Not funny

Ann Coulter is an amazing combination of beauty and brains. I'm a big fan of hers. But she should have used her brains before making this ugly remark.

That college sophomore who says that "we need someone on the Democratic side who is just as outspoken as she is," misses the whole point, of course. The Democratic side has hundreds, and thousands, and perhaps even millions of Ann Coulters. Granted, they generally aren't nearly as smart as she is, nor as easy on the eyes. But the central fact about Ann Coulter's outrageous comments is that they are nothing more or less but a very small, drop-in-the-bucket gesture in the direction of equal time. She derives much of her noteriety- and this incident is a good example- by being the one figure on the American Right who says exactly the same kind of outrageous things about Democrats and liberals that Democrats and liberals generally, habitually and ordinarily say about Republicans and conservatives.

The sputtering, incoherent outrage on the Left at behavior which merely mirrors their own norm is one of the things about Ms. Coulter that I most enjoy. Their failure to recognize themselves in the mirror is the funniest thing of all.

For a sample of that outrage, simply do a Google image search for "Ann Coulter." You will find a great deal that is intended to be humorous, but which is utterly lacking in humor. Bile, yes. Obvious hatred and a non-stop ad hominems, of course. Rebuttal, or other content? Well, remember: this is, after all, the Left we're talking about!

Ann Coulter is the one conservative who gives liberals a taste of their own medicine. They hate her for it. Ordinarily, I savor their response all the more for the obvious fact that, in view of their own rhetoric, they themselves so obviously have such little ground for complaint. In this case, though, I think the splendid Ms. Coulter carried her imitation of the Democratic tactics a bit too far.

Instead of "the conservative answer to L'il Kim," it would be more accurate, in the light of Ms. Coulter's subsequent statement, for the college president to have likened her to Air America, which has "jokingly" called in the past for violence against public officials with whom it disagreed, including the assassination of the President of the United States and assault and battery against the Secretary of Defense- alleged "jokes" which have found parallels all too common on the Left, both here and abroad, ever since the day in January of 2001 when Denise and I watched the end of the Clinton administration from our appropriate viewpoint behind a Porta Potty on Capitol Hill.

Conservatives have rightly cried "Foul!" in those instances, and Coulter shouldn't have done unto Justice Stevens what the liberals did to President Bush, and Vice-President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, and other members of the Administration on so many occasions in the past six years. Even while giving the Left a dose of its own medicine, it would have been well for Ann to have drawn the line a bit more- well, conservatively, and thus preserved the obvious distinction between herself and that which she lampoons.