable but it did not persuade me to back off.  I wanted to say what I was about to say which was:

“So Tom, do you think America should still go around telling countries to ‘suck it?’ “  

He lost his affability and said, “I would not say something like that.”   So I said, “Really? You didn’t say America should tell another country to suck on this? or suck this?”

No, I wouldn’t say something like that.” Friedman said.

“Oh.  Okay.  My bad.”   I said,  “I thought you said that Iraq should suck on it.”      

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Click here to see Tom Friedman saying, "Suck on this, Iraq"