Ann Coulter: Lightning Rod

Some people avoid controversy. Some people, especially politicians, find polite (though not necessarily sincere) ways of criticizing the postions of their opponents.

Not Ann Coulter. She invites controversy by choosing words that are sure to inflame, and even enrage, her opponents. One of my favorite Ann Coulterisms was during the 2004 Democratic Convention, when she said you could tell who were the few conservative women there: They were "the pretty ones." Later, when the camera panned the crowd on the convention floor, I saw no pretty women. I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for Coulter's comment.

Her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, continues that approach, and her opponents have reacted as planned.

Apoplexy. Convulsions. Explosions. Like fireworks, the people who are attacking Ann Coulter are fun to watch from a distance.

WorldNetDaily reported yesterday that Advertising Age columnist Simon Dumenco has called for Coulter to kill herself.

In a column taking on several media entities and individuals who bug him, Ad Age's "media guy" asks: "Would it kill you, 'Godless' author Ann Coulter, to do us all a favor and kill yourself? (Oh, well, yeah, I guess it would kill you." (sic)

"After her recent rabidly hateful, foaming-at-the-mouth, sub-human 'Today' show appearance – in which she reiterated her assertion that 9-11 widows are 'enjoying their husband's (sic) deaths' – even her former supporters began to fantasize about how much nicer the world would be if it were Coulterless," wrote Dumenco.

Last night on Hannity and Colmes, Alan Colmes seemed to be in relentless-attack mode with her (though I found her responses to him annoying, because she didn't come close to answering most of his questions).

Malott's Blog documents another attack, this one from the New York Times. Really, the list of her attackers is endless.

Here's what most of the uproar is about:

"These broads [The Jersey Girls] are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in "Godless."

Even some Republicans have said she went too far with this statement. Others agree with her, and I am one of them.

Four women from New Jersey, including Kristen Breitweiser, capitalized on their status as 9/11 widows to make political statements supporting John Kerry and attacking President Bush. They were willingly made into media darlings by the anti-Bush MSM, who couldn't seem to find any pro-Bush widows to put on the air to balance Breitweiser and company's political spin, despite there being about (a guess) 2,000 widows to choose from.

I would never claim that the Jersey Girls enjoyed watching their husbands die in the collapse of the Twin Towers or enjoyed hearing the news of their deaths (and I believe I heard Coulter say as much, too). But I agree with Ann Coulter that they've enjoyed the fame their widowhood has provided them.

The visceral reaction of the Coulter-haters has only confirmed her premise that the Church of Liberalism uses as spokesmen only those people whose personal tragedies make them untouchable ("Her husband died! You can't attack what she said!"). I think I'm going to have to buy the book.