When Ann Coulter appeared on Chris Matthews’s "Hardball" and unleashed more of her diseased venom against John Edwards, statements so scurrilous, dishonest and thoroughly pathetic that they need not be repeated here, it was easy to see a familiar pattern.
Matthews is on MSNBC, the same network that brought Phil Donahue’s show to a quick halt for allegedly "bad ratings" that were better than Matthews’s. The difference was that while Matthews fawns over figures such as Coulter, Dick Cheney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donahue had the true audacity to present speakers with differing viewpoints to the Cheney-Bush full speed ahead Iraq invasion.
One of the most candidly memorable interviews in an ever nose-diving mainstream media occurred when Donahue interviewed former Desert Storm commander General Norman Schwarzkopf, who explained that a decision was made not to invade Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War for reasons that have been confirmed in tragic detail.
Schwarzkopf asserted that with the major religious and ideological split dividing Iraq consisting of Shiites and Sunnis that if America invaded turmoil would result in a nation that would be soon enveloped in bloody civil war. Has anyone seen any recent repeats of this interview?
As for Schwarzkopf, he was apparently reminded by fellow corporate Republicans that he had overstepped his bounds since he quickly lapsed into silence. After appearing on "This Week" during the same period he interrupted an attempt by reporters to question him on the Iraq War outside ABC’s New York headquarters by explaining that it was cold and he needed to get back to warm and sunny Florida.
While a serious interviewer like Phil Donahue was yanked Matthews has remained, providing gems such as his 2004 presidential comment that Dick Cheney, after a sour-faced debate appearance against John Edwards that ranked as one of the poorest efforts on record, had been "masterful."
While Matthews and Sean Hannity reel with delight at the prospect of putting Ann Coulter with her diseased and intemperate rhetoric on display for national television audiences, it should be asked what would occur if a spokesperson from the left sought to appear on mainstream media telecasts making comparable comments.
For instance, there has been much controversy over the performance of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. What if a spokesperson on the left, rather than criticizing Gonzales’s job performance, got diabolically personal like Coulter and suggested that he be eliminated and be made "food for worms."
Would this be permitted? If this individual delivered comments suggesting that major Republican officeholders and congressional leaders be summarily bumped off since this would be better for the country and the world, would we be seeing this individual on the nation’s airways as a sought after regular?
Considering her level of consistent venom and pattern of erratic behavior, it is anything but unreasonable to question whether Ann Coulter can be classified as sane in the normal textbook definition? Shouldn’t we really be bearing down hard on those who provide her with a regular forum to spout mindless venom that has no bearing on the issues that face the nation and the world?
This permissiveness has been on display for some time. I recall one evening when I chanced to turn on Sean Hannity shortly before American forces invaded Iraq. Alan Colmes alluded to recent comments from prominent Republicans Brent Scowcroft and Jack Kemp opposing a war with Iraq.
Coulter’s response was swift and tragically typical. "They’re traitors!" she declared in a tone so matter of fact that it bore on blasé. As for the program’s host Hannity, he sat calmly and said nothing.
On one level Coulter delivers shrill self-righteous tones reminiscent of Salem witch hunts against Bill Clinton and remains obsessed by the stains on Monica Lewinsky’s dress. On another level she shouts with pride in a Geraldo Rivera interview that "I’m not married and can sleep with anyone!"
Speculation continues to abound regarding the identity of Ann Coulter. Efforts to verify Coulter’s birth with records in Connecticut, where she claims to have been born, have availed nothing. Many skeptics have asserted a belief that Coulter is a man rather than a woman and that deliberate subterfuge has been created to prevent the truth from surfacing.
Pressure should be generated on the same mainstream media that has engaged in permissiveness at its most outrageous to provide a steady forum for name calling under the false guise of political commentary to check out Coulter’s background.
We know what happened when Bill O’Reilly was vetted. It was soon revealed that O’Reilly, a defender of Coulter who states that her outrageous comments are just "her sense of humor", did not grow up in an impoverished existence in Long Island and that his father was a successful accountant, that the family vacationed in Florida every summer, and that he was sent to an expensive prep school.
Let us see a similar effort undertaken into the roots and identity of Ann Coulter.