Posted on 06/07/2006 4:51:37 PM PDT by new yorker 77
Conservative author Ann Coulter sparked a storm on Wednesday after describing a group of September 11 widows who backed the Democratic Party as millionaire "witches" reveling in their status as celebrities.
"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks.
Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
A spokeswoman for publisher Crown Forum said it had set a first print run of 1 million copies of "Godless" and there were 1.5 million copies of Coulter's previous four books in print.
The four women, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, declined to discuss the book in detail but issued a statement saying they had been slandered.
"There was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again," said the statement signed by the four, along with a fifth woman, Monica Gabrielle.
The four women, who live in or around East Brunswick, New Jersey, became friends after September 11 and formed a group that agitated for the investigation. "Our only motivation ever was to make our nation safer," they said.
Coulter, whose books include the bestseller "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," argues in the new book the women she dubs "the Witches of East Brunswick" wanted to blame President George W. Bush for not preventing the attacks.
She criticized them for making a campaign advertisement for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004, and added: "By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
PERSONAL ATTACKS
Asked by Reuters why she made such personal comments, Coulter said by e-mail, "I am tired of victims being used as billboards for untenable liberal political beliefs."
"A lot of Americans have been seething over the inanities of these professional victims for some time," she added.
Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg (news, bio, voting record) of New Jersey said Coulter's "shameless attack" on the widows sparked disgust. "Her bookselling antics and accompanying vulgarity deserve our deepest contempt," he said in a statement.
The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp., slammed the comments in an article on Wednesday headlined: "Righty writer Coulter hurls nasty gibes at 9/11 gals."
Coulter, a regular television commentator who is hugely popular among some conservatives, was challenged on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday over what host Matt Lauer called "dramatic" remarks, prompting her to say, "You are getting testy with me."
Coulter is known for a combative column after September 11 saying, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." In one book, she wrote, "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."
Her latest comments were quoted on radio stations in New York on Wednesday and the book was the subject of debate on Web sites such as www.salon.com. The Daily News newspaper's front-page headline was "Coulter the Cruel."
The controversy appeared to be doing no harm to sales of Coulter's latest book, which was listed as the second-best seller of the day at online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday afternoon.
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You're engaging in projection. These 4 are liberal Demorats.
No, I am not playing that game. Of course I find that beyond reprehensible. Defend this comment of Ann's, good luck because it is indefensible. Please keep in mind that she is also suggesting the husbands who died would have left their wives and children. Sorry, but Ann effed up royally:
"By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
The problem with this, and the thing that happens many times with her, is that everybody gets disctracted from her well-thought-out ideas and gets into a war over her rhetoric.
The theme of this book is that liberals are godless and this dust-up over the Jersey Girls fits into that how?
The media is proving Coulter's real point of her rant that liberals use "unassailable victims" to do their dirty work, e.g. Jersey Girls, Cindy Sheehan, Joe Wilson, etc.
Your feelings seem hurt by the long tradition of political polemic in America.
Not quite brainy enough for the pissant crowd, I don't guess.
"By the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."
No class."
--- -- --
Is this the first time you've seen politics get dirty?
Ann's goal was to reveal these women as political hacks for the left, and she did it in a very memorable way.
A small sample from Mrs. Breitweiser who is evidently a left wing player in the world of politics.
"Can someone please explain to me why Rudy Giuliani gets to give a victim's impact statement at the Moussaoui penalty phase hearing? Which family member did Guiliani lose in the attacks?"
Judging by this statement and many others it would seem that Ann Coulter's comments regarding this woman's intemperate use of her husbands demise is right on the mark.
FWIW however, I think Ann needs to be more temperate herself.
Want proof?
Terrorist Taliban commander Mullah Hayat Khan
photographed in his private meeting with Reuters-terrorists
who worship at his feet, in the Pakistan-Afghan border city of Chaman June 4, 2006.
I was trying to be irreverently humorous, not side against Coulter. Evidentially I failed. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
You may be more right than you realize. That Adam's apple is a dead giveaway.
A small sample from Mrs. Breitweiser who is evidently a left wing player in the world of politics.
"Can someone please explain to me why Rudy Giuliani gets to give a victim's impact statement at the Moussaoui penalty phase hearing? Which family member did Guiliani lose in the attacks?"
Judging by this statement and many others it would seem that Ann Coulter's comments regarding this woman's intemperate use of her husbands demise is right on the mark.
FWIW however, I think Ann needs to be more temperate herself.
Mwa ha ha haa. One of my favorite Coulter lines ever: "Liberals do not know the meanings of the words 'absolute,' 'moral,' or 'authority.'"
I'd like some proof that they actually saw this.
I fear she's outdone herself this time.
You won't see one public official speaking in her defense on this subject, unless they're looking to retire early.
Over the top, into the thickest fire, and right down their throats. Gotta love her.
political agenda. period.
Was their any joy in trying to defeat a President who most 9-11 families supported?
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