Introducing Ann Coulter – FrontPage Columnist

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | October 3, 2001 | David Horowitz

[ouroboros]

Introducing Ann Coulter – FrontPage Columnist

FrontPageMagazine.com | October 3, 2001

Ann Coulter

WE ARE PLEASED AND HONORED to welcome Ann Coulter to the FrontPage team. Many of our readers have long been fans of hers. I certainly have.

As a syndicated columnist, talk show pundit and bestselling author, Ann has distinguished herself as one of the most articulate, forceful – and cheeky – members of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy.

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Ann was recently dismissed from her position as contributing editor of National Review Online (NRO). The problem began with a September 12 column in which Ann declared (with regard to Islamic terrorists): "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Subsequently, NRO rejected another column by Ann urging airport officials to scrutinize with special thoroughness "any suspicious-looking swarthy males."

Finally – and perhaps most fatally – Ann suggested, in an interview with the Washington Post, that her sensitive colleagues at NRO were "just girly-boys."

She was dismissed soon after.

What happened to Ann falls into a pattern that we at FrontPage like to call "PC McCarthyism." In the 1950s, the mere accusation of Communist sympathies could cost an innocent person his livelihood. Today, the charge of "racism," "sexism" or "homophobia" can have the same devastating effect.

As a Jew, I could be uneasy at Ann’s suggestion that mass conversion to Christianity should be wielded as a tool of foreign policy were it not so obvious that her comment was hyperbolic, tongue firmly in cheek.

Her comment about profiling "suspicious-looking swarthy males" was obviously a ripe target for the PC police, but hardly inexplicable in the present circumstances. Any airport official who today fails to pay special attention to "suspicious-looking swarthy males" is obviously not doing his job.

Certainly it was "non-U" for Ann to call her editors "girly-boys" on national television, but does this require an auto-da-fé?

In the final analysis, nothing Ann said should have caused a scandal. Not in a reasonable and open society.

But our society is no longer so open. It is increasingly governed by a political lunacy in which careers can be ended by a single careless – or free-spirited – remark.

All of us say things, from time to time, that some people find offensive. No one knows this better than NRO Editor Jonah Goldberg, who has been the public spokesman for the firing.

In a May 3, 2000 column entitled "A Continent Bleeds," Goldberg called for a military "crusade" to "bring civilization" to Africa.

"I think it’s time we revisited the notion of a new kind of Colonialism…," he wrote. "I mean going in — guns blazing if necessary... The United States should mount a serious effort to bring civilization (yes, "Civilization") to those parts of Africa that are in Hobbesian despair."

Goldberg did not retract his recommendation later, despite an orgy of predictable outrage from obvious sources.

The National Review was right to stand by Goldberg in the face of his political critics. But in today’s hypersensitive atmosphere, colored by the September 11 attacks, Jonah apparently considers Ann’s indiscretions beyond the pale.

Under Rich Lowry’s and Jonah Goldberg’s editorship, NRO is a worthy publication – one of the most astute conservative zines on the Web. And Goldberg has been one of its most fearless editorial voices, on precisely these troublesome issues.

Perhaps Goldberg and Lowry already understand the ironic corner into which they have painted themselves. We wish them well and hope they find their way out sooner rather than later.

I caught a lot of flack from conservatives for defending Bill Maher, the often irritating and much-beleaguered host of Politically Incorrect. No doubt, I’ll catch the same for hiring Ann.

So be it.

We defend the right to offend the self-righteous, and to puncture the pretensions of hypocritical virtue.

So welcome, Ann. We are proud to have you and trust you will continue your column with irreverent and cheeky zest.

David Horowitz is editor-in-chief of FrontPageMagazine.com and president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

[savedbygrace]

Good idea. It's time for Ann to be movin' on up. She needs to prepare for her opportunity.

[TLBSHOW]

What stupid grandstanding when we need a focused conservative voice supporting and interpreting our country's cause.

Get rid of shirts and ties this is the new conservative in the radical way in the lefts face and those from the right that are stuck in the old. LOL

[savedbygrace]

As in world class gourmet dining, presentation is everything.

[ST.LOUIE1]

We need the black dress pic!

Here ya go.

[CubicleGuy]

You are an anonymous poster to a political website with a ridiculous and absurd screen name.

How dare you select an absurd screen name? (Doesn't seem any more or less absurd than most of the screen names around here, with the exception of "Hillary's Lovely Legs" -- now, that's absurd.)

[stylin_geek]

I think we all owe Horowitz a lot of thanks for bringing the tactics of the left to the Right. For years the Right stood by and said nothing, because the truths were so self-evident, no defense seemed necessary. However, the attacks by the left were designed to obfuscate and confuse, which they did very well. Now, here we are, having to fight a rearguard action against an enemy who is completely amoral, an enemy with a voice and influence that is completely disproportionate to actual numbers.

David Horowitz is an exceedingly effective speaker for the Right, along with first-hand knowledge of how they work.

[TLBSHOW]

Ann Coulter moments after she was attacked at Cornell

The leftist Commies didn't even leave a scratch. Ann is a Patriot and FReeper....

[Roscoe]

In a May 3, 2000 column entitled "A Continent Bleeds," Goldberg called for a military "crusade" to "bring civilization" to Africa.

I haven't seen any of Goldberg's apologists address his hypocrisy yet.

[ST.LOUIE1]

The leftist Commies didn't even leave a scratch.

She should have pulled her gun on 'em.

Ann is a Patriot and FReeper....

For sure!

[FairWitness]

"I think my "name" is kinda cool. Did ya click on my FR homepage?"

Thanks for the suggestion (to look at your home page). Good work!

[FairWitness]

Thanks David H. Now we (male Freepers) won't have to suffer withdrawal (from Ann's published wit and wisdom, that is).

[stripes1776]

When the Rabbi cut off the end of Jonah Goldberg's p**p**, did the knife slip and cut off his b*lls as well? That would certainly explain the girly bit.

Instead of firing Anne, he should spend more time around Anne. She might have an extra set of b*lls to loan him.

[ouroboros]

Coulter, NRO, Horowitz - should be sent to bed without any supper.

I don't think Horowitz can be faulted for any this. He just snapped up a choice property that most likely will enhance his internet magazine's position.

NRO, with a more effective management style, probably could have headed off this fiasco with a well placed phone call or two. The fact that there is a bunch of young people probably didn't help but that does not make them at fault in this.

Most of the fault lies with Coulter. She acted like a spoiled rotten b*tch and got exactly what she asked for. She will not suffer for this and for that she will be sorry. She could have learned a lesson from this but Horowitz's enterprising action probably insures that Coulter will never learn it. In the movie, As Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson is asked how he writes women so well. He responds, matter-of-factly, "I think of a man. Then I take away reason and accountability". I think of that line when I think of Ann Coulter.

[IronJack]

they are not, in any sense of the word, warriors and they aren't fighting any cause other than Ego and Money.

We all fight for our own reasons. And your belittlement nothwithstanding, both of these folks are warriors. I would venture to say that David Horowitz has been fighting liberals since you started eating solid foods. Ann may not be the same heavyweight that Horowitz is, but a woman with her intelligence, charm, and disarming wit is surely an asset to our cause.

Deride them as you wish, it is likely either one of them contributes more to conservatism -- for whatever reason -- in a day than you do in a year. Either of them could likely be making the same accusations against you as you make against them, if you were important enough to register.

[ouroboros]

I would venture to say that David Horowitz has been fighting liberals since you started eating solid foods.

How do you know how old I am, son? I could be 64 for all you know.

Ann may not be the same heavyweight that Horowitz is, but a woman with her intelligence, charm, and disarming wit is surely an asset to our cause.

Intelligence? Are you serious? I guarantee you and I are spotting her a good 15-20 IQ points at least. You need to take her image and her hype out of your mind and read and listen to her words carefully. You are a better writer than she is. Charm?? Are you kidding?? She a distastefully abrasive woman and if you could get past her looks you would see that.

Deride them as you wish, it is likely either one of them contributes more to conservatism -- for whatever reason -- in a day than you do in a year. Either of them could likely be making the same accusations against you as you make against them, if you were important enough to register.

Well, I do wish. So, when do I get to be important enough to "register"? Do I get a little card or something? Here I just wrote one out with crayons and construction paper. It says, "I am intelligent life form and I am entitled to form and express opinions".

This is a discussion forum, Slappy. If "importance" was a prerequisite for discussing, criticizing, and opining there would be roughly TWO people on this site. You may disagree with my opinions, or the manner in which I express them, but you can't tell me I don't have the authority to opine. That is one judgment you don't get to pass on this forum. This is a discussion forum, not a circle jerk. If I want to criticize, I criticize. If I want to praise, I praise. That is the beauty of "this thing of ours".

[TLBSHOW]

I almost forgot about the win Ann had today.

BUMP to the top

[ouroboros]

"I am intelligent life form and I am entitled to form and express opinions".

I meant to say I am an intelligent life form and I am entitled to form and express opinions.

Unfortunately, not all intelligent life forms can proofread and/or spell ;)

[bd56]

Jonah Goldburg's explanation of Ann Coulter leaving NRO