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Ann Coulter

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Ann Coulter (born 8 December 1961) is a conservative American author and attorney at law. She is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, Slander, and Treason. All of Coulter's books have been New York Times Best-Sellers. In addition, Ann Coulter is a legal correspondent for the magazine Human Events, writes a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate, and is a columnist listed for her "insight" on the Jewish World Review.

File:AnnCoulter-Slander.jpg

Coulter graduated with honors from the Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences in 1984. She went on to receive her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.

Today, Coulter makes guest-appearances to give her opinions on national television. She has appeared on shows such as Hannity and Colmes, The O'Reilly Factor, American Morning With Paula Zahn, Crossfire, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Scarborough Country, and The Today Show.

Books

Coulter gained much of her recent prominence with two best-selling books. The first, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, is about media bias in the United States. She charges that many American journalists have past or present ties to the Democratic Party, which in turn influences their reporting. She argues that George W. Bush has faced a difficult and unfair battle for positive coverage in the media ever since he decided to run for president, and that a similar battle for fair coverage has been waged by pratically every Republican presidential candidate since Calvin Coolidge.

Her follow-up to Slander was Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. In this book she argued that Democratic politicians and the media have severly undermined much of America's foreign policy goals since the end of World War II. Summarizing events of recent history, she accuses Democratic presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman of being incompetent in the war against Communism and the Soviet Union, and Democratic congressman for similarly undermining the efforts of Republican presidents. In the final chapters she argues that a similar process is undermining the present Republican-led war on terror.

A controversial figure

A prominent conservative commentator, Coulter has been an outspoken critic of many liberal and Democrat Party movements over the years. She gained prominence during her days as a lawyer for helping Paula Jones to sue President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. She appeared on MSNBC to discuss the case, then wrote a book critical of Clinton. Since that book became a best-seller, she left her law practice to concentrate on writing books and columns.

Coulter has a reputation for being a controversialist and relishes the role. As she told the Sunday Times of London in 2002, "I am a polemicist. I am perfectly frank about that. I like to stir up the pot. I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."

Two days after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, her syndicated column included discussion of her close friend Barbara K. Olson, who was killed on American Airlines Flight 77 when terrorists crashed it into The Pentagon. In the last paragraph, Coulter wrote, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." A week later she detailed a five-point plan guided by an "all-new standard for airline safety procedures:...procedures that make the airplane safer" of which point 3 proposed "requir passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged," she continued, "but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males." Point 4 observed, "All 19 hijackers in last week's attack appear to have been aliens.... Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave." When the editors of the National Review, a well-known conservative magazine that included Coulter's syndicated column in its publication, said they would like to discuss making changes (Coulter, July 2002), she went on the national television show Politically Incorrect and accused them of censorship, claiming her pay was only five dollars per article. National Review Online then ended its relationship with Coulter.

The "convert them to Christianity" comment has become one of Coulter's most infamous statements, and is widely cited by her critics. However, her supporters maintain that it was largely a tongue-in-cheek statement and intentionally overzealous. "Liberals love to pretend they don't understand hyperbole," she once quipped.

Coulter was hired by USA Today to cover the 2004 Democratic National Convention, but was replaced with Jonah Goldberg after a "disagreement over editing". The column began "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston" and referred to an indefinite number of female attendees as "corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons". The newspaper did not print the column, but Coulter published it on her website .

Personal background

Coulter, when asked if she is a fundamentalist Christian, told interviewer David Bowman, "I don't think I've described myself that way, but only because I'm from Connecticut. We just won't call ourselves that." She does not usually argue from a religious point of view, but she says she admires Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. She is a strong supporter of Phyllis Schlafly, and, like her, opposes the Equal Rights Amendment.

Coulter is viewed by many as an attractive woman, appearing on the covers of her books and making numerous appearences on political opinion programs. Some of her critics have accused her of exploiting her looks for political purposes, while others believe it is the only reason for her success.

Criticism of Ann Coulter

American liberal activist Al Franken calls Coulter "the reigning diva of the hysterical right" in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. In two chapters on Coulter, Franken lists what he believes are false and misleading statements in Coulter's Slander, and argues that she misrepresents the articles she cites. For example, Slander says of the 2000 Florida recount that "Bush had won any count" and cites a Washington Post article with the contrary headline, "Study Finds Gore Might Have Won Statewide Tally of All Uncounted Ballots." Franken also asserts that, while a newspaper's editorials are its official position, Ann Coulter represents sentences found anywhere in the New York Times as its official opinion. If a New York Times book-review asks people on both sides of an issue to give their opinion, Ann Coulter will represent any quote she finds offensive as the official position of the newspaper.

In Slander Coulter writes that "liberals have absolutely no contact with the society they decry from their Park Avenue redoubts." Critics such as Joe Conason, author of Big Lies, point out that Coulter herself is a rich woman from an affluent background and that she does not similarly dismiss Republican politicians because of their wealth.

Treason, which contains many bold accusations against all Democrats, brought her under fire, even from many of her former conservative supporters. Many felt her claim that Democrats such as Presidents Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy had worked against America's war on communism as unfounded. Treason's defense of Joe McCarthy also came under criticism from both conservatives and liberals, who argued that Coulter had simply failed to accurately research the facts in her attempt to rehabilitate the controversial senator. In an interview with David Bowman, Coulter said that Joe McCarthy is the deceased person she admires the most. Coulter argues in Treason that the Venona cables have vindicated McCarthy, proving there indeed were Soviet spies in the State Department (which McCarthy was supposedly ridiculed for believing).

Quotes

Supporters of Ann Coulter argue that her outragessness is indicative of a flamboyant and polemical rhetorical style. Fans often claim that Coulter is employing satire, hyperbole, flamebait and other non-literal rhetorical devices. Critics dismiss these ideas, arguing that this is the only possible defense for statements that are often extreme and reactionary.

On liberals vs. Islamic terrorists:

  • "Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now." - Talking Ann Coulter doll, Conservative Book Service

On the deterrence of the death penalty, liberals and John Walker Lindh:

  • "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." - at the Conservative Political Action Conference 26 February2002

On certain Islamic fundamentalists, two days after her friend Barbara Olson and nearly 3000 others were murdered by terrorists on 9/11:

  • "We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. ¶ We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." - from her syndicated column 13 September2001

On her prescriptions for dealing with those aforementioned Muslims:

  • "Point one and point two by the end of the week had become official government policy. As for converting them to Christianity, I think it might be a good idea to get them on some sort of hobby other than slaughtering infidels. I mean perhaps that's the Peace Corps, perhaps it's working for Planned Parenthood, but I've never seen the transforming effect of anything like that Christianity." - from an interview with Katie Couric26 June2002

On Christianity:

  • "Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed')". - From a Town Hall article4 March2004
  • "The Episcopals don't demand much in the way of actual religious belief. They have girl priests, gay priests, gay bishops, gay marriages -- it's much like The New York Times editorial board. They acknowledge the Ten Commandments -- or "Moses' talking points" -- but hasten to add that they're not exactly "carved in stone." - From column "The Jesus Thing" 7 January 2004

On the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and women in the military:

  • "I think the other point that no one is making about the abuse photos is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general running the entire operation. I mean, this is lesson, you know, one million and 47 on why women shouldn't be in the military. In addition to not being able to carry even a medium-sized backpack, women are too vicious." - from Hannity & Colmes

On the environment:

  • "The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet--it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars -- that's the Biblical view." - from column "Oil Good; Democrats bad"

On the New York Times:

On saying the previous quote:

References

Books

External links

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