Coulter for Clinton? Can It Get Any Crazier?

by Norman Markowitz

I must confess that when I think of Anne Coulter, who is to serious political discourse, even on the right, what Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, was to romantic love, I usually chuckle. I think most of all of a creature I learned about when I was a child in a Yiddish story--a vile noisy bird who is so abusive to others that it makes wee wee on itself.

But, the sweetheart of the boys in the Bund left me speechless yesterday. Speaking before the Young Americans for Freedom, (I saw it on C-Span) the right-wing youth group founded decades ago by William F. Buckley, Jr., Coulter was teasing the fellows with attacks on Senator John McCain (whom right-wing Republicans would have been thrilled to have as a candidate in the past). Coulter then praised Hillary Clinton for her courage in standing up to MoveOn.org by not apologizing for her Iraq War vote and seemed to be endorsing Clinton against McCain.

One could really run with this Are the ultras attacking McCain to give him credibility with those those sections of the electorate who don't see Joe McCarthy and Jack D. Ripper as heroic figures? Do they believe their propaganda as Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society believed that Eisenhower was a Communist?

But why bother. Coulter and her ilk do a much better job satirizing themselves than I or anyone on the left or in the center can. I like to think that they will be remembered generations from now the way a mid-nineteenth century French popular entertainer was later remembered. This entertainer made a great deal of money by farting complex pieces of music before cheering peasant audiences. That is the equivalent of what Limbaugh, Coulter, et al, have been doing for years.