A political forum at Flagler College was briefly disrupted Tuesday night as several young men handing out leaflets were escorted from the auditorium by St. Augustine police officers.
No one was arrested at Flagler's Forum on Government and Public Policy, which featured Ann Coulter, a political analyst, attorney and author of the national best seller, "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right."
Coulter's talk centered on one key point: "Liberalism and terrorism: different stages of the same disease."
Other than applause, the speech began quietly. But shortly into it, comments and noises erupted from several of the audience.
Her only comment to those who were removed from the forum was, "Is that someone else I want on the campaign trail (for the Democrats)?" she said.
Much of Coulter's talk focused on why racial profiling should be allowed in order to ensure national security.
"Sept. 11 reminded us that there are madmen in the world," she said.
However, she said, it likely will take a mushroom cloud to convince liberals that it's time to go after Saddam Hussein, who gassed tens of thousands of his own people, showing "his impressive credentials as a mass murderer."
After Manhattan is nuked, she said, then will it be okay to look at men of Arab descent boarding airplanes?
Coulter said her logic on racial profiling centers on the fact that Muslim extremists have for the past 20 years terrorized Americans and others around the world.
She cited the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, an American killed in 1985 on an Italian cruise ship that was seized by Muslim extremists and 1979, when the American Embassy in Iran was seized by Muslim extremists.
"When there is a 100 percent chance it ceases to be a profile. It's called a description of the suspect. This is not a psychological judgement on an ethnic group. It's an all-points-bulletin," she said.
Coulter went on to speak about other problems she has with liberals.
"The only consistency in their position is that we must not do anything to annoy the enemy." It's amusing, she said, "but in wartime it's life threatening."
She said that most "liberal lies" are the same: that conservatives are racist, sexist, homophobic and stupid.
Coulter said that she thinks President George W. Bush will "make out very well" with his plans to go to war with Iraq.
And in regard to the 2004 presidential race, she said, "I think there is no possible way George Bush can lose the next presidential election. When the nation is under attack, you have to have a Republican in the White House."
