The Breakdown of Ann Coulter

© Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, June 11, 2006

The mainstream media (liberal and conservative alike) is having a field day with Ann Coulter’s newest diatribes in her latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism.  Among other things in this volume, Ann attacks the “Jersey Girls,” four widows of 911, who have become national critics of the President Bush.

Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg, and Patty Casazza lost their husbands in the September 11, 2001 Islamist attack on the World Trade Center.  Over the past several years, they have become outspoken critics of the Bush Administration’s handling of intelligence material prior to the event.  They allege that the Bush team could have taken more proactive steps that might have prevented the disaster.  They were predominantly responsible for the formation of the 911 Commission.

In Godless, Ann Coulter attacks the women with several scathing statements.  To wit:

"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."

"And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy. . .

"These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them."

Simply put, Coulter does not believe the women, who she lovingly refers to as the “Witches of East Brunswick,” should be allowed to use their status as victims of 911 to criticize the Bush Administration without being subject to debate and criticism of their views.  In that she and I agree.  Just because someone is a victim of a crime, the focus of an injustice, or  loses a dear relative doesn’t give them carte blanch to be immune from being called to task for political positions they might put forth.

That having been said, Coulter crossed the line when she made her tirade against the “Jersey Girls” a personal attack as opposed to an intellectual criticism of their assertions.  None of the statements cited above are designed for any intellectual purpose.  Rather, they are formulated to attack the feelings of the women involved and, by extension, those of their friends and families.

The four statements cited have about as much value as commenting that Ann Coulter must be related to Ichabod Crane due to the size of her “Adam’s apple!”

It is sad to see someone with Coulter’s intellectual ability (she is the smartest of the conservative “talking heads”) stoop to the level of trading school yard barbs and name calling.

I have been concerned about Ann for sometime.  It seems to me that she senses the coming demise of the Republican power in the Congress and, indeed, in the national political arena.  What is more, the Republicans, while in power, have failed miserably to deliver on the conservative agenda…abortion is still legal, Social Security is still the norm, and health care costs are still out the waahzoo!  Couple that with the Bush Administration’s less than stellar performances in responding to Hurricane Katrina, the securing of America’s borders, and the rising cost of gasoline, and I can see why Ann, Shawn, Neil, and Rush, to name but a few, might be somewhat frustrated right about now.

Ann has allowed her frustration to rise to a different level.  In her interviews, especially on Hannity and Combs, where she is on friendly ground to say the least, she has exhibited the demeanor of one who is about to come unglued.  In a recent Today Show interview with Matt Lauer, she bordered on reality, after accusing him of becoming “testy” with her and asking where was Katie. (Katie Couric recently left the Today Show preparatory to her becoming the anchor of CBS Evening News later this year.)

The stable, intellectual voice of the right is sinking further and further into the morass of conservative disappointment.  One, who once was so eloquent in putting forth the verbiage of conservative thought is now acting more like a spoiled pre-teen with a better than average vocabulary.  It is a sad sight.