On Boorishness
Rick Moran over at Right Wing Nut House smacks Ann Coulter for her behavior yesterday on the Today Show. Specifically addressing the remarks that have gotten a lot of attention in the blogosphere regarding the 9-11 widows. I won't reprint the remarks here, they are all over the blogosphere. Moran says this:
There are ways to criticize the widows without saying something so wrong, so hurtful. And what do you think their children would think if they heard Coulter’s remarks? Are they to be in the line of Coulter’s wildly off target fire as well?
This rhetoric is not designed to advance debate or even make any kind of a salient point about the political activism of grief stricken parents like Cindy Sheehan and the anti-Bush September 11 widows. The remarks were designed to hurt other people’s feelings in a deeply personal and entirely inappropriate way. Can you imagine some liberal commentator making similar remarks about Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, III, captain of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon and who is fighting to keep the 9/11 Memorial from being hijacked by the anti-American left? We would be all over that worthy and deservedly so.
The anti-Bush 9/11 widows are not immune from criticism for their political positions nor even for the tactics they use to advance those positions. But to say that they are “enjoying” their status as widows is so far beyond the pale that anyone who makes such a statement deserves the most severe censure possible. And the networks who use Coulter as some kind of “Spokesman” for the right should be told in no uncertain terms by as many of us as possible that she doesn’t speak for any conservatives that we want to be associated with.
Coulter owes those women an apology. Failure to give it only reveals her to be a shallow, bitter, bitch of a woman whose hate filled mouthings will eventually lead to her destruction.
I have repeatedly had lefty commenters throw Coulter's remarks at me and demand that I defend them. Since I simply never read Coulter, I decline. In this case, I happen to agree with Moran. This was a particularly crude and cruel way to make a valid point. That point could have been made without the vitriolic rhetoric. I completely agree with Rick's take on this incident.
So, I'll go back to ignoring Coulter now.
UPDATE: Captain Ed isn't exactly thrilled about this either. A comparison to Ted Rall is made.
UPDATE: Thanks to The Anchoress for the link.
Blogosphere, Media | Gaius Wednesday, 7 June , 2006
By Mark Loewenstern, Wednesday, 7 June , 2006 @ 3:44 pm
We must clone a 29-year old Ronald Reagan for Ann Coulter to have sex with. She will not accept anyone else. For all our sakes, Ann Coulter must get laid.
By Shawn, Wednesday, 7 June , 2006 @ 8:29 pm
Gaius, the Commissar and Allah are none to thrilled either. Nor am I. I’ve left a couple of comments at Moran’s post on this, and the majority of commenters think Coulter was A-okay for saying what she did. That’s sad. My last comment (#99, FYI) included this:
“Substituting rancor for intelligent debate is bad no matter which side does it. For those of you who support what she has done ask yourself if you would be so agreeable if one of these “Jersey Girls†mounted an attack against Lisa Beamer for profiting from her husband’s death and enjoying the bounty and attention that came from her book.”
Hey, you have comment verification now! Hope it’s keeping the spamming cockroaches out.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 7 June , 2006 @ 8:38 pm
Read the Anchoress, too. She nails it.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 7 June , 2006 @ 8:46 pm
By the way, I posted that I had added comment verification at your suggestion.
By gary hoff, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 8:02 pm
Under no circumstances would I defend Ann Coulter, much less her comments.
On the other hand, how can you possibly claim to take the moral high ground by calling her “a shallow, bitter, bitch of a woman?” Is that conservativism in action?
By Gaius, Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 8:06 pm
The point she is making is a valid, the way in which she expressed it is not. There is a huge difference.