I think her worst moment was her article about the Reagan funeral where she trashed some of the former colleagues who were presidential speech writers.
I agree, that was a bad one, all right.
I nominate Noonan's comments last February, when she gushed about the Clintons' performances at the Coretta Scott King funeral: "God I love them." And who can forget her suggestion that Bush try to dump Cheney as VP, her appallingly crass response to Cheney's hunting accident.
She is still a fine writer, though most of her talent now seems devoted to creating quotable jabs at Bush. "...the administration's problem is not that the base lately doesn't like it, but that the White House has decided it actually doesn't like the base." (I think she might be right, but I wish she hadn't said it.)
Is Noonan bitter because she was dumped/ignored by the Bushes? Maybe, but I think that one source of her lack of respect for Bush is that as someone who has spent her life striving for eloquence in the service of political theater, she cannot abide that Bush is a mediocre orator even when reading prepared speeches. His fine 9/11 speech was the exception, not the rule.
Imagine what it must have been like for her to write the Challenger speech for Reagan. The nation was in shock, Noonan dug deep and produced a superb speech -- on paper. Then she heard Reagan's sublime delivery elevate her words, expressing everything she had intended and much more. Heady stuff for a young speechwriter. Reagan set her personal baseline for presidential eloquence.
W doesn't come close. He intentionally pronounces "nuclear" as "nucular," when he deviates from his prepared remarks his grammar is poor, and probably worst of all from Noonan's point of view is that he doesn't care a whit. Bush's many accomplishments have been achieved despite his lack of the verbal talent she has in abundance. He is not her kind of president.