Posted on 06/08/2006 12:38:21 PM PDT by pissant
TRENTON, N.J. - Commentator Ann Coulter's incendiary words about outspoken 9/11 widows have led two state lawmakers to calls for a boycott of her book in the widows' home state of New Jersey.
Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley, D-Hudson, and Linda Stender, D-Union, on Thursday called on New Jerseyans to stop buying the book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," and for retailers in the state to stop selling it.
"Coulter's vicious characterizations and remarks are motivated by greed and her desire to sell books. By making these claims, she proved herself worse than those she is attempting to vilify - she is a leach trying to turn a profit off perverting the suffering of others," the two assemblywomen said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Crown Forum, the publisher of Coulter's book, did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday.
In her new book, Coulter writes that a group of New Jersey widows whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act "as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them."
She also wrote, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."
The comments drew criticism Wednesday from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who said the book should be called "Heartless," and New York's Republican Gov. George Pataki, who said he was stunned by the remarks.
Coulter appeared Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show and stuck by her stance, saying the women used their grief "to make a political point."
Her criticism was aimed at four New Jersey women she dubbed "The Witches of East Brunswick," after the town where two of them live.
The women - Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg and Patty Casazza - have spent the years since the 2001 terror attacks supporting an independent commission to examine government failures before the attack. During the 2004 presidential race, they endorsed Democrat John Kerry.
The fact that they POLITICIZED the untimely death of a loved one is what sets them up for ridicule.
And doing it with a smile and a miniskirt.
I haven't yet read the book, but suspect if she is striking a chord, she is right on the money.
"Which was of course her opponents plan. Simply find the most offensive statement made, and focus on that. Thus they ensure that no one (who wouldn't already be interested in the book or agree with her basic premise) will remember anything except that part and thus "kill" her book sales.
My guess is that it is not working."
So why not have the "most offensive statement" be related to the premise of the book? Then at least you're on the subject.
No, you're delusional if you belive that catty comments about the stability of marriages ended by death do anything to further a political agenda. I rank this right up there with Fred Phelps protesting the funerals of slain soldiers. It's exactly the same type of behavior.
I don't think he was. But there are those on this thread who are saying that Coulter was striking out at the Jersey Girls because she was defending Bush against them.
Coulter despises Bush, and uses him as she uses everything else in her life: as a prop for a book or column. She is entirely mercenary.
Doubtful. Ignoring Ann Coulter is like ignoring Rush Limbaugh...you can do it, but I wouldn't advise it if you're a republican.
You mean the hundreds of Anti-Bush tomes that occupy the front of Barnes and Nobles accross the country?
Liberal authors have trashed Bush with lies and received fawning gavel-to-gavel press coverage.
Conservative authors who speak the truth, however, have been blacked-out (Gary Aldrich's book) or slammed (Coulter's books).
It has everything to do with the subject here and your misrepresentations of Coulter's actual quotes on the Joisey gals have already been debunked.
I hope she is. I'd by her a drink, if she was in the hood.
Typical liberal response. One can justify virtually anything "for the children". That's one of their favorite lines.
Thirty bucks at audible.com...no waiting, and a very nice lady reads it to you ;o)
And the NJ hags were the worst of the worst.
I'm never one to think Ann is defending George Bush when she says such things as this. That's pretty clearly not her basic motive, for she is all over the lot when it comes to that.
You partially quoted me. I called into question the WAY she made her point and I suggested she probably did it to sell books. I absolutely disagree with your concusion that their marriages weren't her business, because I don't think she was commenting on the marriages but it sounded as though she was...that was my point. If you look at Ann's larger point she is saying that the deaths of their husbands on 9-11 is something they are now using to enter the public arena and pound on President Bush. I take her "personal", rhetorical commentary in that context.
Well, of course they don't say, "I speak for my husband". They ARE speaking, and their husbands can't come forward and say anything against their actions. I think it is like Cindy Sheehan. She doesn't say that she speaks for Casey. She simply runs her mouth and her actions against everything we happen to know Casey stood for (whereas we don't know their husbands).
Ann is forcing the issue into people's thick, gullible heads of whether or not these women might be trampling on their husbands graves, figuratively, as Cindy does her heroic son. That's what I get from it, not really any gratuitously cruel point about their marriages.
Yet the process of thinking through the whole thing is so complex that all most people are going to retain is that Ann made a nasty crack about the their personal lives, as you say. This will turn some people off, but when the incurably curious here that some want to boycott and even call on bookstores not to sell it, even more will probably buy it. Which was another point I made.
Not even Maddy, Janet Reno, Molly, or HT?
"They don't have minds to reason with or win. Liberals are the enemy. We no longer have common ground with them. They only desire to destroy our country. You follow?"
Liberals already hate Coulter and (many) conservatives love her. You are aware that there are other types of people out there that are capable of being persuaded to adopt more right-leaning ideas, aren't you? What does she accomplish with this? She sells a lot of books and an opportunity to change some minds is lost. Maybe not that big of a deal in the scheme of things but nothing wrong in wishing that an opportunity had not been wasted.
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