Posted on 11/22/2002 8:27:13 AM PST by abner
BRISTOL -- Room 157 had the look and feel of a championship bout. The fans sat in cheering sections based on their favorite fighter. The diehards came looking for autographs. Others came to provide moral support.
This fight last night, on the Roger Williams University campus, was all about politics. Party politics.
It pitted one of the nation's most controversial and aggressive conservatives against the lone Democrat on the Barrington Town Council.
Ann Coulter -- a lawyer, author and popular TV talk-show commentator, who has made a career of attacking liberals with a venom that repulses some and inspires others -- was the clear heavyweight in this debate, sponsored by the Roger Williams College Republicans.
Facing her was June Speakman, an associate professor of political science, the head of the faculty union at Roger Williams, and a newly elected member of the Barrington Town Council.
Coulter, who has sparred with the likes of The Today Show's Katie Couric, whom she has called the "affable Eva Braun of daytime TV" -- said that Speakman was the first person who had ever agreed to debate her on a college campus.
The two debated the question, "Which political party is the party of the people?"
Coulter took the first shot. "If you define people as those who don't work for a living, then the Democrats are the party of the people," she said. "These are people who refuse to work, or they are actors."
She slammed the Democrats for portraying themselves as the party of the "little guy," when she said their average single donations dwarf that given by Republicans to candidates.
As evidence, she ticked off the top contributors to Al Gore's push for a recount in the disputed 2000 election -- a cadre of media and real-estate magnates from California and New York.
"This is the party of the people. Malibu and Manhattan," she said of the Democrats. ". . . They are the modern feudalists who believe that the country should be made up of idle liberals and their maids."
Her comments drew a round of cheers from the front seats of the audience, occupied by the College Republicans; the group had erupted in applause as soon as the tall, blonde Coulter entered the room.
Many of those wearing the club's blue T-shirts clutched digital cameras. One had a copy of Coulter's best-selling book, Slander. Another had a calendar of pictures from Ronald Reagan's ranch.
Republican congressional candidate Dave Rogers, who lost in his bid to unseat Patrick Kennedy, also attended the debate.
Speakman looked a little nervous as she took the podium to defend the Democratic party. The bespectacled professor, and self-proclaimed "ex-hippie," spoke of her liberal background with pride.
"I would have voted for Hillary Clinton if I lived in New York," said Speakman, as the crowd booed. "I am sorry."
"I contributed to Emily's List. I contribute to public television. I am not a traitor."
She disputed Coulter's assertion that the Democrats are the party of rich liberals, saying that not many members of the 48 percent of the electorate who voted for the party in the last election have maids. "Frankly," she said, "many of them might be maids."
The Democrats, Speakman said, believe in a government that helps people who cannot help themselves, including the sick, the children and the unemployed.
Speakman had her own fans, who packed the back rows of the auditorium and cheered her every point.
According to Michael Ardvini, a member of the College Republicans, someone torched one of the signs that the group put up announcing Coulter's appearance on campus. Ardvini said the club then had to take down the rest of the signs, because they were deemed a fire hazard.
Coulter, a staunch critic of the Clintons, the media and anything that she deems liberal, is a lightning rod for controversy -- much of which she invites, her critics say.
She was dropped from the conservative National Review after Sept. 11, when she wrote about Muslims, saying, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity," according to Newsday.
She accuses liberals of engaging in name-calling and nastiness that she says have soiled the political dialogue.
I hope they weren't math majors.
By the time I got to the part about the people sitting in the front row of Room 157 who "erupted in applause as soon as the tall, blonde Coulter entered the room", I forgot about the rest of the article and drifted off into fantasy land. I just presume she mopped the floor with this week's liberal chump.
It seems they only care about children who are over 5 minutes old. Any in the womb, or birth canal are irrelevant to the dimis.
TC
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