Maureen Dowd's column in today's New York Times created a mini-shit storm today, with several political pundits accusing her of using anti-Semitic imagery to make one of her typical points, which is that Romney is bad, etc. Basically, Dowd said Dan Senor, one of Romney's advisors, was a "neocon puppet master" who was trying to help neocons "slither back" into power. According to several "experts on American-Israeli relations," this sort of language is similar to ancient anti-Semitic imagery, like when Matt Taibbi called Goldman Sachs a vampire squid.

Here's a run down, compiled by Politico, of some pundits who are mad:

"Dowd's use of anti-Semitic imagery is awful," Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter.

"Maureen may not know this, but she is peddling an old stereotype, that gentile leaders are dolts unable to resist the machinations and manipulations of clever and snake-like Jews," Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic columnist and leading journalist on Israeli issues, wrote.

"[A]mazing that apparently nobody sat her down and said, this is not OK," Blake Hounshell, the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, tweeted.

On the right, The Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper called it "outrageous," while Commentary's Jonathan Tobin described it as "particularly creepy."

"Dowd's column marks yet another step down into the pit of hate-mongering that has become all too common at the Times," Tobin wrote. "This is a tipping point that should alarm even the most stalwart liberal Jewish supporters of the president."

Andy Rosenthal, the Times' editorial page director, says it's all ridiculous:

"No fair-minded reading of Maureen Dowd's column supports the allegations you and others are making. She makes no reference, direct or implied, to anyone's religion," Rosenthal told POLITICO Sunday night, through a spokesperson.

What a fun fake controversy to talk about on Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova, everyone.

[Image via AP]