I think Ann Coulter’s just a scream. And that’s even after she called me–me!–a “godless liberal” when I interviewed her a few weeks ago for Beliefnet. And it’s nice to know that among all the liberals (fellow liberals? Moi?) who have denounced her, there’s one, Elspeth Reeve writing for The New Republic, who, like me, can’t get enough of Ann (hat tip: Mickey Kaus):



Yes, yes, Coulter has said some terrible things. But I don’t think it’s the terrible things that really bother liberals. Coulter makes us cringe not when she lies, but when she says things we wish weren’t true. Let’s go to the tape. Asked to define the First Amendment: ‘An excuse for overweight women to dance in pasties and The New York Times to commit treason.’ Just completely terrible, I know. But I have to admit, I giggled–having recently covered a pro-choice rally where I interviewed a very nice young woman whose nipples were covered by NARAL stickers.


Here’s more:



On the BBC show ‘Newsnight,’ Jeremy Paxman asked Coulter if she’d like to withdraw her infamous statements about the September 11 widows. (If you’ve been living in a spiderhole, she called the more politically inclined among them ‘broads’.) ‘No, I think you can save all the would-you-like-to-withdraw questions, but you could quote me accurately. I didn’t write about the 9/11 widows. I wrote about four widows cutting campaign commercials for John Kerry and using the fact that their husbands died on 9/11 to prevent anyone from responding,’ she said. The thing is … it’s kind of true. A little. It is a little absurd to hold up a person as an expert judge of the 9/11 Commission Report, for example, just because she lost a loved one. Liberals do tend to do that kind of thing, and it makes us look like weenies.


Liberals’ problem, Reeves says, is simply that Ann Coulter is a great-looking blonde to whom they are, well, attracted, even though political correctness tells them not to be:



All wrapped up in liberals’ snarky comments about her hair is a wellspring of latent guilt for judging her by her hair. Even after all those gender studies classes in college, even after having known/befriended/dated/been That Girl who Doesn’t Shave Her Pits, after pretending to like Ani DiFranco, liberals still can’t get over her hair. I love Ann Coulter because, in her, I see a loudmouth on the assembly line, fighting not to be squished and whittled and boxed into the shape Washington seems to think fits a girl just right.


Oh, wonderful, Elspeth! Who indeed can stand Ani DiFranco?