Coulter's a satirist -- really?

LA Times ^ | 26 June 2006 | Meghan Daum

[Aussie Dasher]

LIFE IS HARD for satirists. Like high school poets or people who get aroused when they put on furry mascot costumes, no one understands them. Back in 1729, Jonathan Swift was almost universally reviled when he suggested, in "A Modest Proposal," that the antidote to urban squalor was to eat the children of poor Irish immigrants and use their skin to make "admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen." If only Fox News had been around; Sean Hannity would have dined out (so to speak) for weeks on the skirmish.

Today, of course, "A Modest Proposal" is considered one of the greatest works of political satire in the English language. But isn't that always the way? Comedy is tragedy plus time, which may explain why Ann Coulter, the Cruella De Vil of blond, ectomorphic wonkdom, is getting such a beating by the liberal and (more important) tragically literal mainstream media. Such is the price of being in the cultural vanguard. If you think Swift was cutting-edge, imagine having a wit so dry that even you haven't yet realized you're a satirist.

[Aussie Dasher]

Further proof that the Left just doesn't know how to take her...

[RichInOC]

"PUPPIES!!!"

[somemoreequalthanothers]

That "beating" the liberal media is giving her is sure selling alot of her books.

[A CA Guy]

The Los Angeles Times has such low circulation they are unwilling to print it anymore.

They can't get reality at all, Ann included.
I think they were also part of the recent treason in releasing our methods regarding band accounts in a story within their paper.

The own the La Opinion as well.
IMO, I would like to see them fold.

[Paladin2]

"ectomorphic wonkdom"

Why aren't there Ghostbusters round when one needs one?

Bunch o' wankers.

[bfree]

The petty jealousy of these two bit writers for dying papers is hilarious to me.

[goldstategop]

Ann Coulter IS a satirist. She paints this exaggerated portrait of the Left, so that they are cut down to size. Its reminds me of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. You hold up as it were, a mirror to nature. As a writer she makes serious points but its her cutting wit that wounds her critics more and sets them to fury. People can take all sorts of things but being the butt of ridicule is the least of them. That is why Coulter is so effective as a conservative critic. She really knows how to get underneath the liberals' skin.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[Holden Magroin]

Notice how this liberal agitprop implies Sean Hannity would've been indifferent to the plight of the Irish.

[capt. norm]

The last line of the article says it best:

"Listen up, America: If you're not in on the joke, the joke's on you."

[Doctor Raoul]

Coulter will still be pumping out best sellers long after bias has laidoff the last LA Times employee.

Chole on it Ms Daum.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Another attack on the messager to obscure the message. "No need to read the book, it's satire."

Ann is a non-PC truth teller with keen insight into the left.

[Doctor Raoul]

Coulter will still be pumping out best sellers long after bias has laidoff the last LA Times employee.

CHOKE on it Ms Daum.

[One4Indictment]

Isn't it ironic that the Dixie Chicks controversial remarks about George W. Bush has tanked their careers, but Ann Coulter is flying on cloud nine with her "so-called" controversial statements about the "Jersey Girls" in her new book. I would like to see the L.A. Slimes spin that one.

[pennconservative]

While she is right most of the time, Couler is a comedian. I've seen her speak, and love to listen to her. However, I think that she is given way too much credit by both the left and the right. She's like the comedian that goes to the Astrologist Convention and makes fun of the people that don't "get it." The audience thinks she's hysterical and the rest of the world thinks that she's a kook.

Coulter is absolutely hysterical, and I love to read her stuff, but she's a comedian. Compare her to William F. Buckley, Jr., Newt Gingrich, etc. They are conservatives that lay out new ideas and advance the conservative movement. Coulter is like the cheerleader that entertains the masses while others do the work of winning the game. The left will always hate her because she's making fun of them, and we will always love her because she's making fun of the left.

[Talking_Mouse]

RULES people -- I do not see any pictures of Ms. Coulter on this thread.

[massadvj]

Then there's her assessment of the four 9/11 widows who gained national attention for demanding an investigation into how the Bush administration might have prevented the attacks. Assuming you aren't a fetus, you've probably heard that Coulter referred to the widows as "witches" who are "enjoying their husbands' deaths."

Ann's analogy was not strong enough if you ask me. In fact, the 911 widows are political whores being pimped by none other the the LA Times.

[Texas Eagle]

Ann Coulter IS a satirist. She paints this exaggerated portrait of the Left

You think the portrait she paints of the left is exaggerated? Personally, I think it's spot on. Too spot on.

Her writing kind of reminds me of that website called Stars Without Makeup. The stars want to be thought of as always being as gorgeous as they look when they are all caked with makeup when they know they are actually quite haggard underneath all that spackling.

So, if anything, the exaggerated portrait of the left is that which they paint of themselves.

That's my opinion and I'm welcome to it. Cheers.

[Poser]

Earth to Meghan Daum!
Earth to Meghan Daum!

Um... I don't know how to tell you this, but Ann knows exactly what she is writing and she knows about satire. You just aren't smart enough to know it.

[TASMANIANRED]

Just finished her latest.

[RedRover]

The left will always hate her because she's making fun of them, and we will always love her because she's making fun of the left.

Well said. But I do think Ann has an influence that goes beyond her choir. As Mark Steyn observed recently, the MSM will no longer be able to pass off the Jersey Girls as nonpartisan. And that's Ann's doing.