It's always about the hair

So the Maureen Dowd Eurotrip continues as the she presumably bills the New York Times for her expenses in Paris and London while collecting the cheques for the columns filed on the road. Whereas the Paris trip was Sego as Hillary, the London trip is apparently Gordon Brown as John Edwards, except that she doesn't have her story straight. With Edwards (subs. req'd), the complaint was that he was spending money on haircuts and looking not like the common man as a result --

Speaking of roots, my dad, a police detective who was in charge of Senate security, got haircuts at the Senate barbershop for 50 cents. He cut my three brothers' hair and did the same for anyone else in the neighborhood who wanted a free clip job. Even now, Mr. Edwards could get his hair cut at the Senate barbershop for $21 or the Chapel Hill Barber Shop near his campaign headquarters for $16 ...
Someone who aspires to talk credibly about the two Americas can't lavish on his locks what working families may spend on electricity in a year. You can't sell earnestness while indulging in decadence.

But with Gordon (subs. req'd) --

He got an uninspiring £100 haircut, which was “lost on everyone,” as one reporter dryly put it.

So the John Edwards $400 haircut is too good, but the Gordon £100 haircut (remember Maureen to do the 2 for 1 conversion on your expenses report) is not good enough. Should Gordon ask John Edwards for the name of who does his hair, or should American pundits stop bringing their most oversized baggage of all -- the triviality that led them to despise Bill Clinton and (initially) love George Bush -- on their European vacations?