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Revision as of 23:53, 28 June 2007

Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Born (1961-12-08) December 8, 1961 (age 62)
New York City, New York, USA
Occupation(s)author, columnist, political commentator
Websitehttp://www.anncoulter.com

Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961)[1] is an American conservative columnist and political commentator, and a best-selling author. She frequently appears on television, radio and as a speaker at public and private events.[2]

Known for her confrontational style, she has been described by The Observer as "the Republican Michael Moore", and "Rush Limbaugh in a miniskirt".[3] Coulter has described herself as a "polemicist" who likes to "stir up the pot" and does not claim to be "impartial or balanced".[4]

Background

Ann Coulter was born to John Vincent and Nell Husbands Martin Coulter. After her birth in New York City, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Coulter and her two older brothers were raised. She has described her family as "upper middle class" and has termed her attorney father a "union buster".[5][6]

As an undergraduate at Cornell, Coulter helped found The Cornell Review,[7] and was a member of the Delta Gamma national women's fraternity.[8] She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984, and received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.[9] At Michigan, Coulter founded a local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.[10][11]

After law school, Coulter served as a law clerk for Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Kansas City.[12] After a short time working in New York City in private practice, where she specialized in corporate law, Coulter left to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan, and helped craft legislation that made it easier to deport aliens convicted of felonies.[13] She later became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights.[14]

Personal life

Coulter has been engaged several times, but never married.[2] She has dated Spin publisher Bob Guccione, Jr.[15], television host Bill Maher and conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza.[16] She owns both a condominium in Manhattan and a house, bought in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. Although she says that usually she lives in New York, she votes in Palm Beach and is not registered to do so in New York.[17] She is a fan of the Grateful Dead,[18] and some of her favorite books include The Bible, Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, true crime stories about serial killers, or anything by Dave Barry.[19]

Media career

Television and radio

Coulter made her first national media appearance after she was hired in 1996 by MSNBC as a legal correspondent. Time said this about her tenure there:

The network dismissed her at least twice: first in February 1997, after she insulted the late Pamela Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to France, even as the network was covering her somber memorial service.... Even so, the network missed Coulter's jousting and quickly rehired her.

Eight months later, Coulter's relationship with MSNBC ended permanently after she tangled with a disabled Vietnam veteran on the air. Robert Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, asserted that "in 90 percent of the cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up [in Vietnam] — Ann, are you listening? — they were our own mines." (Muller was paraphrasing a 1969 Pentagon report that found that 90 percent of the components used in enemy mines came from U.S. duds and refuse.) Coulter averted her eyes and responded sarcastically: "No wonder you guys lost." After MSNBC, she began appearing on CNN and the Fox News Channel.[5]

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post made a point to respond to the Time article to explain that his widely quoted misreporting of Coulter's reply to the veteran in an article he wrote had its origin in Coulter's own later recollection of the incident. Describing his previous story, Kurtz added, "I did note that, according to Coulter, the vet was appearing by satellite, and she didn't know he was disabled."[20]

She has made frequent guest appearances on many television and radio talk shows, including The Today Show, Hannity and Colmes, The O'Reilly Factor, American Morning, Crossfire, Real Time, Politically Incorrect, the fifth estate, The Sean Hannity Show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, and Mike Gallagher.

In 2005, Coulter appeared as one of a three-person judging panel in The Greatest American, a four-part interactive television event for the Discovery Channel hosted by Matt Lauer.[21] Starting with 100 nominees, each week interactive viewer voting eliminated candidates.

Films

Coulter made her first film appearance in 2004, when she appeared in three films. The first was Feeding the Beast, which was a made-for-television documentary on the "24-Hour News Revolution".[22] The other two films were FahrenHYPE 9/11, a direct to video documentary designed to rebut Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and Is It True What They Say About Ann?, a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches.[23]

In 2006, Coulter refused permission to include a scene featuring herself and Al Franken in a debate in Connecticut in Franken's film, Al Franken: God Spoke.[24]

Books

Ann Coulter.

Coulter is the author of five books. All have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Her first book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (ISBN 0-89526-113-8), was published by Regnery Publishing in 1998. The book details Coulter's case for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Her second book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (ISBN 1-4000-4661-0), published by Crown Forum in 2002, remained number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for seven weeks. In Slander, Coulter argues that President George W. Bush faced an unfair battle for positive media coverage.

Her third book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (ISBN 1-4000-5030-8), also published by Crown Forum, defends the presidency of Richard M. Nixon and accused Democratic politicians and the "liberal media" of undermining United States foreign policy. She also says that Annie Lee Moss, among others she mentions, was correctly identified by Joseph McCarthy as a Communist. Treason was published in 2003, and spent 13 weeks on the Best Seller list.[25]

Crown Forum published a collection of Coulter's columns in 2004 as her fourth book, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter (ISBN 1-4000-5418-4).

Coulter's fifth book, published by Crown Forum in 2006, is Godless: The Church of Liberalism (ISBN 1-4000-5420-6). Coulter argues, first, that liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, and second, that it bears all the attributes of a religion itself. Godless debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.[26]

Her forthcoming book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, is scheduled to be published by The Crown Publishing Group in October, 2007.[27]

Columns

In the late 1990s, Coulter's weekly (biweekly from 1999-2000) syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate began appearing. Her column is featured on six conservative websites: WorldNetDaily, Townhall.com, Human Events Online, FrontPageMag, Jewish World Review and her own website. Her syndicator says, "Ann's client newspapers stick with her because she has a loyal fan base of conservative readers who look forward to reading her columns in their local newspapers."[28] Her column on her personal website, anncoulter.com, is also permanently linked to by the Drudge Report web page.[29]

In 1999, Coulter worked for a time as a regular columnist for George magazine.[30][15] Coulter also wrote exclusive columns weekly between 1998 and 2003 and occasionally since for the conservative magazine Human Events. In it, she discusses judicial rulings, Constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and the executive branch.

Her columns are typically highly critical of liberals and Democrats. In one she wrote:

This year's Democratic plan for the future is another inane sound bite designed to trick American voters into trusting them with national security.
To wit, they're claiming there is no connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq, and while they're all for the war against terror — absolutely in favor of that war — they are adamantly opposed to the Iraq war. You know, the war where the U.S. military is killing thousands upon thousands of terrorists (described in the media as "Iraqi civilians", even if they are from Jordan, like the now-dead leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). That war.Cite error: The <ref> tag name cannot be a simple integer (see the help page).

Reactions from publishers

In 2001, as a contributing editor and syndicated columnist for National Review Online (NRO), Coulter was asked by editors to make changes to a piece written after the September 11 attacks. On the national television show Politically Incorrect, Coulter accused NRO of censorship and said that she was paid $5 per article. NRO dropped her column and terminated her editorship. Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of NRO, said, "We did not 'fire' Ann for what she wrote... we ended the relationship because she behaved with a total lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty [concerning the editing disagreement]."[31]

Coulter contracted with USA Today to cover the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She wrote one article that began, "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston..." and referred to some unspecified female attendees as "corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons." The newspaper declined to print the article citing an editing dispute over "basic weaknesses in clarity and readability that we found unacceptable." An explanatory article by the paper went on to say "Coulter told the online edition of Editor & Publisher magazine that 'USA Today doesn't like my "tone", humor, sarcasm, etc., which raises the intriguing question of why they hired me to write for them.'" USA Today replaced Coulter with Goldberg, and Coulter published it instead on her website.[32][33][34]

In August 2005, the Arizona Daily Star dropped Coulter's syndicated column citing reader complaints that "Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives."[35]

Following the publication of her fourth best-selling book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, in July 2006, some newspapers replaced her column with those of other conservative columnists;[36] these included The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa,[37] The Augusta Chronicle of Augusta, Georgia,[38] and Yes! Weekly of Greensboro, North Carolina.[39] Augusta Chronicle editor Michael Ryan said after dropping her column: "Pulling Ann Coulter's column hurts; she's one of the clearest thinkers around." Ryan explained that "it came to the point where she was the issue rather that what she was writing about."[38]

Public appearances

Coulter is a frequent and controversial public speaker, particularly on college campuses, receiving both praise and protest. During an appearance at the University of Arizona, a pie was thrown at her.[40][41] Coulter has, on occasion, responded with insulting remarks towards hecklers and protestors who attend her speeches.[42][43][44][45]

Religious views

Coulter says that she holds Christian beliefs, but has avoided disclosing her membership of any particular denomination. At one public lecture she said: "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters."[46] In a 2004 column[47], she summarized her view of Christianity: "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it." She then mocked "the message of Jesus ... according to liberals," summarising it as "...something along the lines of 'be nice to people'," which, in turn, she said "is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions, specifically Islam)".

Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian,[48][49] she has stated that "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."[50] She has also said: "... Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy — you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism."[51]

Political activities

Coulter at the 2004 Republican National Convention

Coulter's political activities have included advising a plaintiff suing the president and considering a run for Congress.

The Paula Jones – Bill Clinton case

Coulter debuted as a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for Human Events, was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.

Coulter later stated that she would come to mistrust the motives of Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who by August or September 1997 was advising Jones that her case was weak and to settle, if a favorable settlement could be negotiated.[13][52] From the onset, Jones had sought an apology from Clinton at least as eagerly as she sought a settlement.[53] However, in a later interview Coulter recounted that she herself had believed that the case was strong, and that a settlement would give the impression that Jones was merely interested in extorting money from the President.[13]

David Daley, who wrote the interview piece for the Hartford Courant recounted what followed:

Coulter played one particularly key role in keeping the Jones case alive. In Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff's new book Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story, Coulter is unmasked as the one who leaked word of Clinton's "distinguishing characteristic" — his reportedly bent penis that Jones said she could recognize and describe — to the news media. Her hope was to foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement...

"I thought if I leaked the distinguishing characteristic it would show bad faith in negotiations. [Clinton lawyer] Bob Bennett would think Jones had leaked it. Cammaratta would know he himself hadn't leaked it and would get mad at Bennett. It might stall negotiations enough for me to get through to [Jones adviser] Susan Carpenter-McMillan to tell her that I thought settling would hurt Paula, that this would ruin her reputation, and that there were other lawyers working for her. Then 36 hours later, she returned my phone call.
"I just wanted to help Paula. I really think Paula Jones is a hero. I don't think I could have taken the abuse she came under. She's this poor little country girl and she has the most powerful man she's ever met hitting on her sexually, then denying it and smearing her as president. And she never did anything tacky. It's not like she was going on TV or trying to make a buck out of it."[13]

Coulter also told Isikoff: "We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the President."[52]

The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed via summary judgment. The judge ruled that even if her allegations proved true, Jones did not show that she had suffered any damages, stating "...plaintiff has not demonstrated any tangible job detriment or adverse employment action for her refusal to submit to the governor's alleged advances. The president is therefore entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of quid pro quo sexual harassment". The ruling was appealed by Jones' lawyers. During the pendency of the appeal, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees) in November 1998, in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appeal. By then, the Jones lawsuit had led to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her children, in particular saying "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund."[54] Coulter publicly denounced Jones, calling her "the trailer-park trash they said she was", (Coulter had earlier chastened Clinton supporters for calling Jones this name[55] after Clinton's former campaign strategist James Carville had made the widely-reported remark, "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, and you'll never know what you'll find") and called Jones a "fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person."[54] Coulter wrote: "Paula surely was given more than a million dollars in free legal assistance from an array of legal talent she will never again encounter in her life, much less have busily working on her behalf. Some of those lawyers never asked for or received a dime for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work performed at great professional, financial and personal cost to themselves. Others got partial payments out of the settlement. But at least they got her reputation back. And now she's thrown it away."[56] Jones claimed not to have been offered any help with a book deal of her own or any other additional financial help after the lawsuit.[54]

Past congressional candidacy

In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for Congress from Connecticut on the Libertarian Party ticket to serve as a spoiler in order to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman Christopher Shays failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays' vote against Clinton's impeachment. The leadership of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, after meeting with Coulter, declined to endorse her. As a result, her self-described "total sham, media-intensive, third-party Jesse Ventura campaign" did not take place.[15][57]

Irregularities in public registration

In September 2002, Washington Post columnist Lloyd Grove wrote a column titled, "Mystery of the Ages", raising questions about Coulter's actual date of birth.[1] At the time, Coulter was insisting that she was not yet 40, despite media reports to the contrary. Attempting to resolve the discrepancy, Grove noted that Coulter had given her date of birth as December 8, 1961 when she first registered to vote in 1980 (the year of the Reagan-vs-Carter presidential election), in New Canaan, Connecticut, where the legal voting age is 18. He said that Coulter's Connecticut driver's license also listed her birth date as December 1961, but pointed out that a driver's license issued to her years later in Washington, D.C., gave her date of birth as December 1963. In her emailed reply to Grove's inquiry, Coulter maintained that she was 38 years old. In April 2005, Time's cover story on Coulter reported, "Coulter says she won't confirm the date 'for privacy reasons' — she's had several stalkers. 'And I'm a girl,' she adds."[5]

Alleged factual inaccuracies

Comedian, author, and [58] political commentator Al Franken has questioned the factual accuracy of her books, and is also critical of her use of endnotes by taking the cited passages out of context.[59] Others have investigated these charges, and have also raised questions about the books accuracy and presentation of facts.[60] Coulter responded to these and similar criticisms in a column called "Answering My Critics",[61] where she claims "the most devastating examples of my alleged 'lies' keep changing" and that some accusations of her factual inaccuracy are either outright wrong or really just "trivial" factual errors (e.g. referring to "endnotes" as "footnotes", or incorrectly identifying Evan Thomas' grandfather, Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas, as his father).

New York Times' NASCAR coverage

In Slander, Coulter alleges The New York Times did not cover NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt's death until two days after he died:

The day after seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt died in a race at the Daytona 500, almost every newspaper in America carried the story on the front page. Stock-car racing had been the nation's fastest-growing sport for a decade, and NASCAR the second-most-watched sport behind the NFL. More Americans recognize the name Dale Earnhardt than, say, Maureen Dowd. (Manhattan liberals are dumbly blinking at that last sentence.) It took The New York Times two days to deem Earnhardt's death sufficiently important to mention it on the first page. Demonstrating the left's renowned populist touch, the article began, 'His death brought a silence to the Wal-Mart.' The Times went on to report that in vast swaths of the country people watch stock-car racing. Tacky people were mourning Dale Earnhardt all over the South![62]

The New York Times did, in fact, cover Earnhardt's death the same day that he died: sportswriter Robert Lipsyte authored an article for the front page that was published on February 18, 2001. Another front page article appeared in the Times on the following day. Coulter cites an article indeed written two days after Earnhardt's death - Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize winner who grew up in the South, wrote a personal piece on Earnhardt and his passing - bringing the total to three times in which the Times covered Earnhardt, three days in a row.[59]

Coulter responded to this widely-publicized error by saying, "In my three best-selling books — making the case for a president's impeachment, accusing liberals of systematic lying and propagandizing, arguing that Joe McCarthy was a great American patriot, and detailing 50 years of treachery by the Democratic Party — this is the only vaguely substantive error the Ann Coulter hysterics have been able to produce, corrected soon after publication. CONGRATULATIONS, LIBERALS!!!" She added, "At least I didn't miss the Ukrainian famine (cf., Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Walter Duranty)."[61]

Canadians fighting in Vietnam

Coulter received some criticism for a statement she made on CBC television's the fifth estate, an investigative journalism program. During an interview by host Bob McKeown, Coulter said, "Canada used to be...one of our most...most loyal friends, and vice versa. I mean, Canada sent troops to Vietnam. Was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?" McKeown contradicted her with, "No, actually Canada did not send troops to Vietnam." After both had insisted repeatedly, the exchange ended with Coulter's saying, "Well, I’ll get back to you on that."[63] This was afterward characterised by Keith Olbermann on Countdown with Keith Olbermann as an instance of "...Coulter humiliating herself on national TV...[but]...this time...on Canadian national TV."[64] On the February 18, 2005 edition of Washington Journal, Coulter sought to justify her statement by referring to the roughly 10,000 Canadians who volunteered for the American armed forces, and thus fought in Vietnam, stating:[63]

Yes, 10,000 Canadian troops, at least. There is a War Memorial to them, at least for most of that. The Canadian Government didn't send troops [...] but [...] they came and fought with the Americans. So I was wrong. It turns out there were 10,000 Americans who happened to be born in Canada. .... I didn't believe [McKeown] because I had read about Canadian troops in Vietnam. I was right. People keep saying: "Well, he didn't tell you that they — 10,000 troops ran across to sign up with the American forces." I don't think he knew! He's a bubblehead, Ted Baxter.[64][65]

John Cloud of Time claimed this exchange was "one of the most popular alleged mistakes [by Coulter] pinging around the Web", but suggested that Coulter may have been right, on the basis that "Canada [sent] noncombat troops to Indochina in the 1950s and again to Vietnam in 1972".[66] FAIR countered that Cloud made "quite a stretch to prove that Coulter was correct."[67][68]

Controversies and criticism

While she is in constant demand on the US lecture circuit,[69] Coulter's polemics sometimes start firestorms of controversy, ranging from rowdy uprisings at many of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media.

The 9/11 "Jersey Girls"

In her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism, Coulter criticizes the four 9/11 widows known as the "Jersey Girls;" in it Coulter wrote:

These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them. ... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much ... the Democrat ratpack gals endorsed John Kerry for president ... cutting campaign commercials... how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."[70]

These statements received national attention after an interview on The Today Show, and were widely criticized.[71][72][73][74][75][76] Coulter has repeated her criticism of the Jersey Girls in subsequent columns.[77][78][72]

Comments about the New York Times

Coulter has had a long-running animosity toward the New York Times. Her book Slander is dedicated to the New York Times as epitomizing the practice of stealthily calumniating conservatives.

In an interview with George Gurley of the New York Observer shortly after the publication of that book, it was mentioned that Coulter actually had friends and acquaintances who worked for the newspaper, namely Frank Bruni and David E. Sanger. Later in the interview, she exclaimed amusement at her recollections of the Times publishing two photos of George H. W. Bush throwing up at a diplomatic meeting in Japan, then said:

"Is your tape recorder running? Turn it on! I got something to say."


Then she said: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
I told her to be careful.


"You’re right, after 9/11 I shouldn’t say that", she said, spotting a cab and grabbing it.[16]

By way of context, during an interview earlier in June 2002 with Katie Couric to promote the same book, Coulter expressed frustration about "constant mischaracterization" through being misquoted. "The idea that someone can go out and find one quote that will suddenly, you know, portray me — just dismiss her ideas, read no more, read no further, this person is crazy...is precisely what liberals do all the time".[79]

When asked by John Hawkins, the web manager of a right-wing blog, through a pre-written set of interview questions if she regretted the statement, Coulter replied by saying: "Of course I regret it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'"[80][81] Lee Salem, the president of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Coulter's column, later defended Coulter by characterizing her comments as satire.[82]

The subject came up again when she appeared on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes. Alan Colmes mentioned Salem's claim, and said to her that remarks like saying "Timothy McVeigh should have bombed The New York Times building" were "laughable happy satires, right?" then said that Coulter was "actually a liberal who is doing this to mock and parody the way conservatives think." She replied, "Well, it's not working very well if that were my goal. No, I think the Timothy McVeigh line was merely prescient after The New York Times has leaped beyond — beyond nonsense straight into treason, last week", (referring to a Times report that revealed classified information about an anti-terrorism program of the U.S. government involving surveillance of international financial transactions of persons suspected of having Al-qaida links). Colmes continued in this sarcastic vein when he responded, calling her remarks "great humor", and that it "belongs on Saturday Night Live. It belongs on The Daily Show."[83][84]

Comments on Islam, Arabs, and terrorism

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Coulter has advocated a more warlike response to terrorism. On September 12 2001, the day after the attacks, she wrote in her column:

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. 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. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.[85]

Responding to this comment, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations remarked in the Chicago-Sun Times that before Sept 11, Coulter "would have faced swift repudiation from her colleagues", but "now it's accepted as legitimate commentary."[86]

A few weeks after the attacks, Coulter asserted that only Muslims could have been behind the attacks:

Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims -- at least all terrorists capable of assembling a murderous plot against America that leaves 7,000 people dead in under two hours.[87]

Coulter has been highly critical of the U.S. Department of Transportation and especially its then-secretary Norman Mineta. Her many criticisms include their refusal to use racial profiling as a component of airport screening.[88] However, one such apparently ethnicity-driven screening attempt by US Airways sparked a call for Muslims to boycott the airline because of the ejection from a flight of six imams who had been observed praying in the terminal. Commenting on this incident, Coulter observed:

If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.[89]

Coulter also called for increasing the power of U.S. law enforcement agencies to search Muslims, describing the testimony of Coleen Rowley, an FBI whistleblower who argued before the Senate in 2002 that in cases where Muslims suspected of a crime are known to be affiliated with radical fundamental Islamic groups or even simply had lived in England, authorities should be granted a search warrant based on probable cause. Coulter cited a poll by The Daily Telegraph which found that 98 percent of Muslims between the ages of 20 to 45 said they would not fight for Britain in the war in Afghanistan, and that 48 percent said they would fight for Osama bin Laden. She said she agreed with Rowley, "certainly after Sept 11", and concluded: "The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more do liberals want?"[90]

She wrote in another column that she had reviewed the civil rights lawsuits against certain airlines to determine which airlines had subjected Arabs to the most "egregious discrimination" so that she could fly only that airline. She also said that the airline should be bragging instead of denying any of the charges of discrimination brought against them.[91] In an interview with the The Guardian she quipped, "I think airlines ought to start advertising: 'We have the most civil rights lawsuits brought against us by Arabs.'" When the interviewer replied by asking what Muslims would do for travel, she responded, "They could use flying carpets."[6]

One comment that drew criticism from the blogosphere as well as fellow conservatives[92] was made during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2006, where she said, referring to the prospect of a nuclear-equipped Iran, "What if they start having one of these bipolar episodes with nuclear weapons? I think our motto should be, post-9-11: raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences."[93] Coulter had previously written a nearly identical passage in her syndicated column: "...I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's offensive. How about 'camel jockey'? What? Now what'd I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?"[94]

In an article looking back at the life of the recently-deceased evangelical Reverend Jerry Falwell, Coulter commented on Falwell's statement after the 9/11 attacks that "pagans", abortionists, feminists, and gays and lesbians, among others, helped make the attacks happen. In her article, Coulter stated that she disagreed with Falwell's statement, "because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and "the Reverend" Barry Lynn."[95]

2007 John Edwards controversy

Coulter drew criticism for statements she made at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference, where she used the term "faggot" in reference to presidential candidate John Edwards in an allusion to Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington's use of the word and his subsequent counseling:[96][97]

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions."[98]

The audience responded in laughter, but Edwards responded on his website by characterizing Coulter's words as "un-American and indefensible" and asking readers to help him "raise $100,000 in 'Coulter Cash' this week to keep this campaign charging ahead and fight back against the politics of bigotry."[99] Coulter's words also drew the condemnation from many prominent Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).[99][100][101] Coulter responded in an e-mail to the New York Times: "C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."[100] She also posted a response on her website: "I'm so ashamed, I can't stop laughing!"[102]

On March 5, 2007, Coulter appeared on Hannity and Colmes and said that her use of the word "faggot" was a "taunt" and further expounded that [the word] "faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays." In regards to the criticisms from her own party, Coulter responded with "Apparently our top three Republican nominees aren't that smart. And by the way, if they're going to start apologizing for everything I say, they better keep that statement handy cause there's going to be a lot more in the next year."[103]

In response to this issue, three advertisers (Verizon, Sallie Mae, and Netbank) pulled their advertisements from Coulter's website,[104] and eight newspapers dropped Coulter's column, including The Times in Louisiana, The Oakland Press in Michigan, The Mountain Press of Sevierville, Tennessee, and the New Era in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[105][106][107]

Responding to the controversy, Coulter has said:

Just for the record, I've never attempted to revise, or extend, nor have I apologized and the attempts to silence me have made me even more money…Those newspapers pay me about 25 cents per month, but I picked up a LOT of speeches…Attempts to censor me have really backfired. [108]

In a June 25, 2007 appearance on Good Morning America, in reference to the slur Coulter said that she had “learned my lesson” and that "If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot,"[2] a reference to a similar statement made by Bill Maher towards Dick Cheney.

In a next-day appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Coulter received a phone call from Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards’ wife, asking her to stop the personal attacks and to stick to discussing the issues. Coulter responded by claiming that the Edwards campaign was “raising money off it” and denying the previous day’s slur. Mrs. Edwards also confronted Coulter for writing that they had a bumper sticker on their car saying “Ask me about my dead son” in reference to the death of their son Wade. Coulter responded by characterizing Edwards' call as an attempt to silence her, by attacking Edwards for being a trial lawyer, and by refusing to desist from further personal attacks.[3]

Investigation of possible voting fraud

In 2006, Coulter was investigated for but not charged with voting fraud for voting in the wrong precinct and registering with an address that did not belong to her, a third-degree felony in Florida.[109]


References

  1. ^ a b Grove, Lloyd. "Mystery of the ages", The Washington Post, September 6 2002. Retrieved on July 24 2006.
  2. ^ a b Staff Writer. "I love to pick fights with liberals" The Daily Telegraph July 7 2002. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  3. ^ Wood, Gaby. "Lethally blonde". The Observer. June 11 2006. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
  4. ^ Aloi, Daniel. "Conservative pundit Ann Coulter '84 to speak May 7". Cornell University Chronicle. April 17 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  5. ^ a b c Cloud, John. "Ms. Right". Time Magazine. April 25, 2005. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  6. ^ a b Staff Writer. "An appalling magic". The Guardian, May 17 2003. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  7. ^ Horowitz, David. "Ann Coulter at Cornell". FrontPageMag.com. May 21 2001. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  8. ^ "From the pens of Delta Gammas" (PDF). Anchora of Delta Gamma. Summer 2005. p. 29 (16 in PDF). Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  9. ^ "Ann Coulter: bestselling author and political commentator (Profile)". premierespeakers.com. Retrieved on July 10 2006. See also Michigan Law Review vol. 86 No. 5 (April 1988), where Ann Coulter "of Connecticut" is listed on the masthead as an articles editor.
  10. ^ "Profile on Ann Coulter". Media Matters for America. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  11. ^ Hallow, Ralph. "A lifelong voice for conservatives". The Washington Times. February 21 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  12. ^ See Lythgoe, Dennis (2003-10-05). "Liberals, conservatives duke it out on paper". Deseret Morning News. p. E1.; Hentoff, Nat (1998-12-05). "Op-Ed: Congress Goes Fishing". Washington Post. p. A23.; Coulter herself says it was Bowman. See her online bio; see also Coulter, Ann (2001-05-03). "ABA's ratings no more". Washington Times. p. A15.
  13. ^ a b c d Daley, David. "Ann Coulter: light's all shining on her". Hartford Courant. June 25 1999. [$2.50 charge required to view article]
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  29. ^ Drudge, Matt. "11/18/2001 edition of Drudge Report" DrudgeReportArchives.com. November 18 2001. Retrieved on October 25 2006
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  31. ^ Goldberg, Jonah. "L’affaire Coulter". National Review. October 3,2001. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  32. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Put the speakers in a cage". WorldNetDaily. July 26 2004. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
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  36. ^ E&P Staff. "Another Newspaper Decides to Drop Ann Coulter's Column" Editor & Publisher July 26 2006 Retrieved on July 28 2006
  37. ^ Weber, Sarah. "Cedar Rapids Newspaper Drops Ann Coulter's Column" Editor & Publisher July 12 2006
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  39. ^ Yes! Weekly Staff. "Ann's out, Bill's in" Yes! Weekly. Accessed July 28 2006
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  45. ^ Guidi, David. "Controversial conservative pundit elicits praise and protest Thursday". [University of South Florida] The Oracle. October 20, 2006. Retrieved on November 9, 2006.
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  49. ^ Thoreau, Jackson. "U.S. founders and Christ were liberals: we cannot let right-wingers like Coulter define liberalism". OpEdNews.com. June 9 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
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  51. ^ De Pasquale, Lisa. Exclusive interview: Coulter says book examines 'mental disorder' of Liberalism". Human Events. June 6 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
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  54. ^ a b c Jones, Paula. "Paula Jones describes why she's posing for Penthouse". Larry King Live. CNN. October 24 2000. Retrieved on October 24, 2000
  55. ^ Ann Coulter ""'Trailer park trash' strikes back". Human Events. January 30 1998. Retrieved on November 18, 2006
  56. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Clinton sure can pick 'em". Jewish World Review. October 30 2000. Retrieved July 11 2006.
  57. ^ Browne, Harry. "We're more ambitious than the Republicans are". Harry Browne. September 22 2000. Retrieved July 10 2006.
  58. ^ Kosova, Weston. "Live, from the Left, It's ..."]" Newsweek March 29 2004[1] Retrieved on January 8, 2007.
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  60. ^ Scherer, Michael; Secules, Sarah. "Books: how slippery is Slander?" Columbia Journalism Review. 2002. Retrieved on July 11, 2006.
  61. ^ a b Coulter, Ann. "Answering my critics." Jewish World Review. October 9, 2003. Retrieved on July 11, 2006.
  62. ^ Coulter, Ann. Slander. 2006, Crown Forum Publishing. ISBN 1-4000-4661-0
  63. ^ a b Sticks and Stones, the fifth estate, CBC Television, aired January 26, 2005
  64. ^ a b Sticks and Stones: US Response
  65. ^ http://www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/936
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  67. ^ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (2005-04-21). "Time Covers Coulter: Action Alert". Retrieved 2007-02-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  68. ^ Cloud referred to the soldiers Canada contributed to the ICC and the ICCS, the international commissions that oversaw, respectively, the cease-fire at the end of the First Indochina War, in 1954, and the cease-fire that paused the Vietnam War, in 1973. For further information on Canada's involvement in the Vietnam War, see Canada and the Vietnam War.
  69. ^ Freedland, Jonathan. "An appalling magic". The Guardian. May 17 2003. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
  70. ^ Coulter, Ann. Godless: The Church of Liberalism. 2006, Crown Forum Publishing. pp. 100-112.
  71. ^ Grimaldi, Christine. "Writer's claims disturb families of 9/11 victims: Ann Coulter referred to group as the 'Witches of East Brunswick'." North Brunswick Sentinel. July 16, 2006. Retrieved on November 10, 2006
  72. ^ a b E&P Staff. "Ann Coulter attacks 9/11 widows." Editor & Publisher. June 6, 2006. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  73. ^ Staff Writer. "Clinton slams Coulter's 'vicious' put-down of some 9/11 widows." CNN. June 7, 2006.
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  76. ^ Elliot, Philip. "9/11 Commissioner criticizes Coulter." ABC News. June 9, 2006. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  77. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Party of rapist proud to be Godless." anncoulter.com. June 14, 2006. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  78. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Godless causes liberals to pray ... for a book burning." anncoulter.com. June 21, 2006. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  79. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Interview with Katie Couric on Slander. NBC. Today. June 26, 2002. Reprinted at Drudge Report Archive. Retrieved on October 7, 2006.
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  81. ^ Transcript. "Interview with Ann Coulter." CNN (Crossfire). June 30, 2003. Retrieved on July 11, 2006.
  82. ^ Salem, Lee. "Universal Executive Responds to 'E&P' Column on Ann Coulter." Editor & Publisher. June 28, 2006. Retrieved on July 11, 2006.
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  84. ^ E&P Staff. "Coulter Affirms Previous Statement About Bombing 'NYT' Office" Editor & Publisher June 30 2006. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
  85. ^ Coulter, Ann. "This is war". anncoulter.org. September 12 2001. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
  86. ^ Jim Ritter, "Muslims see a growing media bias", Chicago Sun Times, September 4 2006
  87. ^ Coulter, Ann (2001-09-28). "Future widows of America: Write your congressman". Jewish World Review. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  88. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Mineta's Bataan death march", Jewish World Review. February 28 2002. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
  89. ^ Coulter, Ann (2006-11-22). "What can I do to make your flight more uncomfortable?". AnnCoulter.com. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
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  91. ^ Coulter, Ann. "Arab hijackers now eligible for pre-boarding" Jewish World Review April 29 2004. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
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  100. ^ a b Nagourney, Adam. "G.O.P. Candidates Criticize Slur by Conservative Author" New York Times March 4 2007. Retrieved on March 6 2007.
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  106. ^ Staff report. "Statement by Shreveport Editor Today on Dropping Ann Coulter" Editor & Publisher March 8 2007. Retrieved on March 8 2007.
  107. ^ Staff Writer (March 11 2007). "Has Ann Coulter Hit Her Tipping Point?". MSN. Retrieved 2007-03-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  108. ^ Hannity and Colmes
  109. ^ "Ann Coulter says she won't cooperate in voting probe". Associated Press. November 1 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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