I disagree. I recall several people, namely Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh making similar points and O’Reilly got quite a bit of press for his exchange with Letterman, without attacking Sheehan personally.
The fact is, people weren’t talking about the leftist tactic -— they were talking about what mean old Ann said. And to suggest that her attacks were successful because the Jersey Girls were relegated to the “fluff shows” is ludicrous. People who watch the hard news shows are opinionated and informed to begin with. The Jersey Girls wouldn’t have an impact in that venue anyway. People who are predisposed to the left would eat it up and those on the right would not. Instead, they were going all over shows like the Today Show and The View. Suddenly, they were household names in the apolitical homes where clueless people saw them as the poor widows being attacked by Ann.
Furthermore, for all the blather about the leftist tactic of the victim card “finally” being “exposed” by Coulter, it wasn’t a successful tactic to begin with. It didn’t work in 2002 with the Wellstone funeral. In fact, it backfired. The Jersey Girls didn’t help Kerry get elected in 2004. However, when Rush attacked the victim tactic in the 2006 election — and I do think Rush was portrayed unfairly — it was a disaster. Honestly, we would have been better off if we had stood back and let people see that for the shameless tactic it was. Instead, it looked like mean Rush picking on poor Michael J. Fox.
I realize there is no empirical data on the Ann Coulter effect. But the reality is the “victim card” didn’t seem to work pre-Coulter’s comment. The left continued to use the victim tactic post-Coulter’s comment and, it appears, it was successful. And while there is no study pertaining to Ann Coulter, there is a parallel study pertaining to Michael Moore and how those types of personal attacks backfire.
Still, the good thing about Ann -- or Rush -- taking the heat for attacking the Left so aggressively is that the rest of us can then follow through the gaping hole that they have blasted for us -- in some previously impenetrable wall -- without US having to engage in such hyperbole, sarcasm and even "nastiness" ourselves.And, for THAT they have my respect, and gratitude.
Actually, they were talking about what they were told she had said, not what she did say, just like the Maher-Edwards comment.