Ann Dean?

Recently at the CPAC conference in Washington D.C. Ann Coulter gave a talk. In that talk she used some epithets targeting Arabs. I will not repeat the epithet here read this for a complete accounting of the story by The American Mind's Sean. Sean also follows up here and he also reports on it at the Badger Blog Alliance.

Now, I generally enjoy Ann's commentary. Not universally though. For example I can not think of a single column from Jonah Goldberg that I refused to keep reading, but there are quite a few Coulter columns I could not finish because of the nastiness of them.

Sean's commentary, if you did not read them, are negative on Ann Coulter and he is not alone in the right wing blogosphere on that count. Michelle Malkin takes Ann to task as well (and links to The American Mind).

Ann Coulter you may recall used to contribute to National Review but her first post-9/11 column was too much and NR discontinued running Ann's columns.

Now, I recognize the need for those of us on the right to disavow those whose remarks and commentary discredit our causes. Like we call on the left to disavow Howard Dean when he gives credibility to the whack-job conspiracy theory that President Bush was in on planning 9/11. Certainly, reasonable people on the left recognize such commentary turns people off.

Well, if the left has their whack-jobs then so must we and we certainly do. Many of them are quite recognizable as whack-jobs and the right disowns them completely. For example Fred Phelps and David Duke (funny, how these two characters often find themselves on the same side of today's debates with whack-job leftists) are two clear examples.

Now, the question before us is Ann Coulter such a figure? I say no she is not. I say she is about on par with Howard Dean (as you can see above). HowDea says some outrageous things and I think it was unwise for the left to put him in charge of the DNC and from all reports DNC fundraising is way behind GOP fundraising (however, we know the leftists will make this up with various 527 organizations) and way down from previous years.

Similarly, I would not put Ann Coulter in charge of any official GOP organization. But, she is still very popular with hardcore conservatives. I was looking at various conservative figures and she commands the highest speaking fees of pretty much all of them.

I have a love/hate relationship with Ann Coulter.