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From a New York Observer article, Ann Coulter Ecstatic:
Ann Coulter Ecstatic: [/] Enemies Stoke Sales- [/] 'They're Like My Pets'
By: George Gurley [/] Date: 7/3/2006 [/] Page: 1June was a very good month for Ann Coulter. Was it a good one for her millions of enemies and the future of the world? Hard to say. [/] On June 6, the day her fifth book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, arrived in bookstores, Ms. Coulter appeared on NBC's The Today Show.
[...] Mr. Lauer read Ms. Coulter's words: "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much." [/] As Ms. Coulter tried to explain "the left's doctrine of liberal infallibility," Mr. Lauer hammered away, until she interjected: "Look, you're getting testy with me!"
[...] By Sunday, June 25, Ms. Coulter's book was No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. [/] And that was thanks largely to Mr. Lauer's interview, and the ensuing liberal firestorm. Ms. Coulter made the cover of the Daily News, the New York Post and The National Enquirer. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton-the front-runner for the Democratic 2008 Presidential candidacy-called Ms. Coulter "vicious" and "mean-spirited." (Ms. Coulter fired back: "Before criticizing others for being 'mean' to women, perhaps Hillary should talk to her husband, who was accused of rape by Juanita Broaddrick and was groping Kathleen Willey at the very moment Willey's husband was committing suicide.") Referring to Ms. Coulter's comments about the widows, NBC News anchor Brian Williams asked, "Have you no shame?" Newspaper headlines seemed to have all been written by the same editor: "Coulter's Cruelty Has No Bounds" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), "Coulter's Crudeness" (The Boston Globe) and "Pray for Ann Coulter" (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette). After Ms. Coulter sat down with Jay Leno, The New York Times' TV critic Alessandra Stanley called her "the mean girl of the moment" and lamented that Mr. Leno had failed to deliver a "much deserved public swat."
Even conservatives got in on the spanking. Bill O'Reilly called her "over the top." Andrew Sullivan ran eight Coulter items on his blog, calling her "a drag-queen-fascist-impersonator."
Other pundits assured readers and viewers that the 44-year-old, New Canaan-bred and Cornell-educated Ms. Coulter doesn't really believe what she says: It's just a marketing ploy. So ignore her! Or, they said, Ms. Coulter was just a cunning satirist. Meghan Daum, in the Los Angeles Times, praised Ms. Coulter's "subtly arch commentary" and asserted: "The woman isn't a pariah, she's a comic genius, an anthropologist with an edge, the adopted love child of Oscar Wilde and Gore Vidal."
Meanwhile, the legions of Ann Coulter haters were breathing sighs of relief: Because of the widow comments, she would surely, at last, be forced to slink away. "Is This the End for Ann Coulter?" a Salon article asked, fingers crossed.
It had been almost two years since I'd seen Ms. Coulter, and though I'd been getting nostalgic for our interviews, I wasn't so sure if it was still in my interest to turn on that tape recorder. I'd had enough of being called a "moron" and "Ann Coulter's handmaiden" by prissy left-wing blogger Eric Alterman. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be invited over to Al Franken's Riverside Drive apartment again for another two-hour reprogramming session. Was another Coulter interview worth the price?
I met Ann for lunch [...] "I put a book out-and liberals were hysterical!" she said, cackling away. "Much like the last four books." [/] How did she think her Today show appearance had gone? [/] "That was great. I could've kissed Matt Lauer after that interview," she said. [...] So I was kind of nervous. If they just said, 'Tell me what your book is about,' I would babble incoherently. But an argument that I can do my sleep! That's easy for me to do."
I mentioned the things she'd written about the four widows-such as "How do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy." Did she think her comments would set off such an explosion? [/] "No, but we can keep this party going all summer," she said. "Anyway, it's clearly been completely misportrayed. But, you know, the media misportrays it, people become curious about what it really is, and they buy the book and the message gets out."
So why can't liberals stop attacking her? [/] "Actually, they can't help themselves," she said. "They're like my pets."
What do liberals want? [/] "It's just so horrible to contemplate-that's why I'm laughing. Apparently the total destruction of the United States. But they get to keep their houses in Amagansett."
[...] How did it feel to be known as the "mean girl of the moment"? [/] "When did that enter the public debate, that someone is 'mean'?" she said. "We're having an argument, I'm winning-and they sit back and cry and say, 'Oh, you're mean.' When did that happen?"
"I think the public perception of my book is slightly different," she said. "I mean, this was the establishment's attack; it wasn't normal people. Everywhere I go, people are treating me like a returning war hero. Every place. It's stunning, the people coming out of the woodwork. On e-mail, other 9/11 widows have been tracking me down, because they're really seething with anger at these harpies for claiming to speak for all widows."
[...] Some critics don't think Ms. Coulter believes the things she says, I told her. [/] "Yes, liberals would like to think that-as the entire country turns my way," she said. "Let them comfort themselves with that little fantasy. It's not only 'Are you a satirist?', but 'Did you really mean that? Was that a joke? Are you saying that to get a reaction? Is that hyperbole?'
[...] Why is it, I asked, that liberals tend to get away with over-the-top remarks, like when Cindy Sheehan called President Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world"? [/] "Because they send out victims as spokespeople!" she said. "Not any more, I might add! I think I ended that little trick. Oh, they'll still do it, but everyone's going to be sitting back in their living room rolling their eyes now."
Do you think that if Ms. Sheehan's son Casey could see her now, he might wish she- [/] "Wish that she'd shut up? Pipe down? Yes. I write about him in the book," she said. "He is an amazing American hero-that was the story that was being lost in all of this. As she becomes Dennis Rodman and just makes a spectacle of herself, he was a great American patriot. For one thing, he had already re-enlisted. He didn't have to go; he died on a mission he was volunteering for to help save his buddies-he was incredibly heroic. And I think it's too bad that most people don't know that."
[...] "Yes, well, all three networks [had power]," she said. "That's why liberals are going crazy now. They're becoming like the Sunni insurgency without the physical courage."
Do you think we have more to fear from Democrats than Iraqi insurgents? [/] "Oh yes," she said. "Fifth columnists at home. Our boys can handle these savages. But every time there is some question about a mission, when you have Democratic Congressmen accusing our boys of being cold-blooded killers, and then we bust up a terror plot in Miami, and Ron Klink is saying it's because Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction! [...] It's a huge problem-liberals are like New York cabdrivers who never see the red light coming. Other people slow down as they see the yellow. New York cab drivers are going 60 miles an hour-ahhhhhhhh! That's the Democrats with an imminent threat: 'No, it's not imminent, it's not imminent-oh, there's a missile headed for Chicago!' Now they'll say it's imminent. Well, thanks! Thanks for that. Thank you. At what point would Democrats say it's imminent? When they're threatening to build weapons of mass destruction? When they're lunatics denying the Holocaust? When they're doing a passable imitation of Bea Arthur leading a country and claiming to have nuclear missiles that can land on American soil? At what point is it imminent?"
What about those who complain about how the U.S. has treated our war prisoners? [/] "Well, I made it clear on my Web page last night," she said. "I posted a little link with pictures of what they do to our guys, and then some Arab with underwear on his head. I linked to this wonderful Web page-he has all of the burnt bodies hanging from trees, from bridges, he has right before Al-Zarqawi slices off Nick Berg's head. And then you have an Arab standing there with underwear on his head. So I think a little visual comparison is helpful."
At what point would you want to pull out of Iraq? [/] "Once we've completed the mission-and the mission's going perfectly well. When you think about the one war liberals belatedly supported, because we were fighting to defend Mother Russia-World War II-you just can't imagine, 'O.K., at what point that a number of soldiers have died do we pull-?' No, we leave when we're done."
What do you see as Bill Clinton's legacy? [/] "That he never denied raping Juanita Broaddrick. And Hillary Clinton has the audacity to accuse me of being mean to women. The one tip I'll give you about Hillary Clinton's future-because I read The New York Times like a Kremlinologist reading Pravda-and I think they're turning against her, the way they turned against Howard Dean. I think The New York Times is going to stop Hillary from being the candidate. We'll see, but that article a few weeks ago on the front page about the family-and this past weekend, they had a very nasty Hillary cartoon. I think the clergy of the liberal religion, i.e., the editorial board of The New York Times, has decided that Hillary can't win, and they're going to find an electable candidate. Exactly like they threw Howard Dean off the boat last time. He was sailing to victory, and The New York Times turned against them with a big magazine piece making fun of, you know, his idiot supporters. It was hilarious. But they wouldn't have done that if they wanted the Dean train to keep going. They ended Dean, and liberals are good followers and they do what The New York Times tells them. We don't have anything like that, by the way, on the right. You can't get us to be followers."
John Kerry? [/] "Oh, he's so pathetic. I'm so happy to hear he's running again," she said. "He and Gore I consider very comedic. With Kerry, no matter what the photo is-he's always trying to look like Mr. Cool, wind surfing or relaxing or golfing, whatever. No matter what pose he's in, no matter what he's wearing, he is always dorkus erectus."
Let's say you were the Emperor of United States. [/] "Oh, I like that!" [/] What would you do your first 100 days? [/] "Deport all liberals." [/] Where would you send them? [/] "It doesn't really matter. Just get them out. And then I wouldn't need to do anything else, because it's really a great country. Oh, it would be so magnificent. It would be like New York during the Republican National Convention. We do have fun playing with liberals, but they can get a little irksome."
Is it fun being a Christian in New York? [/] "Yes! And it's growing and growing." [/] I mentioned that I went to see Tim Keller give a sermon at the Church of the Redeemer, at her suggestion. [/] "Isn't he magnificent? Keller is life-transforming."
I confessed I was worried about being called a brown-noser for even interviewing her. [/] "They said the same thing about Jay Leno," she said. "Apparently, unless you call me a rotten slut, you're sucking up to me. Merely being polite and giving an honest interview to Ann Coulter, yes, you must be sucking up."
[...] Could you tell me a story from childhood that might explain how you became Ann Coulter?
"You know I hate talking about myself. It all seems normal and natural to me. I went to a nice high school. Mostly I was boy-crazy, and I just wanted to hang out with my boyfriends. I wasn't in a particular group. I played lacrosse. I liked the lacrosse girls. I was always political, even in high school; it was always just fun to tweak liberals. In college we started the Cornell Review and, of course, we got all the nasty letters: 'racist,' 'fascist,' 'we'll kill you,' blah blah blah. We'd collect all the letters, go out for drinks, and read them aloud and take great joy."
Not everyone who attacks you reads your books, right? [/] "That's right. That's something I would like liberals to answer-if I am so outrageous, why will they never quote me? Why do they always twist it into me always saying something I didn't say?
[...] But did she hear about the vulgar comment Mr. Penn made in the article about his Ann Coulter doll, and how he liked to burn its private parts with a cigarette? [/] Well, I was not surprised to find out that Sean Penn plays with dolls. I did think they'd be larger and inflatable."
[...]"Right, but he also viciously attacked you for quoting him accurately," she said. "That's the difference between conservatives and liberals. I'm ticked off when people don't quote me accurately. They're ticked off when people do quote them accurately." [..] [My ellipses and emphasis]
Poll Question: Describe Ann Coulter. 20 Choices! Let your opinion count! | Poll choices:
1. Vicious / 2. Mean spirited / 3. Shameless / 4. Unbounded cruelty / 5. Crude / 6. A drag-queen-fascist-impersonator / 7. Mean girl of the moment / 8. Over the top / 9. Does not believe what she says. / 10. Says whatever sells books. / 11. Cunning satirist. / 12. Comic genius / 13. Anthropologist with an edge / 14. Adopted love child of Gore Vidal and Oscar Wilde / 15. Disrespects liberals unfairly / 16. Accurate social observer and scholar / 17. Defender of the Constitution and common sense / 18. Honest and joyous / 19. Sincere patriot / 20. New sort of war hero / 21. No comment. / 22. No opinion. / 23. This poll is worthless. / 24. This poll is of negative value. / 25. Other.
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