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Skriven 2006-07-30 15:12:32 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Coulter interview
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An interview with the lady who drives the left nuts.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-id.qampa30introjul30,0,5686975.st
ory?coll=bal-pe-opinion

From the Baltimore Sun
She's the hammer; liberals her nail
Q&A: Ann Coulter


By Jonathan Pitts
Sun Staff

July 30, 2006

Ann Coulter has built a successful career out of giving voice to America's
angry right.

The author of five New York Times best-sellers since 1998-including Slander
(2002), Treason (2003), and her latest whack at the political hornet's nest,
Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum), currently No. 4 on the New
York Times nonfiction best-seller list.

Coulter, a Universal Press Syndicate columnist who once practiced law, is well
known for producing insults so outrageously offensive that they disturb even
some conservatives.

She's accused the widows of 9/11 victims of enjoying their husbands' deaths,
has attacked public school teachers as "taxpayer-supported parasites" and
routinely slams moderate politicians - right and left.

A frequent guest on news shows like Fox's Hannity and Colmes and CNN's Wolf
Blitzer Reports, Coulter often leaves enemies steaming, fans applauding, and
just about everyone, at some point or other, thinking, "I can't believe she
said that."

From one column: "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do.
If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now." On the 9/11
terrorists: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert
them to Christianity." And from last week: "I knew the events in the Middle
East were big when the New York Times devoted nearly as much space to them as
it did to a ... court ruling rejecting gay marriage."

Coulter recently argued that the New York Times committed treason when it
exposed the SWIFT banking program that secretly tracked financial transactions.
If reasonable people might be willing to debate that point, many failed to see
the humor in her corollary remark that Bill Keller, the Times executive editor
who made the decision to publish, deserves execution.

"I wonder if Coulter considers herself at all responsible when lunatics read
her columns and she says ... we should all be killed," a Women's Wear Daily
reporter quoted a Times staffer as saying last week.

In the end, Coulter's attacks on the Times and others often end up drawing more
attention - which some see as Coulter's overarching scheme.

It's something she takes joy in. Liberals "can't help themselves," she told the
New York Observer. "They're like my pets."

In Godless, Coulter argues that the left, with its generally secular worldview,
has adopted a de facto religion of its own. The adherents of this faith,
liberalism, treat those who question its "sacraments" (abortion, evolution,
public education) as heretics.

Do the very ideas enrage you? If so, Coulter may be pleased. "Provocation is
the essence of persuasion," she told The Sun three years ago.

Jonathan Freedland of the British newspaper The Guardian concludes that she
may, in the end, be less about politics than the sheer, American magnitude of
her spectacle.

"She has a magnetism that sets her apart from the bulk of the talking-head
industry," he wrote. "Once you see her, it's hard to look away. Like a train
wreck or a prize fight, something about Ann Coulter makes you sit up and look."

This week, The Sun took a gander.

Does anything surprise you about the reception of Godless, which debuted at No.
1? What does it tell you?

I'm not particularly surprised by the book's sales success, nor by the fact
that the New York Times is pretending it doesn't exist. All of my books have
been huge bestsellers, so I'm beginning to suspect that there's some interest
out there in what I have to say.

You're a harsh critic of the press. You say reporters often misquote you. What
are a couple of examples?

It happens so much I don't keep track ... anymore. ... I have no idea how this
happens, given the strict objectivity and rigid nonpartisanship of the American
media.

What two or three big news stories has the press overplayed or misrepresented
in the past few years?

It would be simpler to name the two or three stories the press did not overplay
or misrepresent. Either every single person working in the media today is
thoroughly incompetent in every way, or this massive, daily misrepresentation
is the result of left-wing bias throughout the media. I'll let you decide which
... is the most plausible.

You often speak and write in a way that seems calculated to press the buttons
of your audience. What are the pluses and the downsides of this approach?

My thinking is that only trauma produces intellectual breakthroughs. The plus
side is watching liberals get hissy; the downside is - there really is no
downside.

Your books and columns attack liberal thinking, but what, in the long run, are
you trying positively to assert? What would Ann Coulter's America look like?

I'm exposing liberal ideology for the pack of lies it is. What people do with
that information is up to them, although one would hope it might come in handy
on Election Day. My ideal America would have no liberals and 7-gallon flush
toilets in every bathroom.

You're often described as "divisive" and "mean-spirited," yet you describe
yourself as a serious Christian. Is this a contradiction?

I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and
don't you ever forget it. You know who else was kind of "divisive" in terms of
challenging the status quo and the powers-that-be of his day? Jesus Christ.

Does polemical writing like yours widen the Red State-Blue State schism?

The imminence of conservative victory has driven liberals to insanity. Have I
contributed to this? Gosh, I hope so.

How'd you develop your writing style? What are your daily writing habits?

I do what comes naturally. I write the things that would cause belly laughter
among my right-wing friends when having after-dinner liquor. I usually get up
at noon, check the Drudge Report, carefully read the Treason Times, do a little
writing, chat with my friends until midnight, write for another three hours and
then collapse into bed at 4 a.m. Book tours completely ruin this idyllic
schedule.

Did you really "acknowledge" being the sender of that packet of strange white
powder that showed up at the New York Times building recently? Do you regret
your stated wish that the 9/11 hijackers had hit it?

That acknowledgment was an example of what is known in the writing business as
a "joke." I never did say I regretted that the 9/11 terrorists didn't hit the
New York Times building. But now that you mention it ...

You ripped President Bush for the Harriet Miers nomination. How's he doing now?

Much better. He hasn't nominated a functional illiterate to the highest court
in the land in, like, months.

What will be the George W. Bush legacy?

Mainly the fact that he didn't spend eight years trying to build a legacy, like
some other people I could name. Also, there will be more people living in peace
and freedom when W. leaves office than there were when W. took office.

Whom would you pick as the 2008 Republican candidate for president?

My pick so far is the guy in Philly who put up the "this is America - please
order in English" sign in his sandwich shop. Hey, at least the guy has a
coherent immigration policy.

If you were a Democrat and wanted to win, whom would you pick?

If I were a Democrat, I wouldn't have an opinion on this. I'd wait until one
candidate emerged from the pack as a front-runner, then pretend I'd been
supporting that candidate all along, like the sniveling, gutless little
America-hater I would be if I were a Democrat.

You're a Grateful Dead fan. Is that odd for a conservative?

No, we conservatives love great music. What would be odd is if I liked the
Dixie Chicks.

What film have you enjoyed recently?

The best video I've seen was of Bush saying "s - - t" at the G-8 conference.

If you could change anything you've written, would you?

Yes. On a couple of occasions, I was too gentle.

Copyright + 2006, The Baltimore Sun | Get Sun home delivery

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