Guest Blogged by Daniel Borchers of Citizens for Principled Conservatism
“Has Ann Coulter reached her tipping point?”
That question has been repeatedly asked since her latest infamy at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC, March 2) and Reclaiming America for Christ Conference (RAC, March 3).
Recent Coulter no-shows at high-profile events and the scrubbing of several of her recent appearances from the video collections of conservative events seems to suggest the Republican superstar could finally be in her “last throes.”
The tipping point question begs the fence-sitting answer: When will conservatives make a choice and stand for principles? Are they, or are they not, Ann Coulter Conservatives? If not, why is she still among us at all?
Does Coulter represent conservatives or not? Is she a serious political and moral authority or merely an entertainer? Which is it? And why, oh why, is she held to lower standards than anyone else?
As the Wall Street Journal observed in 2002:
Coulter seems to believe she rests secure as a celebrated conservative icon. In the immediate wake of her CPAC and RAC comments, Coulter laughed off concerns that her latest offensive statements would have any affect on her Republican celebrity stature, when she asserted on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes: “This is my 17th allegedly career-ending moment.”
Why is Coulter so certain of her solid position as a mainstay and opinion leader in the conservative movement? Is it merely bombast or does her boast have merit? An exchange on C-Span’s Washington Journal is revealing. A caller questioned David Keene, the person with the final say on all things related to CPAC…
KEENE: I don’t think anybody embodies the conservative way of thinking. … Ann Coulter is more, in some ways, a political entertainer than a political philosopher. …
HOST: Was she inappropriate?
KEENE: I, I, you know, I think that, uh, I wouldn’t have said some of the things she said. She’s a, she’s more an entertainer in many ways, and, ah, and, ah, than anything else, and whether it was appropriate or not is something that people who listen to entertainers will have to judge.
HOST: Do you think she needs to apologize for anything?
KEENE: That’s between her and the folks that she, that she takes digs at.
HOST: But it was your event.
KEENE: … We provide the platform. … I’m not going to get into the business of saying you should say this, you should say that, I’m going to make you apologize for that. That’s between them and whoever they, they argue with.
Keene, the person in charge of CPAC, refused to take a stand on whether Coulter’s comments were inappropriate. Keene further refused to offer an apology for anything that happened at his event. CPAC even issued an unprecedented press release as a damage control measure.
“Ann Coulter is known for comments that can be both provocative and outrageous. That was certainly the case in her 2007 CPAC appearance and previous ones as well. But as a point of clarification, let me make it clear that ACU and CPAC do not condone or endorse the use of hate speech,” said David A. Keene, ACU Chairman.
Nevertheless, pressure is mounting from all sides. Conservatives with a conscience have called for banishing from future conferences, newspapers have dropped Coulter’s column, and advertisers have withdrawn revenue from Coulter’s website.
As we reported previously, the sponsors for the Reclaiming America for Christ (RAC) conference were not amused. Their conference summary omitted any mention of Coulter and their series of conference tapes excludes her entire session, which was to have been the capstone and climax of the conference, as she was the closer addressee on the conference’s final evening. (See also this letter from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.)
CPAC, feeling the heat, now offers a six-DVD set called “Best of CPAC 2007” which includes almost all of the conference’s well-known speakers. The collection excludes Coulter entirely.
Several weeks later, the Media Research Center (MRC) hosted their 20th Anniversary Gala “DisHonors Awards” ceremony, a gala extravaganza advertised to have headlined Coulter. She was to present the “God, I Hate America Award” and the “Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis” along with Sean Hannity at the rightwing media festivities.
However, according to MRC officials, “illness prevented scheduled presenters Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter from attending.” Others suspect that Coulter was quietly dis-invited.
Still, as striking as these developments are, little has changed at either the American Conservative Union or the Media Research Center. Lisa De Pasquale, CPAC Director (and Coulter publicist) almost pathologically defends Coulter at every opportunity. MRC’s online Newsbusters seems to almost daily defend Coulter. Ironically, Newsbusters eagerly attacks perceived liberals for commentary comparable to (and certainly much milder than) Coulter’s.
As well, conservative Republican Presidential candidate Sam Brownback of Kansas had no problem, apparently, appearing at a recent pro-life banquet with the decidedly pro-death — and even pro-voter fraud — Coulter.
So has Ann Coulter reached her tipping point? Will she become a pariah as did David Duke? Or will conservatives pretend to have principles while continuing to promote Coulter as their conservative icon?
Let the hate-monger dangle. Looks like she may be choking on her own words and that people with ANY conscience at all are finally tuning her out and turning away from her.
This is long overdue. Now, let’s see her spend some time in jail for her voter fraud. I’m sure she will meet some fine friends in the slammer who will enjoy her bony little ass.
She is a plant that will help bring down the RNC. The father of the American conservative movement warns of its demise:
(Buckley on RNC demise). And the more they rely on the madness of neoCon queen Ann, they more it becomes certain.
I don’t think she’ll be disappearing from public view any time soon. The GOP’s true core values are fear, hatred, and greed. These values lurk like huge icebergs in the sea of public discourse, and people like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin are the exposed sharp-edged tips. They say the things that all Reich-wingers *want* to say but are too afraid to do so themselves.
Coulter must not be too good at doing the white woman’s crawl, a less common version of the white man’s crawl, which we have seen Trent Lott and Don Imus perform recently.
But let’s see, what is conservatism?
Conservatives embrace the cult beliefs that the races are the same and that our species isn’t predatory, by nature. They promote the idea that ethnic and racial diversity enriches and strenghens a society, when in reality diversity injects alienation and tension into a society. They promote the idea that it’s OK for Jews and nonwhites to organize along racial lines and to openly promote their ethnic interests, while it is Nazism when European-Americans do this.
Ann Coulter is a “self-proclaimed” conservative, but is NOT a conservative. Same with Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, 99% of the Republican Party, and all of Bush’s cabinet, and his Supreme Court nominees. They are all corporate fascists, and should not be in the Republican Party.
If you list conservative sentiments, they adhere to NONE of them.
The Republican Party maybe trying to marginalize Mann
Coulter and exile her to the college campuses where her vitriol and venom can rally the vermin at the Young College Republicans at the colleges and universities and get this group all riled up for 2008.
Her brand of hate works well with this young brown-shirt/jack-booted Nazi crowd.
2008 expect the Rethugs/KKKarl Rove to pull every dirty political game in the book to win this Presidential election. But they will “project” upon the Democratic Party as being the most extremist/dirty tricks party America has ever seen.
A taste of the propaganda they have in store for 2008,.. and they have wrapped the message up to be fragrant lies – with the gift bow of legitimate news broadcasting. 30 % of the sheeple will again buy this Hannity, O’Reilly, Savage, Limbaugh – et al nonsense.
We must remain diligent to stay ahead of these Fascist Republican Pigs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROBDpaxYxT0
I hope some prison guards take her up on that when she serves out her sentence for voter fraud later and tell her that she’s going to be hating them before she gets food from them! 🙂
Coulter…WOW…I’m sure everything will be (yawn) fine now…back to news you can use…Venezuela exits IMF and World Bank
It seems like Venezuela found some adults to take care of the important things…meanwhile back in the states…
US Cites 91 Percent Rise in Terrorist Acts in Iraq …so if our meddling in world affairs took us to 9/11/01, where are we going now??
Why There Was No Exit Plan…” There is to be no withdrawal from Iraq, just as there has been no withdrawal from hundreds of places around the world that are outposts of the American empire. As UC San Diego professor emeritus Chalmers Johnson put it, “One of the reasons we had no exit plan from Iraq is that we didn’t intend to leave.”
Follow the money
News Corp. Bids $5B for Dow Jones…publisher of the Wall Street Journal…imagine that…News Corp.=Ministry of Truth
ps-Coulter headlines strike me the same way as Bill Clinton’s blowjob…was/is it really important…yes, but no. Thanks for the original reporting none the less.
Coulter is your Republican party. As Coulter goes, so goes your entire GOP propaganda campaign.
Etymological note: I just learned that the word “faggot” can mean “a disagreeable woman.” Fascinating, yes?
#9
I see what you mean…I’m not GOP (I’m pretty sure that was directed at me)…I’m young, I travel, I understand more than one language and culture, I see how $$$ is destroying the planet and I can’t stand people, like Gore and Obama, who preach one thing and practice another. Coulter is not the entire Corporate Party (both Dems and Repub) Propaganda Campaign…the corporate/elite party gained control with oil…oil is the one issue that links all others (economy, war, energy, voting, 9/11, corporate media, education). When the working class realizes where we are on the ol’ peak oil bell curve…well it makes me want to have a cocktail and enjoy today for what it is. I think we(working class) started on this path before my parents were born…at that time it was a better way of life for working people…now it’s a dead end.