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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It's amazing how the events of one day can change your outlook.
No I felt like a putz anyway for my last post last night. After watching the liberal reaction to events today that was so dead on to what she was saying had to own up to it.
If you've ever been on the rec'ing end of a Toxic Martyr, drawing the weeds of tragedy around her like a Queen for a Day robe...brrr....I guess you haven't. But you'll take a dim view of Tragic Sainthood if you ever are.
These Divas can eat you alive. I think Ann must have met one or two--they'll cure you of Feminist Sisterhood in a real hurry.
What these snarky remarks show to me--
1) Maybe Ann resents the heck out of the sympathy and boolah these attention-tramps enjoy compared to a widow of a soldier in the WOT--I know I resent it.
2) Ann lost a good friend in one of those 9/11 hijackings.
3) I like her honest spite better than the smarmy girly-boys that are most "conservative" pundits.
Yes, the harpies have no class. Thank you for agreeing with Ms. Coulter.
I hope you will also agree with me that I wish it were not necessary for Ann to do her thing in order to get Americans to THINK.
Shalom.
BTTT
Oh, I'm sure you don't think I'm excluding Ms. Coulter.
Excellent analysis....thanks for the ping.
Hey angie, that is one I hadn't heard....I would be real surprised if Mary would say it anyway.
We'll have to see if we can find a transcript.
Actually Coulter may not of said that headline but, it has more truth than not.
I had my comment removed until otherwise. I love Ann I would hate to post fale info about her.
Good idea angie...if it's accurate, we will hear about it later today.
Exactly!
Its hard to credibly claim the high ground while using gutter tactics.
After seeing her on TV last night, I've changed my opinion.
The comment about their husbands maybe divorcing them is being taken out of context. She was making the point that their only claim to authority is through their husbands, and if they would have been on the road to divorce, they might not have had any basis at all for all their noteriety. I didn't get that.
I also got a better handle on her outrage, and why she's hitting them in a way that will get some attention. It's not just about the book sales. I retract my criticisms.
By the way, I've noticed that many of the folks outraged about Ann's percieved ad hominem attacks often make disparing remarks on her weight. For the record, I think she looks great. Some people are tall and lean by nature, and not everyone overeats.
Appropriate Southern colloqialism:
"If you throw a rock in a pack of dogs, the one that hollers is the one that got hit."
In this case, it's plural - but otherwise it's right on the money.
At the bottom of their pedestal are the election returns from 2002 and 2004.
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