"Coulter-geist" in Dayton

I read in today's edition of the DDN that Ann Coulter will be visiting "The Gem City" tomorrow afternoon (September 10th). Dayton Right to Life, a local anti-abortion organization, invited her to speak at their "Viva la Vita 2006" fundraising event at the Schuster Performing Arts Center due to her personal pro-life position and, undoubtedly, her huge popularity among conservatives--DRTL's target demographic. As of the writer's posting of the story, over 2,300 tickets and dozens of standing-room only passes for an adjacent overflow area had already been distributed for this advertised 'celebration of life and hope' (admission is free but donations will be solicited from among the attendees to fund their education and outreach programs--they're 'hoping' to rake in $350,000). Normally, I don't pay attention to such events (I am pro-choice and Americans STILL have the right to assemble peacefully to support their causes) but reading about this invitation for such a radioactive personality to come to Dayton piqued my interest.

Time's 'Ms. Right'--she complained about how big her feet looked!

While she is not one of the columnists that the DDN chooses to use to placate its conservative readership, Ann has been garnering a lot of (negative) attention due to her recent guest appearances on television. While promoting her most recent book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism", she regurgitated several highly controversial opinions on 'the Jersey girls'--a group of politically active widows of victims of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers--to the Today Show's Matt Lauer and other program hosts. She used the term 'liberal infallibility' to describe how critics of conservative positions, by her accounts, always seem to be represented by someone who has suffered a personal loss--Cindy Sheehan, Christopher Reeve, and the previously mentioned widows. Such a highly sympathetic spokesperson supposedly boosts public sympathy for their causes and restricts the ability to make opposing counterclaims. Although vilified by many mainstream media outlets for making such public statements, she has yet to apologize for making them and has subsequently referred to them in her writings as 'harpies' and 'the witches of New Brunswick'.

Attacking the 'Jersey Girls' on the June 6, 2006 Today Show

Ms. Coulter, equally disparaged by her detractors as 'the wicked witch of the Right' or 'the high priestess of archconservatism', has been the subject of recent revelations about her professional and personal life. "Godless" has been roundly criticized by several medial outlets for issues concerning irregularities in her citing of factual sources (similar claims have also been made about plagiarism in her newspaper columns--all were dismissed by her syndicater). She is currently embroiled in a voting controversy in her home state of Florida (cast her ballot in the wrong precinct in February 2006) and has retained the services of one of attorneys who assisted George W. Bush's position during that state's 2000 election snafu.

Keith Olbermann's 'Coulter-geist' graphic--she's a frequent 'winner'

In today's world of political pundit 'pugilism' (akin to participants of World Wrestling Entertainment), Ann is the equivalent of Stephanie McMahon--merely 'window dressing' that has to slug it out from time to time in her respective 'ring' but aren't really taken seriously by the 'powers-that-be' (Vince McMahon or the other male stars for WWE, everyone except Fox News--and MSNBC's Chris Matthews-- for Ms. Coulter). Although highly educated (graduate of Cornell and University of Michigan's law school), she often comes across as shrill and shallow and gets easily confused when she is steered away from her prepared talking points. On a recent FNC broadcast, she stated that the situation in Afghanistan was going 'swimmingly' and proceeds to walk off the set when her erroneous claim was countered by her liberal 'sparring partners' (she can be heard to be asking co-host Sean Hannity for 'help' but he wisely left her to fend for herself or, in this case, flee).

"Sean, help me--Sean, where are you?"

As an individual, Ann Coulter is (like the rest of us) rather insignificant in the cosmic order; however, the corrosive vitriol she regularly spews out to a willing audience further destroys any semblance of political discourse in our country today. She debuted as a public figure during the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against President Clinton and is credited for talking Ms. Jones into rejecting a settlement with apology in order to hold Clinton publicly accountable for his actions (she still holds our 42nd president in very low esteem to the present day--referring to him as a 'rapist' in a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's demand for a public apology to the 9/11 widows). A self-described 'polemicist', her first column after the 9/11 attacks advocated a 21st century resumption of the Crusades via WWII-esque 'carpet bombing' of all suspected Muslim countries--terrorists and civilians alike. Other personal desires include the death of Supreme Court justice Paul Stevens by 'rat poison', an Oklahoma City-like bombing of the New York Times headquarters building, and the execution of American Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh in order to intimidate US liberals not to become 'traitors'.

Quote from her September 12, 2001 column--medieval thinking, indeed!

All of these (and many other similar remarks) have been explained away by her supporters and sponsors during her career by them saying that she is a 'satirist' or displays 'great humor' in her remarks--funny, I don't remember Will Rogers or Mark Twain using such bombastic language to comment on the issues of their respective times! IMHO, Ann gets away with it simply because she is 'window dressing'--blonde, short skirted, attractive (although I do not get a rise out of her at all!)--and while she has verbally assaulted wide swaths of the American population, she has never physically acted upon her own toxic screed. As a US citizen, she is protected by the First Amendment and it would take a court of law to determine if she has crossed the legal line of free speech--as a lawyer, I'm assuming she's fully aware of where that lies.

I will predict that Ms. Coulter will linger in the public eye as long as her audiences continue to desire her unique brand of 'entertainment'. The law of the marketplace will eventually catch up with her (consumers eventually tire of their products and she will have to either rebrand it or take it off of the shelf). Time also has a way of removing 'blights' from our society and I feel it will affect her especially hard (the aging process will eliminate any 'eye candy' benefits she might currently have; the centric nature of politics diminishes the staying power of anyone straying too far away from the middle; she's burned way too many bridges and will have a limited number of public career options available to her).

"The Surreal Life"...could this be in Ann Coulter's future?

What's my advice? As unpleasant as it may sound, just suck it up and let her enjoy her '15 minutes'. Correct and refute her obvious factual and logical errors to as many people as possible and let her wander about the country looking for her dwindling tribes of sycophants to schmooze up to. The sad truth is that people will pay their hard-earned money to see their 'Amerikan idol.' Hopefully she invests her income wisely so we won't have to see her like other 'has-beens' doing reality television in 5 to 10 years time--do you REALLY want to watch her having to share a bathroom with Tara Reid on 'The Surreal Life--Season 12"?