I N T E R V I E W Interview: 10 Questions For Ann Coulter

Time Magazine ^ | 7/7/03 | Lev Grossman

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

Monday, Jul. 07, 2003 When Ann Coulter published Slander last year, she didn't just score a surprise No. 1 best seller; she also discovered an entire new audience hungry for her notoriously sharp-tongued, unabashedly right-wing rhetoric. Now she's back with Treason (Crown Forum; 355 pages), and as TIME's Lev Grossman discovered, she has in no way mellowed with age.

Q. So what's the new book about?

The idea of the book is that liberals have a tendency to take the position most disadvantageous to their country. This isn't anything new. They have taken patriotism off the table as a topic for political debate. And they've done that by invoking McCarthyism, a myth of their own creation.

Q. Are you prepared for people to freak out when they realize you're trying to rehabilitate Joseph McCarthy?

On the basis of doing my research, I've noticed that liberals have been hysterical about McCarthy for 50 years and no one's been arguing back. So now that someone's arguing back, yes, I'm expecting candlelight vigils.

Q. In Treason you say, "Liberals' principal contribution to the war on terrorism has been to bill themselves as a corrective to 'jingoism.' Their real goal is too appalling to state out loud." Care to state it out loud?

They are rooting against America. I don't think there is any other way to explain hysterical claims of a civil-liberties emergency in this country every time John Ashcroft talks to a Muslim. No serious person thinks that we are in the middle of a civil-liberties crisis. We have just seen thousands of fellow Americans slaughtered by legal immigrants to this country. And John Ashcroft has detained several hundred illegal immigrants?

Q. Your tone can be a little shrill sometimes. Don't you think that what we need right now is unity, not more acrimony?

What we need now is to fight the war on terrorism, and liberals don't want to. I think it's more important long term that we have two parties, both of which want to defend the nation.

Q. Do you see a way forward for Americans to come together politically, as a country?

Oh, yes. I do. The Democratic Party has got to go away. It's got to just hang up its stirrups. I really think it has functionally gone the way of the Whigs, and it's just a matter of enough Democrats figuring that out. Can't both parties agree on the defense of America? I mean, it was not like this in World War II. The Republicans were not constantly taunting F.D.R., "Well, he doesn't have Hitler yet! He doesn't have Hitler! Where are these alleged death camps?" The country pulled together! Both parties!

Q. Are you concerned that President Bush may have exaggerated evidence for the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

No. People who love their country ought to be more concerned about what happened to those weapons. Are they in Syria? Are they in al-Qaeda's hands? Are they going to end up in New York? And instead, all we get is female taunting from the Democrats.

Q. Did you say female taunting? What does that mean exactly?

[Laughs.] I think your readers will understand it.

Q. Treason came out shortly after Hillary Clinton's book. Whose is going to sell better?

I was not happy to find out that her book — her three ghostwriters' book — was coming out a few weeks before mine. But I'm completely confident that among real readers, in any fair fight, I could beat her. And also that more people will actually read my book.

Q. What's your take on the Supreme Court's ruling that antisodomy laws are unconstitutional?

Gay sex may well be a mystery of life, but I'll be damned if I can find it in the Constitution.

Q. Do interviewers try to provoke you into saying outrageous things just because you're Ann Coulter?

No. I do that on my own.

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

I did a search and didn't find that anyone had already posted this, so i apologize in advance if it's 'old news' (and I also don't know how to post the required Ann Coulter pic!). :-) But Ann Coulter holds her own in any interview. I especially liked her comment on Hitlery's book.

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[bedolido]

She's definately a babe... intelligent too... all around great catch for some lucky guy.

[dead]

"Female taunting!"

She's very funny.

[Chi-townChief]

Is Ann's title in response to John Stormer's famous "None Dare Call It Treason" ?

[TommyDale]

Q. Did you say female taunting? What does that mean exactly?

[Laughs.] I think your readers will understand it.

I don't. Is she calling the liberals "feminine"? Is she calling them all "bitches"?

[Mr. K]

AC bump (and renewed marriage proposal - Ann I'm still waiting...!)

[goldstategop]

Ann's already beaten Hillary fair and square despite a late start at the gate. I can't wait til her book tops the New York Times best-seller list!

[Gritty]

Lev Grossman tried mightily, but he just didn't have a chance against Ann!

[kayak]

The Democratic Party has got to go away. It's got to just hang up its stirrups. I really think it has functionally gone the way of the Whigs, and it's just a matter of enough Democrats figuring that out. Can't both parties agree on the defense of America? I mean, it was not like this in World War II. The Republicans were not constantly taunting F.D.R., "Well, he doesn't have Hitler yet! He doesn't have Hitler! Where are these alleged death camps?" The country pulled together! Both parties!

AMEN!!!

[y6162]

I bought two copies of Slander and Treason. One for the office to irritate my left wing neighbor and one for home for casual browsing and inspiration.

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

Funny you should ask what Ann meant by 'female taunting'. It's extremely significant that Lev Grossman, Interviewer par Extraordinaire (/sarcasm) had to ask what she meant. Ann's reply was that her readers would know what she meant. In other words, Grossman just exposed the fact that he hadn't even bothered to read her book before sitting down to this 'penetrating interview'. In her book, Ann continually says the Democrats/liberals are always doing 'girly whining' and calls them 'girlie girls', not men. She pretty much emasculates liberals. THATs what she means by 'female taunting'--the equivalent of 'neener neener neener' from supposedly grown men-leaders.

[MattMa]

New York Times bestsellers list:
HARDCOVER NONFICTION:

Top 5 at a Glance
1. LIVING HISTORY, by Hillary Rodham Clinton
2. TREASON, by Ann Coulter
3. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, by Bill Bryson
4. MONEYBALL, by Michael Lewis
5. BEYOND BELIEF, by Elaine Pagels

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

No kidding--I wish I had her brains and her looks. Some gals just have it all...sigh. And some, like Hitlery, have none.

[Scenic Sounds]

I think it's more important long term that we have two parties, both of which want to defend the nation.

A "two-party" ping. ;-)

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

I think it's hysterical that Lying History only made it to #1 because of the liberal media hype and her forcing cronies to buy bushels of her book. Whereas, "Treason" made it to the top from a grassroots effort and very little media cooperation. Ann's right when she says that more people will actually read HER book than hitlery's (I also liked her dig that hillary had 3 ghostwriters, heh heh)

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Good Post!!!!!!! Ann, baby, says it all in this interview! I can understand political differences between the parties, but when it comes to national security, we should all pull together. The Democrat Party has turned into the party of treason against the USA! They want us to lose everywhere we go! The American people better wake up and get rid of these traitors or they won't be around to argue about it. The terrorists just adore the Democrat Party!

[hemogoblin]

Whereas, "Treason" made it to the top from a grassroots effort and very little media cooperation.

That's true - and as I read this book (just finished the chapter on military foreign policy) I marvel again that this can be number 2 on the NYT bestseller list. That alone is an incredible thing, and a cause for much optimism.

[smith288]

So "female taunting" is in her book and the interviewer doesnt know that term meaning he didnt read a page?

[jethropalerobber]

what, she couldn't even knock off 'living history' in her first week out?

pathetic. what a girly girl.