IF I WASN'T TREASONOUS THEY CAN'T HAVE BEEN

Blond Lightning on the Far Right (DAVID CARR, July 20, 2003, NY Times)

[Ann Coulter] arrived for an interview on "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC last week swinging a pink Betsey Johnson shopping bag. Inside was a gift for a reporter, a Barbielike Ann Coulter action figure, which is in development. "When they're finished with it, it will talk," she said. Of course it will.

The possibility of adventure hangs near when Ms. Coulter appears on mainstream television, and Diane Sawyer looked nervous at the end of last month to see Ms. Coulter seated beside her. On "Today" last year to promote "Slander," Ms. Coulter tangled with Katie Couric, a television personality she had christened in her book as "the affable Eva Braun of morning television." Ms. Couric introduced her guest as a "right-wing telebimbo," and things went downhill from there. The segment ended just about when Ms. Couric, America's sweetheart, seemed ready to leap from her chair and choke Ms. Coulter, America's other woman.

Ms. Sawyer all but used a tongs to pick up "Treason" and struggled for something polite to say about the author, finally concluding, "She is, of course, so successful."

Ms. Coulter batted aside the compliment and corrected Ms. Sawyer's introduction, pointing out that she had mixed up the subtitles of the two books. "This book is about treachery," she said. "The last book was about lies," she added, leaving out "Duh," but implying it with a laugh.

The interview ended with Ms. Sawyer observing that Ms. Coulter would be slugging it out on the best-seller lists with Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton. "She has a three-to-one pound advantage over me," Ms. Coulter pointed out. Ms. Sawyer looked as if her head might fly off. (Ms. Coulter later said that she was mostly referring to Ms. Clinton's hefty book.)

Whatever you think of Ms Coulter and Senator McCarthy--and I'm inclined to the view that he was horribly irresponsible but did more good than harm by creating an atmosphere in which American communism was anathema--it's awfully hard to take seriously the denunciations of red-diaper baby and former radical David Horowitz, who has never really been able to bring himself to disavow his youthful politics. When he can denounce himself with the same kind of vigor he reserves for others--as someone like Whittaker Chambers did when he realized the error of his ways--then we'll listen to his anti-anti-communist skiffle.


MORE:
-I Dare Call it Treason (Ann Coulter, June 26, 2003, FrontPageMagazine.com)
-The Trouble with `Treason' (David Horowitz, 7/09/03, Jewish World Review)
-A Conspiracy So Vast: Meet Ann Coulter, the Maureen Dowd of the conservatives. (Dorothy Rabinowitz, July 7, 2003, Wall Street Journal)
-None Dare Call It Stupidity: Pure nastiness left and right (Cathy Young, 7/15/03, Reason)
-Treason: Horowitz v. Coulter (Bruce Walker, 07/11/03, American Daily)
-BOGUS FROM THE BEGINNING: The backlash against the War Party's lies is only just starting (Justin Raimondo, July 14, 2003, Anti-War)
-: Ann Coulter's Betrayal of the Anti-Communist Historians (Stephen Schwartz, 7-14-03, History News Network)
-Joe McCarthy: Dangerous Buffoon (Ronald Kessler, 7-14-03, History News Network)
-REVIEW: of Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism By Ann Coulter (Walter C. Uhler, SF Chronicle) Posted by Orrin Judd at July 20, 2003 12:43 PM