A Conspiracy So Vast: Meet Ann Coulter, the Maureen Dowd of the conservatives

Opinion Journal ^ | 07/14/03 | DOROTHY RABINOWITZ

[Pokey78]

John G. Adams, a key figure in the proceedings that effectively ended Sen. Joseph McCarthy's career, passed quietly from the scene last week at age 91. Not surprisingly, his death made no news; it's been a while since those heady days when McCarthy launched his investigations of the Army, which had, he charged, been shielding countless Communist agents at Fort Monmouth and elsewhere. It fell to Adams, the Army's chief counsel, to deal with the charges, which he did to devastating effect in the Army-McCarthy hearings that held the nation in thrall in the 1950s.

[WL-law]

Rabinowitz is a woman of impeccable integrity. She is all class.

Not in this instance -- see my earlier post.

[FreedomPoster]

>>I've read plenty on McCarthy and, while he was right about Communists in the government, he cast his net too wide, and damaged a lot of innocent people.

Could you name a few, with summaries/links/references for further reading?

One of the main points Ann makes in Treason is that your exact statement has been made numerous times over many years by liberals, with little back up. Her assertion is that this is nothing but another liberal Big Lie.

Do you have concrete information to the contrary? I'd like to read it.

[FreedomPoster]

I agree wholeheartedly that there is way too much anger and viterperation regarding Ms. Rabinowitz's column. Even if she's wrong here, which seems more than possible, many comments on this thread are way out of line.

[shrinkermd]

If Ms. Coulter was overweight and had pimples, her literary success would be nil. Her story is one of a "hottie" doing her best to become a celebrity.

[martin_fierro]

HUIJAAAAAAA SOTRETAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! <|:)~

(Va lindo el máte -- ¿querés?)

[martin_fierro]

Please, do NOT post Dorothy Rabinowitz photos.

Oh, very well, I will:

[jern]

I like Ann Coulter (a lot), but she is a terrible author. Horrible. It seems like she just puts the books out, so that members of FR will buy them. It is like she decides she wants to add on another floor of her house, so she puts out some awful book.

[FreedomPoster]

Thanks for posting that, I had remembered something of that detail, and was going to look that up and post it if no one else had. Proof that Rabinowitz didn't do her homework.

[autoresponder]

No, this article's writer has plenty of clues.....

She and her ilk are just breaking out in cold sweats as her grandparent's NYC Commie academic and student buddies treachery of old are being hung out in the bright sunshine.

Hard to cover up and rewrite history now with the internet and talk radio exposing your traitorous butts!

[RinaseaofDs]

Or perhaps because it wasn't a book about McCarthy's entire political career.

Treason is about liberal mythology - a system of tall tales that liberals used to retain power in Congress for 40 years or more.

Had the book been an exhaustive biography of McCarthy, then the Malmedy massacre's omission might have been more glaring.

Rabinowitz may just have been pissed. The germaine fact of the book is that McCarthy was proved right, all faults, shortcomings, and slanderous mythology aside. So, Coulter asks herself and us, how bad was it? She researched it and came up with Treason. The book wasn't about Saint Joe McCarthy, but about the fact that he was right and no one on the left would cooperate with him.

No one wants to believe the stuff that Ann's writing about. I don't want to believe this about the government, left or right, because it is further evidence that what we have in place today doesn't work.

[alnick]

Frankly, I don't care if Rabinowitz is liberal or conservative. I do care that she fails to address the fact that Coulter's book is backed up with facts. If Rabinowitz ignores that, I can't take her critique of the book seriously.

[proud American in Canada]

"I don't think that the charge made about McCarthy claiming that the U.S Army mis-treated the SS Officers can be labeled as defending them for them executing our soldiers. In WWII we honored the Geneva Conventions and I would have to look at that particular case before concluding that McCarthy was defending the Nazi's, he might have been trying to make sure we kept our commitment to the Geneva Conventions. "

Very well said. Just because Ann didn't include it in the book does not mean it was omitted because it didn't support her thesis. As someone pointed out, this is not an overall biography of McCarthy.

Ann had to have known about this issue and that it would come up.

I haven't read Ann's book yet, but I, too get the impression that she picks a couple of small examples to demolish Ann. The vitriol is this article is stunning.

Ann has shaken people up, and the effects could be surprising.

[RinaseaofDs]

I disagree.

The US Army tries not to massacre anybody it takes prisoner. As much as they happen to deserve it, we feel the need to give criminals due process.

As incredibly screwed up a process our legal system is, at least you have a shot of being found innocent of a crime prior to your summary execution.

Even Patton realized that being a Nazi in 1943 was the same as being a Democrat or Republican was at that time for people in the US.

We try them and then we hang them here. Joe was probably on the side of the angels on this issue too, but that wasn't the point of the book.

[steve-b]

This is a serious charge, and not one to be dismissed. Why didn't Ann put this in the book?

For the same reason her opposite number, but soul-mate, Walter Duranty didn't put the Ukranian famine in his stories.

[steve-b]

So, you reject the government's position that illegal combatants do not enjoy the shield of the Geneva Convention, then?

[proud American in Canada]

RE #161:

excellent post.