"Ann Coulter gets McCarthy right—and makes conservatives mad."

[hlthe2b]

A Vast Right-Wing Cry of Treason
In her new book, Ann Coulter gets McCarthy right—and makes conservatives mad.
By Sam Tanenhaus

Ann Coulter, the right wing's dial-900 girl—a rail-thin, chain-smoking, hard-drinking, big-eyed leggy blonde who winkingly serves up X-rated ideological smut on liberals—is at it again. "Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy," Coulter writes—or sneers—in Treason, her follow-up effort to the best-selling Slander. --snip--

But this time around, it isn't the liberals who are up in arms; it's the conservatives. Coulter's slurring of Democrats—from Harry Truman (soft on communism) to Tom Daschle (soft on Iraq) —has set off a howling chorus on the right. David Horowitz, Andrew Sullivan, and Dorothy Rabinowitz, among others, have been sternly giving Coulter history lessons, dredging up (once more) the anti-Communist credentials of Cold War liberals like Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey.

Horowitz et al. are right, of course. But why are they so worked up? And why reach back so far to single out a few "good" liberals? This just reinforces Coulter's argument that today's breed can be dismissed as a single lumpen mass. In other words, they agree with her. So, why the outrage? Here's a guess: Coulter's conservative critics fear that her legions of fans—and lots of others, too—see no appreciable difference between her ill-informed comic diatribes and their high-brow ultraserious ones, particularly since Coulter's previous performances were praised by some now on the attack.

--more--
http://slate.msn.com/id/2085977/

[IDUDOYOU]

1. Why do people even pay attention to Anthrax?

Is it because people cannot help but to look at a car wreck?
Our obsession with the morbid?

[pansypoo53219]

2. can't be because of her

'gorgeous' legs. but then people do like watching freaks.

[muchacho]

3. Fear of a strong woman

>>Coulter's conservative critics fear that her legions of fans—and >>lots of others, too—see no appreciable difference between her ill->>informed comic diatribes and their high-brow ultraserious ones, >>particularly since Coulter's previous performances were praised by >>some now on the attack.

The same people making these arguements are the ones that poo-pooed people speaking out against Rush Limbaugh and claming he was only "entertainment".

I wonder what's different now? A bomb thrower takes the ultra-extreme view in an entertaining (ar at least attention getting) format and furthers the ideology.

Why do they fear Ann and but Rush or Liddy?

Could it be the strong female fear that Conservatives harbor?

Ann, welcome to Hillary's world...

[liberalnurse]

4. She is not a strong woman....

She is opportunistic like an infectious germ. Her and Dick Morris both act out of greed. They are selling controvery without substance only....They make money from insulting. That is not strength.

[CafeToad]

5. One difference is that Anne goes on all the 'opinion' tv shows

whereas Mr. Limbaugh (I refuse to call him Rush in deference to the Canadian musical group of the same name) doesn't. Therefore, he's less in their direct realm of influence, and they must figure he's less of a threat to taint them.

[tomp]

6. what's being missed here is...

...that the anti-communism of those "liberals" mentioned is the worst thing about them. it's exactly what links dems and repubs ideologically and historically. "anti-communism" is the code word for u.s. imperialism.

[rudeboy666]

7. --

Well, the commmunist threat was real.

Sure, some politicos used it as an excuse for the American expansion of power. However, that does not invalidate the threat that communism posed in the 20th Century.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

8. Was it?

Name a single communist nation that attacked the US. I bet you can't.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Maybe they didn't attack us

because of our nuclear deterrent.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

10. Yes, that must be it...

So why did the US attack so many communist or leftist nations?

Who was the REAL threat?

[leftyandproud]

13. black book of communism

90-100 million confirmed DEAD from communism over the years...Where is your compassion? The cold war was a fight against EVIL.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

14. And how many have been killed...

By right wing governments that were supported by the US? You know, like Saddam Hussein's regime? Oh, that's right, we don't keep track of those numbers because they were only commies!

[TheBigGuy]

11. I agree...Coulter is just confusing the issue..

by focusing on McCarthy and making this demagogue-slash-opportunist a big hero she sort of shoots the bigger case for anti-communism in the foot. ...that there really was a Communist threat, and that the CPUSA did pose a security risk.

[revcarol]

12. Have we missed the point of the article?

Conservatives are criticizing her for her TACTICS: THE UP-FRONT LYING AND BASHING OF OTHERS, like McCarthy did.

They don't want her to take the point. The article points out that they wish to use "indirection and innuendo" instead."BE SNEAKY SO NO ONE CATCHES ON," is their motto. Their objectives are the same.

Some need to re-read the article?

[punpirate]

15. Good point...

... she's _too_ over-the-top for them. For thirty years, their _modus operandi_ was stealth. Now that they have the government in their pockets, they've become a bit more brazen (to wit, Grover Norquist's remarks about bipartisanship being another word for date rape, and hoping that a few states go bankrupt), but, still, they want to _influence_ policy, not be headlines themselves, while Coulter is very happy to play right-wing groupie.

All that said, I doubt there would be one disharmonious chirp from the entire bunch of intellectual thugs if her latest book had been leading Hillary Clinton's in sales.

Cheers.

[ReadTomPaine]

16. What's with that huge Adam's Apple of hers...

Odd isn't it. You can see it bob up and down whenever she speaks.