How Ann Coulter gets away with murder
In a sop to the liberals, and NBC employee, Larry O'Donnell (producer of the West Wing) got an MSNBC show. It seems he got the Good Doctor Savage's spot. Anyway, he had a bunch of people on, including Penn Jillette, who's another one of these limousine idealists who sneers at politics. Why is it that fat geeks think God put them on earth to make money, smoke dope and do what they want with no consequence? Some California consultant named Flavia, Coulter and someone I forget.
At one point in the discussion, Coulter describes a Howard Dean rally as "like Nuremberg".
No one, not O'Donnell, not this Flavia chick, no one challenged her.
I wasn't even paying much attention until then, because I was ruining Stonewall Jackson's day at Chancellorsville and fighting to a draw. Kept a corps in reserve the whole first day and hammered the units to the Union left flank right with Meade's fifth corps.
But that made me stop.
I mean, that's crazy talk. And Larry and crew let it pass. Which is what they always do with crazy Annie. She's sitting in a East Hampton house, proof she has friends, of some sort, Crazy Annie says crazy shit and people either ignore it or get steamrolled.
What someone needs to do next time is this:
What? Did you just compare a gathering of Americans to a rally of Nazis? Let me understand you here, are you comparing Howard Dean and his supporters to the Nazi Party. The Nazi Party who murdered men, women and children? I want to know something, Ann. You went to Cornell, you have a law degree. Are words so cheap to you, so meaningless, you would defame Americans who are execising their civil duty to be involved in politics? You owe those people an apology. What you said was not only unfair, but completely uncalled for. Just like Joe Conason has no right to get into your sex life, you have no right to defame people who disagree with you with such savage, unfair language.
Larry should have cut off her mike for that. You wouldn't compare a Bush rally to a skinhead meeting, not even as a joke.
As long as everyone treats her words as some sort of political freak show, she'll get away with this crap. Someone is going to have to either walk out or cut off her mike to get her to move towards some semblence of civility.
But you have to remember, these folks drink with her, fuck her, socialize with her. They may play liberal or conservative on TV, but in the real world, Crazy Annie is a member of the club. Until someone, maybe a Janeane Garofalo or Al Franken, actually get offended by her words, like Chris Rock, she's going to continue to do this. I pray Jon Stewart gets her on the Daily Show. Someone has to get nasty and take her to task. You have to realize that even if they exchange harsh words for your amusement, when they leave, it's all drinks and jokes and maybe a little slap and tickle.
That's how Crazy Pat Buchanan got away with his racist screeds for so long. People like him. He's a nice guy and his door is always open for his friends. When people had marriage issues or needed advice, he was the guy they went to. Until he wrote about fighting Stalin over Hitler and then people flipped. Coulter gets the same protection. Until she really says something indefensible, and she's crafy enough to avoid it about blacks or jews, she'll get a pass. Either because they like her, or feel sorry for her or want to fuck her.
posted by Steve @ 1:45:00 PM