Posted on 06/15/2006 10:12:05 AM PDT by Kitten Festival
Let me ask you this: when, prior to last week, was the last time you heard of the Jersey Girls? I can’t give a definite answer, which in itself is telling. Not that I was paying any large amount of attention, but there was a lot of noise in between the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns, intense media play building up to the 2004 election, which they did their damndest to throw to Kerry, and then… nothing.
They’d shot their bolt, they had their fifteen minutes and more, and that was the end of it. Until last week when Ann Coulter, acting unilaterally, put them back on the front pages with an attack so obnoxious that it immediately (and unjustly – it was the Girls themselves, after all, who debased their victim status for political purposes) threw all sympathy in their direction. A free ticket to a second act. Not to mention providing Madame Hillary with an opportunity to pose as, of all things, the defender of civility.
Thanks a lot, Ann.
Conservatives used to be known for this kind of thing. Much of this was the media’s doing – at any conservative gathering, be it a gun show or a political convention, reporters will make a beeline for the guy in full camo gear or wearing two dozen anti-UN buttons. But conservatives played their part.
The classic figure here is Coulter’s idol, Joe McCarthy. Bellowing about Communists you couldn’t produce (and it cannot be repeated often enough that McCarthy bagged nobody – the Party infiltrators had been cleaned out by the time he showed up) was bad enough. Doing it in an ill-cut Chicago gangland suit with a five-o’clock shadow and fifth of Jim Beam under your belt simply turned it into a circus.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
No one will say that Ann Coulter doesn't attempt to push buttons to get a reaction. She does. It's in order to garner publicity. She's done a great job in doing that with this particular book....no different than Ron Howard with his movie about the DaVinci Code.
Controversy sells books. The media played into her hands. More power to her.
So far as her point is concerned, one good illustration of this was Georgia Senator Max Cleland, the wheelchair-bound veteran. He had played on his status as an injured soldier to SILENCE critics on anything he had to say from military policy to the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. I expect a purple heart winner to have some significant things to say about the military medical system or the Veterans Administration Hospitals. They deserve my attention when speaking on those subjects.
On anything else, they're on their own.
Likewise, the Jersey girls might have significant things to say about sudden grief, aid to survivors of 9/11, and even some thoughts on US government investigations into 9/11. That's where it stops.
When they get to dealing with tax policy, the war in Iraq, and gay marriage, they've stepped out of the areas in which I'll give them consideration.
IF they attempt to play on their victim status in ANY AREA OUTSIDE THEIR AREA, then they are engaging in manipulation and should be called on it.
That was Coulter's point, and she is 100% correct.
Ann Coulter -- and Rush, and Mark Levin, and others, really represent not just conservatism but a return to the simple common sense that has been gradually replaced by liberal idiocy since the 1950s. The Libs know this, and are fighting it tooth and nail. A return to common sense is the end of their reign of error.
What aabout their piece de reziztance... JOhn KErry?
You're criticizing a War Hero? Yes, I am! A VC War Hero!
And Muthafudger another War Hero!
And the wheelchair hold muh beer hero!
Benedict Arnold an American Hero, before turning traitor!
History has a way of repeating, and time flows like a river. (Secret of Mana)
But in the past few years, there have been worrying developments. We’ve seen the appearance of people like Michael Savage and yes, Ann Coulter. People who don’t seem to think before they speak. People who don’t understand tactics. People who seem to believe that shouting or insult wins arguments.
We've seen the appearance of the same types of people here on FR, too.
This wasn’t invented on the right side of the fence – it’s the product of Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, and James Carville, none of whom can be called conservative. But it has, in a kind of cultural osmosis, seeped through. There is no way this can be called a good thing.
Several times in the last week or so, I've posted that Coulter is the right-wing equivalent of James Carville. Naturally, the adherents of the "Church of Coulter" here on FR bristle at any such suggestion. Well, I see I'm not the only one making the comparison between Coulter and Carville. Truth is truth.
Insults do not replace tactics. This insult mongering is playing into leftist hands. The image of the loutish right-winger...is very much a leftist conception. It fits their notion of what conservatism is. So why adopt it?
Amen.
Is there any question as to why the legacy media is headlining Coulter’s remarks? Is it because they agree with them? Because they think that they deserve wide hearing? Or is it because they believe that they discredit Ann Coulter, and beyond her, conservatism at large? Which would you venture to guess?
Coulter is the quintessential foam-at-the-mouth right-winger stereotype so many of us have tried for so long to convince voters is not an accurate portrayal of conservatives. She deliberately walks right into the public relations trap set by the Left during the McCarthy era. Coulter selfishly does it to sell books and to sell herself. She doesn't do it for the larger good of the conservative movement, no matter what her blind fans around here may think. She'd dump them in a heartbeat if she thought it would redound to her benefit.
It’s not enough simply to give the left a thorough whipping; the trick is do it without becoming like them.
Daily here on FR people refer to the rants over at DU, DailyKos, etc., without ever realizing the same thing occurs here over and over again. Those of us who find Coulter's antics harmful to the conservative cause believe we can and should do better than descend in the gutter right along with DU'ers.
"The classic figure here is Coulter’s idol, Joe McCarthy. Bellowing about Communists you couldn’t produce (and it cannot be repeated often enough that McCarthy bagged nobody..."
Unless you count Owen Lattimore, Edward Posniak, Mary Jane Keeney, Gustavo Duran, and John Carter Vincent.
What an uninformed article.
Not my sympathy. I despised the Jersey Girls before and I despise them now. Coulter's judgment of them is totally just.
Neither Dunn nor any other conservative who disagrees with Coulter has missed that point. We disagree with her shrill, nasty, caustic, unnecessarily insulting behavior. As a conservative, I most certainly do not want Coulter to represent me in any way.
This isn't to say I don't want to fight the Left. Rather, it is to say there are smart and stupid ways to go about it. Coulter's way is stupid.
There's a J.R. Dunn who owns two beautiful jewelry stores -one in Fort Lauderdale and one in Lighthouse Point.
"I DID have a problem with her calling Roberts a "closet Souter""
Could you produce that quote?
I see it mentioned quite commonly by Coulter critics. But I've never seen that quote.
And I'm sure you don't want to misrepresent her words.
Is that so? How do you suppose the Leftists have fought us, by the way? How is it that they have enjoyed not only decades of political power, but now control almost all of the institutions in the Western world?
By being nice? By being terribly, wonderfully polite?
What a comedy.
Nonsense. The distinction is between effective attacks and stupid ones. Coulter's attacks are stupid -- not the substance of what she has to say, but the mannter in which she says it. Like Carville on the Left (and Buchanan before her), Coulter is in the business of throwing red meat to the hard right for one purpose only: to enrich herself.
For every member of the "Church of Coulter" on the right who delights in her antics, there are untold numbers of average apolitical voters who see in her the worst stereotypes of conservatives -- and then paint us all with the same brush.
Ann Coulter has does more for the "Cause" in a day, that wusses like this do in their entire lives.
Stopth wubbing ith.
I wonder if this guy agreed with the changing of the Afghan campaign's name from "Infinite Justice" because it upset terrorists (and other Muslims)?
LOL! I like it, but think we can add conservative members of congress as well to the definition.
"Coulter is in the business of throwing red meat to the hard right for one purpose only: to enrich herself."
BS. Coulter has been broke until very very recently because nobody would publish her or allow her on TV.
Not even National Review. Apart from Human Events, which is a great magazine but pays nothing, she never even had a media outlet until John Kennedy, Jr gave her some space in George.
Her first books, though best sellers made her next to nothing. (It's a long story, but not uncommon.)
She could have made a fortune as a lawyer or as a less polemic (more politically correct) pundit a long time ago. She refused to change for money.
It is so tiresome to see people smear her as greedy when she lived in near poverty for most of her adult life because of her loyalty to her beliefs.
You don't know what you are talking about, yet you do it so authoritatively.
Why is that?
BTW, does everything said by every pundit who calls himself a conservative pass your litmus test? And if not, where are your posts condemning them?
This is a feeding frenzy for the self-righteous (and jealous).
"Daily here on FR people refer to the rants over at DU, DailyKos, etc., without ever realizing the same thing occurs here over and over again. Those of us who find Coulter's antics harmful to the conservative cause believe we can and should do better than descend in the gutter right along with DU'ers."
Take the high ground if you want but this is a fact.
Ann Coulter has a large and growing audience and fan base. I don't see the likes of that being duplicated by any other "right wing" author/political pundit.
The woman is right, she's right most of the time and her delivery tweaks the dims.
Anything that makes them squeal like stuck pigs is ok in my book, because it just points out how ludicrously hypocrital they are.
and those who take the high ground (who we need) can work in the background and avoid the slings and arrows that are cast at the likes of Ann and Mike Savage.
Me, I prefer slings and arrows combat, that's why I tweak these jackasses everytime I meet one.
It's fun
Ann mentioned Joe Wilson and Cindy Sheehan in the book, too. When is the last time they were in the news?
The Jersey Girls are in the News because Matt Lauer latched onto that one quote. He could have just as easily latched onto a quote about Wilson or Sheehan.
Matt (or his handlers) probably decided that the country wasn't going to show any sympathy towards Sheehan or Wilson, but they might show some towards the Jersey Girls. Especially if they could somehow spin it that Ann's quote referred to all widows of 9/11 (which is a huge lie).
Ann must have hit somebody pretty close to home to produce all that howling...("truth hurts" bump.)
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