Times do change. ash no longer reads Coulter – anywhere, at any time – and can hardly believe she once did. Here’s a snap shot of the situation just before the 04 election:
Brilliant aristocrat George Will remarked contemporaneously that he couldn’t stop writing columns about Campaign Finance Reform, or, as he saw it, the death of free speech. Yet, as the issue receded and he approached the pitfalls of a one-topic commentary, he eventually did stop.
Similarly, after several (fruitless) letters and opinion pieces calling for the cancellation of Ann Coulter’s less-than-illuminating editorials in our paper, then several more protesting her vile burlesque routine, I turned to other matters.
The truth is I don’t read her column in our paper. (I don’t know whether the more outrageous stuff has been edited.) I read it Wednesday night, when she posts it on her website. I read it quickly, shake my head, then read someone else’s column, someone who can write, someone who has something to say, someone with politics compatible with mine, as a chaser to hers. Someone sane.
A cursory sampling of her work produces a lot of “insane”s. And “lunatic”s. And various synonyms. I find it revealing. She also evokes the phrase “girlie men” – her response to the conservative online editors who voided her contract after she called for the conversion of all surviving Muslims to Christianity following a retaliatory bombing for the 911 attacks. This week, conveniently skipping the presidential debate in which her guy got slaughtered, she focused on the previous night’s sitdown between the current, er, vice president and his Democratic challenger. She had ammunition if she wanted to use it. This outcome was less decisive. John Edwards was arguably weak. He failed to say this or that, Cheney did this and that, but all of the salient material had been exhausted on talking head programs and internet sites by the time she posted. More to the point, it was too obvious. It would constitute a thoughtful judgment. Boring. Predictable. Indistinguishable from numerous other critiques, and she couldn’t have that.
Instead, she flung ad hominems against John Edwards. According to Coulter, he has “girlie hands.” At least twice she referred to them, and if there was a third instance, I was reading too quickly to catch it. “Girlie hands,” and the fact that he mentioned his humble origins. (Never mind that the other guy has good reason to steer clear of his own personal history.) This was the best she had. Not clever, not funny. Just pathetic.
USA Today axed her article on the Democratic convention, which opened with the delightful image of pretty Republican women among non-armpit-shaving liberals, because it was too, well, nuts, if not irrelevant. The editors of that publication replaced her with the man who refused to publish her anti-Muslim rant. But John Edwards has “girlie hands.”
Reformed rightwing hatchet man David Brock hosts a website called Media Matters for America. He devotes much space to the provocative utterances of Coulter, also providing a forum for reader feedback. The feedback is revealing. At least 90% of the respondents are too astute to address her at face value. Rather than refute the content, if not substance, of her bizarre accusations and assertions, they zoom in on the motives and psychology behind them. “She needs serious help,” is a frequent assessment.”Clearly, this is some kind of mental illness.” “The poor thing, how she must hate herself,” is a common observation. “How does she get on TV? She should be a bag lady, in a New York subway, muttering to herself as she throws her mimeographed tirade to anyone who will take one,” I have read more than once. And: “This is her shtick. It’s how she emerges from the herd. When will the novelty wear off?”
When, indeed. Apparently, not anytime soon. She’s hawking another new book, and recently appeared on Good Morning America to discuss it. Several Media Matters readers watched it, or began to watch it, or watched it until they heard her quote “women aren’t as smart as men,” or changed the station when the interview was announced. One or two dispatched complaints to ABC maligning the reputation of the entire network. Meanwhile, affluent conservative organizations buy her books in bulk and offer them free to catapult her to the top of Amazon. There is no reason to believe it won’t continue until she falls off the cliff she constructed.
I used to be outraged. I’m still appalled, not by the words, not by the twisted mind capable of such invective, but by how desperate she has become. John Edwards has “girlie hands” and…? And nothing. That’s the extent of her argument. Though, manly girl that she is, she would be loath to pity anyone, I pity her. Maybe I shouldn’t. Some tiny part of her brain (call it the sane corner) must realize she’s running the clock. When she finally enters treatment, mandatory of course, at least she’ll have plenty of money to pay for it.
And the issue of why the State Journal-Register still carries her columns will become moot.