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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"They are professional victims"
Good way to put it. And for some, no doubt true.
But Annie got herself in a jam doing or saying anything that makes 911 people look bad. , and she's gonna get beat like a $3 throw rug over it.
Sometimes tact is one of the hardest things in the world to learn.
"No class."
I respectfully disagree.
It looks like she's going to FINALLY make them pay a price for their misdeeds. If they don't like the heat, they are going to need to stay out of the kitchen, to use a tired, but appropriate phrase.
I really do have to ask, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce them. The question actually crossed my mind when I first heard of them.
I'm allowed an opinion on the subject, same as you.
I think she cheapens her arguments with her over the top, sideshow actions, and that doesn't speak well of the conservative movement. She makes herself the topic rather than the topic, and that cheapens the debate.
You are free to your own thoughts and opinions though, and I will respect them.
LOL!! Go back and read the post. Perhaps you should address your comments to the original poster. I was merely agreeing with him.
Maybe someone already posted this flash from Drudge:
ANN COULTER RESPONDS TO SEN. CLINTON: 'BEFORE CRITICIZING OTHERS FOR BEING 'MEAN' TO WOMEN, PERHAPS HILLARY SHOULD TALK TO HER HUSBAND WHO WAS ACCUSED OF RAPE BY JUANITA BROADDRICK AND WAS GROPING KATHLEEN WILLEY AT THE VERY MOMENT WILLEY'S HUSBAND WAS COMMITTING SUICIDE.'
Perhaps all these psychophants should show us where they supported Cindy Sheehan or be branded as hypocrites.
How about you, sinkspur? Do serpents have adam's apples?
Sorry, but the argument that "the other guys do it" makes no sense.
If its bad for Carville and Begala to act this way, then it doesn't make it OK for Coulter to act that way.
She sounds like Michael Moore when she writes nonsense like that. Why not leave the crass insults to the Left?
When they and Sheehan chose to "wave the bloody shirt", they placed themselves firmly within the bounds. They have used another's tragic death as a podium to spout their politics, then hide behind the stolen moral authority of the slain when criticized. If they can't take the heat, then they should STFU.
Meanwhile, I notice that you do not hesitate for a new york second to make a personal attack Coulter regarding her physique. That's fine; she entered the public arena willingly and I am sure she expects brickbats and low blows. But you, sir, are a hypocrite to be throwing those low blows in the same post as you decry them.
I thought that was a Photoshopped picture of Kerry.
"Coulter is a loudmouth skank and nothing more. Let her whore herself with obnoxious comments to sell books."
-- ---
Gee, and with the way you set an example of such tactfully crafted words to make such profound remarks, I can see why you always hold yourself to the highest standards of decorum. Your prose is the standard by which all writers should strive to keep from being called various types of skanks.
Yup, which is exactly why I said she needs to temper her remarks.
There is enough ammo at Breitweisters blog to skewer her as an opportunist and a left wing loon, the conjecture about something Ann Coulter knows nothing about broke the bounds of common deceny. That's where I come down and as you know full well, I don't give a sh^t what anyone thinks about it.
See, the thing is, women aren't supposed to have balls. When I was growing up, which wasn't that long ago, women were expected to carry themselves in a certain way, to be demure and proper, and if they were to get into a discussion, to always act with a certain demeanor. The dogfights were meant for men, not women. Now, there are many things Coulter says which, well, I agree with the premise behind them. However, something like attacking the 9/11 widows, you don't like their politics, but in the South, something like that would not be polite conversation, and if something like that ever came out of my daughter's mouth, then I would have a problem. Since the arrival of feminism, women think it's their place to try to be men, to be lewd, crewd, etc. They may be females but they're not ladies, and for the same reason that the Hillary Clinton's of the world put me off, so do the Ann Coulter's. This idea that they somehow need to "have balls". Whatever happened to women being the fairer sex.
There is NO moral equivalence between Coulter's remarks and Begala/Carville's remarks. This is bare-knuckled politics and the good fighter is Ann Coulter. If you don't like it, crawl off into a corner somewhere and whimper.
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