Posted on 10/03/2002 11:46:05 AM PDT by SlickWillard
On September 13, 2001, columnist Ann Coulter offered up the single most infamous foreign policy suggestion inspired by 9/11. Writing about Muslims, she declared, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Until then, Coulter was best known as a TV pundit whose stock in trade was tossing her platinum haystack while firing off the sort of conservative bon mots more typically associated with Rush Limbaugh than with leggy blondes.
Since Coulter advocated conversion by the sword, her stock has really blown through the roof. Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (Crown), her recent, hilariously shrill treatise on "liberal hate," has topped the New York Times bestseller list.
Because Slander breaks no new ground in uncovering what it claims is ubiquitous anti-conservative media bias, its smashing success raises a interesting question: Who the hell bought this book? Coulter, after all, is plainly one of the most intentionally infuriating commentators at work today. Who else would end a treatise on slanderous liberals with the sweeping declaration that they are "savagely cruel bigots who hate ordinary Americans and lie for sport"? Whether you’re a lefty, a centrist, or a libertarian, there’s plenty in the book to scorn.
Indeed, Coulter is such an inveterate nest fouler that she has even managed to alienate parts of her right-wing constituency. During the fracas over her Muslims column and a related one advocating the profiling of "suspicious-looking swarthy males," National Review Online dropped her column, citing journalistic concerns. Coulter responded by slagging the Review’s editorial staff as "just girly-boys."
Conservatives -- even, one suspects, the red-faced crew at National Review -- have a ready explanation for Slander’s best-selling status. The book’s success, like that of Bernard Goldberg’s Bias, Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, and any number of rightward-ho newspaper columnists, is evidence of America’s "silent majority." Legions of conservatives, goes this story, are tired of being ignored by the yogurt-lunching liberal commissars who control the media from Manhattan and Hollywood. Slander is a hit, then, because it tells the truths that Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and other smug liberal media mavens refuse to discuss.
Well, maybe. But it’s as likely that Coulter’s success depends not on her admirers but on those who can’t stand the lady. She’s the best kind of straw man -- a straw woman -- and both professional and amateur commentators can take great joy in tearing her apart. Her unnuanced, below-the-belt style of discourse brands her with a special kind of scarlet "A," one that makes any rhetorical counterattack, no matter how disrespectful, fair game.
Coulter’s critics clearly enjoy the freedom, even as it brings out their very worst. Take the brazenly patriarchal, positively Victorian finale of Charles Taylor’s review of Slander in Salon: "Coulter and her brood [of conservative women pundits] should be treated like spoiled brats who mouth off. Put them over the knee, paddle their fannies, tell them to wipe that smirk off their face and to speak up only when they’ve learned something about the world." Then there’s The Boston Globe’s Alex Beam, who coined the nasty term that’s now practically interchangeable with Coulter’s Christian name: right-wing telebimbo.
Even perky Katie Couric -- dubbed "the affable Eva Braun of morning TV" in Slander -- got hot under the collar when interrogating the Coultinator on the Today show. As the conversation degenerated into an early morning sniping match, a determined Couric had to repeat twice what was far from obvious: "I’m the one conducting this interview!"
Like it or not, in the kingdom of snark, Ann Coulter is queen. She’s never going to be hurting for loyal fans, particularly among those who have the pleasure of hating her. Not surprisingly, Coulter says she thrives on all the negative attention. Indeed, her eyes fairly dance when she’s challenged -- though somewhat maniacally, as if she were reaching for her machete.
"As Mao said, ‘It’s a good thing to be attacked by your enemy,’" she told a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times. Especially when every barb proves your thesis about liberal hate.
Bring it on, is the subtext of every Coulter utterance and smirk, you’re only helping me out. Certainly it can’t be a coincidence that Slander’s book jacket, featuring Coulter’s large, floating head, seems like it was designed to double as a dartboard.
Certainly it can’t be a coincidence that Slander’s book jacket, featuring Coulter’s large, floating head, seems like it was designed to double as a dartboard.
Talk about floating heads...
On the other hand, them jugs ain't half bad...
Oh well, like I always said: Scratch a Libertarian, get a Stalinist...
Wha...? If those jugs were hanging any lower, she could scratch her knees with them.
Sure, if you're a pinko socialist loser!
Otherwise, Ann is delightful. :)
Dude, if yer that picky, then you've been gettin' waaaayyyyy too much.
I stand by my original observation.
Sounds more like a description of Salon columnists, actually.
Of course, anybody who wishes to do even the most minimal digging on Sara would immediately find this:
"But I pretty much trusted in Rhys and I to scam our way out of any situation. If you're willing to believe what you're telling someone, a lot of the time they're willing to believe it too."
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/03/08/3c886777c1896
Sometimes people try to make me nervous. Like, I've shown a lot of people the movie and they say, 'Aren't you worried about going to court? Aren't you worried about being sued? Aren't you worried about going to jail?'" she said. "It's really hard to imagine oneself going to jail - it's almost like there's just no point in thinking about it. We could make a documentary about that, use the situation to our advantage. I don't know; I don't think it would be a black mark on my life. I think I could be 80 years old and deal with the fact that Sony tried to ruin me.
I mean, like, wow.
And I'm next in line!
Now Slick, can a man really get TOO much breastage?
Come on now.
I am indeed picky about the breastage, my friend. If they dont point skyward or at least horizontal, she is too old or too used for my tastes. Shoot me.
Bitch Goddess
I noted that your diatribe did exactly what Coulter says liberals do. Attack the person, not their words. You did nothing to dispute any of the facts pointed out in her book. But, by quoting from Salon.com you try (unsuccessfully) to put a level of credence to your rant. Get out of your liberal mode and try to dispute some of her facts instead of attempting to downgrade her followers (the magnatitude of which you'll never see).
I dunno, dude. This article reads pretty damned mainstream, and pretty damned Stalinist.
Well, I bought one copy, and will keep it for reference for years to come (after my VLWC buddy returns it to me!). The book is like a reference library, with its documented references which allow Ann to prove the accuracy of her assessments. I can't wait for her next book to come out. I'm reading High Crimes and Misdeameanors, now, having checked it out at the library.
I can't speak for Slick, but my father always told me that more than a mouthful goes to waste anyway...
;-)
She is definitely getting to them.
"The book’s success, like that of Bernard Goldberg’s Bias, Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, and any number of rightward-ho newspaper columnists, is evidence of America’s "silent majority." Legions of conservatives, goes this story, are tired of being ignored by the yogurt-lunching liberal commissars who control the media from Manhattan and Hollywood. Slander is a hit, then, because it tells the truths that Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and other smug liberal media mavens refuse to discuss."
If this was all she wrote, it would have been worthwhile. Funny how some people don't recognize the truth even when they say it themselves.
Oh, is it just me, or does anyone else hate Katy Couric?
How the hell do you get 'em to point skyward? [Maybe I shouldn't ask...]
PS: This chick appears to be a recent graduate of the University of Texas.
Too bad that Rimensnyder's column wasn't designed to double as coherent commentary...
;-)
Sara Rimensnyder is assistant editor of REASON, a monthly magazine on politics and culture with a national circulation of about 60,000.
Ms. Rimensnyder joined the magazine in June 2000, as the Burton C. Gray Memorial Intern, and became a permanent staff member in September 2000. Previously, she spent a year editing and writing about Asian politics for Stratfor.com, an Austin, Texasbased Web magazine and consulting business. Her work has also appeared in the Vancouver Sun and a number of local publications in Texas. She misses the free theatre and film tickets she received as a reviewer for the Daily Texan.
Ann Coulter is a lawyer and author of the New York Times best seller, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. Her most recent book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, is a number one New York Times Best-Seller.
Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a popular syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. She is a frequent guest on many TV shows, including Politically Incorrect, Larry King Live, Hannity and Colmes, The O'Reilly Factor, American Morning With Paula Zahn, Crossfire, ABC’s “This Week,” Good Morning America, the Leeza Show, and has been profiled in TV Guide, National Journal, Harper’s Bazaar, and George Magazine. She was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard Posner in 2001.
Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
After practicing law in private practice in New York City, Coulter worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. From there, she became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, DC, a public interest law firm dedicated to the defense of individual rights with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, civil rights, and the free exercise of religion.
A Connecticut native, Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.
Writing about Muslims, she declared, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Ann wasn't saying this about all Muslims, she said this about those (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) who were dancing in the streets in celebration on September 11.
Her book is so true is why it is so popular.....
Yeah, right Sara, most of the people buying Coulter's book hate her. In your dreams, clymer!
Lotta logic out of this ditz. I guess it was conservatives buying Michael Moore and Al Franken’s books.
A bigger idiot than this, I’m not likely to come across today.
You are ignoring all the wonderful uses for breasts while they are still bound by clothing. Two breast = two hands. You figure out the rest.
Youre forgetting their common obsession with easy drugs, etc. I used to get Reason , but for a free market magazine it seems pretty tame . They seem to hate social conservatives more than they do statist liberals. Oh, and theyve got more than a couple Bill Maher libertinian types on their payroll, it seems to me.
A UT Grad? I guess she got an early start then, as she looked to have been ridden pretty hard...........
Libertarians and liberals have virtually nothing in common except the first 5 letters. Youre forgetting their common obsession with easy drugs, etc.
No. Libertarians want people to be free to buy their own drugs. Liberals want the state to buy their drugs for them.
Drug warriors, on the other hand, just want to kick in everybody’s doors and shoot them, to find out if they had any drugs.
Hey, I just said what my old man said. I didn't say that I agreed with him.
Besides, my wife is a 42C. Thought you thought.
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