The Black Republican

You may have heard, Ann Coulter is controversial.

In an interview Monday with Matt Lauer she said, in effect, that the Democrats are not brave enough to have their policy makers present their platform, instead they enlist the loved ones of victims to present their message for them. She repeated the charge last night on MSNBC with Tucker Carlson. The Democratic strategy, as she explained it, is to have these victim's family members present the message, because as victims themselves they are treated nice and can not be assailed for their views. Thus, the Democrats get their message out without having to do that messy thing, say it themselves.

And, since they don't have to say it themselves, they don't have to defend it. Cowardly, but to their minds, effective.

Coulter cites, as examples of victims trotted out for the kid glove treatment, Cindy Sheehan, the 9/11 widows known as the Jersey Girls, and that poor Joe Wilson fellow. All have received a pass for their remarks because of the damage done to their loved ones. Or, in the case of Wilson, the damage he says was done to his wife, we still have no evidence any harm came to her, or that if it did it wasn't his fault; but that is another story.

What Coulter said, spoken about the Jersey Girls, that is being spun to create a firestorm against her:

“These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing bush was part of the closure process.”

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.”

My reaction, after seeing both the interview with Lauer and the one on MSNBC with Tucker Carlson, is that she is not being heard. What she is saying is not the meaning being attributed to her. Two normally normal bloggers, Cap't Ed and Ace, among others, have taken shots at her and miss the point. Ed even compares her to Ted Rall and says Rall got "panned" for his work, though the panner concludes about Rall (and Howard Stern), we should, "Let's avoid sensitivity censorship. Let them be.". Some pan.

I think I hit the important points in a comment left at Ace's place:

"You can't criticize Coulter for criticizing the Jersey Girls without proving her contention that they are being held up as beyond reproach.

That they are family of victim's does not make them experts. It makes them victims too. And there is no reason they should enjoy freedom from criticism for their opinions, which they do, and that is Coulter's well defined point.

Crying that AC is being callous is to fall into the sympathy trap. We are all being told to be nice to them, and we obediently suppress our reactions. And they enjoy that lack of scutiny.

Sometimes the word "enjoy" denotes a benefit received, not a pleasure experienced. "

The cowardly Democrats who hide behind them benefit too. And if one were to say that they are enjoying the criticism heaped upon Ann Coulter, one would also conclude that they are hoping to enjoy benefits from the controversy, and that they are experiencing a pleasant enjoyment from the belief that she is suffering. I doubt she is losing any sleep over this, she knows that they know that she is right. And now we all know it too.

Update: Found at geosciblog, a "cut and paste disclaimer" form to be used to proclaim that one is criticizing a former serviceman for his current politics, not his previous service. This is an area of the same concept that Coulter was revealing. I think she mentioned it, but it is not explained in the brief excerpt quoted above.

Addendum: Hillary Lashes Out- No news there either. Sen. Clinton continues the practice of using the "victims" as shields, and piles on the attack on Coulter in a further effort to distract from the Dems cowardly tactics. Oh, and the Jersey Girls are unaware that "enjoy" can also mean benefit, not just "joy", or "happiness".