Conservative pundit arrogance

[trust no one]

Originally Posted by crazytimes

You have to understand trust no one, that is part of Ann Coulters gimmick! She WANTS to come off as shocking/offensive/whatever because that is what intrigues people about her. I also thing she uses a lot of sarcasm; just take what she says like a grain of salt.

I personally don't like her. I think most of what she says doesn't come off as respectable and just sounds rude and idiotic IMO. Trust me I love sarcasm, but sometimes I think she is being serious when I think she is being sarcastic.

Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter attempted to downplay the recent criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for using an autopen rather than personally signing letters to families of American troops killed in Iraq, by restating a false allegation that former President Bill Clinton "sold" burial plots in Arlington National Cemetery to top-level Democratic Party donors. In her December 22 nationally syndicated column, Coulter wrote: "As president, Clinton sold burial plots in Arlington Cemetery and liberals shrugged it off. What really gets their goat is the autopen." In reality, Clinton granted a burial plot to only one top-level Democratic donor who had received it not because of his donations, but because of his military record, which was only later discovered to be a fabrication.

An article in the December 8, 1997, issue of Insight on the News magazine (a sister publication of The Washington Times) first brought attention to the story, reporting that "dozens of big-time political donors or friends of the Clintons" had been unjustly granted waivers by the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs to be interred at Arlington and other national cemeteries.

In response to this allegation, on November 21, 1997, then-Army Secretary Togo West released a list of the 69 individuals who had been granted waivers to be buried at Arlington since 1993; only four of which had been granted by Clinton, according to a November 22, 1997, Los Angeles Times article. The remaining waivers were granted by Secretary West and other high-ranking army officials. The Times report quoted a statement from the Democratic National Committee which read in part: "No major donors to the DNC, except [former U.S.] Ambassador [to Switzerland] Larry Lawrence, have received exceptions for burial at Arlington National Cemetery."

The allegations that burial plots were "sold" were quickly shown to be false, and widely denounced as among the most vicious of the Republicans' many smears of then-President Clinton. Ted Koppel said on the December 5, 1997, edition of ABC's Nightline that the "mudslinging" showed "Washington had hit a new low" and that "there is absolutely no evidence that the Clinton administration ever sold or approved or recommended that burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery be made available to major campaign donors." New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted on November 22, 1997: "The Republican investigators for the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee were so sloppy that they had not even checked for any contribution records of the nine exemptions they called 'suspicious' before Republican leaders began ranting about them." And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted in a November 29, 1997, editorial that after West released the list of waivers, "the baying and howling from Republicans was replaced with an embarrassed silence," and concluded: "This mean-spirited debacle is indeed a national disgrace. It is an insult to the sacrifice and memories of all those interred at Arlington, especially those who we accused of arriving there as the result of anything but exemplary service to their nation."

Upon further investigation, it was determined that Lawrence -- who died in January 1996 in Switzerland, nearly three years after being appointed and confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland in 1993 -- had fabricated his service in World War II, unbeknownst to Clinton, the State Department, and the senators at his confirmation hearing for the ambassadorship. A December 10, 1997, New York Times article reported that documents inside a State Department file confirmed that Lawrence had earned credits at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago in the spring of 1945. This contradicted his claim that he had been injured while serving on a Merchant Marine ship that had been torpedoed in the Arctic Ocean in March 1945. According to the Times article: "that contradiction was never picked up during a background check by the State Department in 1993, even though Mr. Lawrence had said in his Senate confirmation process that he had served on a torpedoed ship, the Horace Bushnell."

A December 8, 1997, Washington Post article reported that even though the authenticity of Lawrence's military record was (at the time) being questioned, the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, John C. Meltzer Jr. -- who made initial recommendations for waivers -- would have recommended that Lawrence receive a waiver based on his service as an ambassador. According to the Post article: "The superintendent, a career civil servant, said in a telephone interview late Saturday that he would have cleared Lawrence because U.S. ambassadors from previous administrations have been granted exceptions."

Nevertheless, as The New York Times reported on December 12, 1997, Lawrence's remains were exhumed and removed from Arlington National Cemetery at the behest of his widow.

[blueaguave]

she's just a protein deficient alcoholic shrew. Thats why I repeat that she should marry Michael Moore. One massive refrigerator stocked with food would be labeled "his". Another equally giant liqour cabinet would be labeled "hers".

[Rockabillie]

That Coulter woman is a trip! She makes stuff up. She doesn't care if it's true or not, she just makes up what she wants to hear. I am a follower of facts over partisanship, and she just blows my mind, the audacity of her to bravely make up facts to suit her worldview. I wish I had her cojones! I mean, how did she get out of school? If I played fast and loose with facts the way she does I would've been kicked out? How does she keep a job? If my boss caught me lying like that I'd be fired? How does she do it? What is her secret?

[FUNdamental]

Originally Posted by prism68

Coulter rocks

Sorry, but she is funny.
I love to watch her interviews 'cause she will just say whatever, making her much more entertaining than your average talk-show guest.

Anyway, I think Coulter is about the Right's best response to fools like Michael Moore- she would slay him in a one-on-one conversation.

Anne's at it again. The queen of misinformation and arrogance just trashed a religion.
During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

Personally, I think she has gone off the deep end. Why would someone say something as arrogant as this?

Interesting, but flawed, comparison between Michael Moore and Ms. Coulter on this thread. Can anyone tell me the last time Michael Moore has advocated for the death of a political opponent as Ms. Coulter frequently does? Has Michael Moore ever discussed religion in such a disparaging way?