"This is not in any way your fault as I’m sure you know or have a sense of, but mine. Could you allow this to just pass, and not do the piece? I would be so grateful."

That was part of an email Peggy Noonan, the Clinton-hating WSJ columnist and one-time Ronald Reagan speechwriter, sent to Women's Wear Daily reporter Jacob Bernstein, who was writing a profile about her — one in which she cooperated. That was until all the question asking was done, and she had a change of heart about the whole thing: "Please don’t be mad at me. I don’t mean to show disrespect for your time, or for you. You are a doll. I have to admit to second thoughts, none of which are connected to you."

Noonan's request that Bernstein kill the profile, sent four weeks after their meeting, of course, was not honored, made evident by the fact that not only did the article — which hinted at a possible job offer from the NYT's op-ed page – run, but it lead with, uh, Noonan's postmortem email plea.

Please don't be mad at me. I don't mean to show disrespect for your time, or for you. You are a doll. I have to admit to second thoughts, none of which are connected to you. What I have been thinking each day is this: I really want the column to speak for me. Because it's better at speaking for me than I am. The thing about writing is that, as you of course know, it requires — and allows — reflection and consideration and figuring out what you really think, what you really want to say. And each week I try to get to that, sometimes getting there and sometimes not. But when I talk I find myself more inclined to pop off, or go for a joke, or attempt to entertain, or fill silence lest silence be misunderstood….In the weeks after we spoke I sort of winced at things I'd said. (That would be just about everything.) I feel I was babbly, nervous, and in general…wanting. And I felt, Oh, don't be a noisy person, be quiet and write. (I was hoping you found me sufficiently boring not to go forward.) This is not in any way your fault as I'm sure you know or have a sense of, but mine. Could you allow this to just pass, and not do the piece? I would be so grateful.

[WWD via NYM]