The Vile Anne Coulter
I've never liked Anne Coulter. It's something visceral. There's something about her that I could never trust.
This is a blonde "conservative" writer who writes books with titles like "Treason" (about "liberal treachery") and "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)".
I've had my own problems with liberalism and the Democratic Party. I think the content of both that label and that party have gone steadily, terribly downhill since John F. Kennedy was murdered 43 years ago. I love stirring the pot with a direct political debate in which almost everything is fair game.
But there was something about this woman's "humor" that I didn't get. I'm from the Tip O'Neill / Ronald Reagan school--attack the other guy's opinion, not his character. Argue all day, have a beer afterwards and discuss something else.
But Anne Coulter isn't from that school. She engages in a shrill, ugly attack that passes for debate. All flame, no light. Now she's topped herself.
In her new book, "Godless- the Church of Liberalism", she attacks some politically active women whose husbands died in the World Trade Center. Of these women, she said, "I have never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much" she writes. It hurts to read these words, to cut and paste them.
The sin that these women committed? To endorse John Kerry, and to take a Democratic view on politics. Now again, I don't sing from the Democratic hymnbook, have not for a long time, but I have a very hard time connecting the dots from "endorsing Kerry" to "I'm glad my husband's dead".
I worked in the World Trade Center. I know one of the women that have been mentioned, and I knew her husband. A sweet and happy and gentle man he was. I know how he died too. He wasn't one of the "lucky" who died instantly or without pain. I doubt that his wife found much joy in her husband's death, under such awful circumstances.
I don't think that all the 9/11 widows were all wonderful. I remember some FDNY widows in particular saying the most unfair, dreadful things to Fire Commissioner Von Essen and to other NYC officials in the months and much longer after 9/11. Some of what was said was simply unforgiveable. I've never felt that a loss, even one as terrible as this, gives you a lifetime pass to attack others and play the victim forever.
Likewise, the widows who have taken positions on political things should be prepared to have their positions attacked. And I don't think that they're immune from personal attack either, if there's anything legitimate to attack them personally about.
Here, they're guilty of taking some political positions that Anne Coulter, and a lot of us, disagree with. So what. That's hardly a crime. Those widows who want to be politically active should continue to do so.
One of the women in question said "Contrary to Coulter's statements, there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again. We adored these men and miss them every day."
I believe her.
I condemn Anne Coulter unreservedly. She is a vile, poisonous woman. There are others like her, plenty from the liberal side too. But we're not talking about them today.
For a perspective from a big conservative blog, see this from Red State
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"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." - Anne Coulter
Well said, Phantom. Well said.
Posted by
Anonymous |
June 13, 2006 1:33 PM
One of your best posts. I've often found Coulter to be a huge embarrassment and, overall, a huge millstone around the neck of the conservatives of the Republic. I fear that she thinks her looks are more dynamite than they are, and that they give her some sort of immunity from good taste.
As an Okie who still gets choked up thinking about the 1995 blast, in which a lot of good people liberal and conservative (and young innocents) died, her McVeigh quote ought to be actionable. She needs to visit the Murrah Memorial (incognito) and take the tour. But if the WTC tragedy doesn't stir her compassion, the 1995 OKC event never would.
Sigh.
Posted by
Dave the Oklahomilist |
June 13, 2006 11:42 PM
She will have a very hard time digging her out of the hole she has put herself into here.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, I rememember speaking to a "right wing" guy who tried to explain it away somehow by talking of "government oppression". I could have punched him.
The Friday before 9/11, I was in Oklahoma City, and a work friend and I spoke of the Oklahoma City bombing. Four days later, he died in the WTC.
Posted by
The Phantom |
June 14, 2006 10:50 AM