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?
It fits in the same way as the Dixie Chicks are using their dust-up with Country Music Fans to sell their products. It is EXACTLY the same tactic, just a different message.
Because, as members of the Church of Liberalism you are supposed to venerate the Saint Jerseys.
It fits in the chapter where Ann is pointing out that liberals are too arrogant to debate honestly. They have consequently adopted the system of using people's distresses to make them unassailable spokespeople for the liberal ideology.The Jersey GirlsTM are not the only widows of victims of the 9/11 sneak attack, but journalism treats them as if they were just that because they are reliably left-wing. The Jersey Girls can attack George Bush in particular and Republicans in general, but it would be "cruel" for Ann to point out that that is a partisan position which we are not obligated to agree with. Ann breaks the liberals' taboos, in the process pointing out that taboos is just what they are.
What it boils down to is that "grieving mother" Shehan and the "grieving widow" Jersey Girls are of a piece with the "Wellstone Memorial Democratic Pep Rally."
I heard Ann live and in person today with Sean Hannity at the Huntington Book Revue (book store). I got her to autograph my copy of her book, and identified myself by my FR screen name. Which she was nice enough to recognize, and express appreciation of.