Norma Sherry: Ann Coulter, The Conservative's Muse

She's blonde, 99 pounds, and vocally brash. She has an annoying whine and high-pitched whinny, which give her voice an uneven staccato and give cause for this writer to wince. Despite her irritating vocal attributes, she has cunningly situated herself well. She is the uncontested bride of the right. Ear splitting or not, she is assuredly their muse.

She has the annoying habit of denouncing any point of view that isn't hers. She abhors anything that resembles a liberal or progressive state of mind. She is steadfast in her support of anything right of the right, or conservatively right. It would appear by the sheer number of her television appearances, her syndicated weekly column, and her best selling books that she has been rewarded handsomely for her talents to confound and tow the company line.

Her meteoric rise was on the coattails of the man she claims to detest the most: Bill Clinton. She slammed onto the scene when she gave advice to Paula Jones. Cleverly, she used this soapbox to maximize her presence on various talk shows of the day. She became a regular on Geraldo's daily examination of the OJ Simpson trial. Her rude, temerarious antics made her a novel guest. Her fearless judgments whether based in fact or not mattered not. She was unique in her day and she knew it. Even now she admits, "I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."

Why should she? She is a student of our times. She knows she can twist and maneuver facts to her will and the greater number of her readers or viewers will know not the difference. She counts on the fact that the individuals she wants to persuade are not students of history. Her nefarious scheme is to be insulting and rude to anyone who dares differ with her condemnations. By doing so, she gained the attention of the power-elite of the right. Her timing couldn't have been more perfect. For soon thereafter, came a new leader and a new party and she became their muse.

How convenient is her memory of facts, and how easily she is willing to twist facts in order to defame? Her style to ridicule and fabricate has become her modus operandi and has gained her a doting and loyal audience in this new spectator sport of point counter point. Except in her case, her point is the only one that matters. She will out shout, out talk, and become deliberately taunting to gain the upper hand. Some might suggest she is the Eve to Rush Limbaugh's Adam.

An example of this was the following statement with regard to Somalia in 1993. In her shock and awe style, she said, "Showing that America is not a country to be toyed with, our draft-dodging, pot-smoking commander in chief responded by withdrawing our troops." Of course, she was referring to President Clinton, but not in any of her writings or commentaries would she ever denounce our present president's shameful past. Never would Muse Coulter state that he was an abusive drinker right up to the ripe old age of 40, or that his service record clearly shows that his service was relegated to the yard. That he never left Texas - that his plane never left the ground, and that he didn't even bother to serve his last year - or that he did so without any consequences! Considering she is a self-proclaimed "swooning, doe-eyed" admirer of President Bush, this emission shouldn't come as a surprise.

Ann Coulter is on a roll, however. She has clearly orchestrated her career as the outspoken, muse of the far right; the babe of the neo-cons; the conservative's Tokyo Rose. Some might suggest she saw the writing on the wall and knew she had a good thing. Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Perhaps she believes the bilge she tosses out as truth. That possibility is even more startling.

In Muse Coulter's world, any language that includes words that sound like or resemble, compassion, environment, equality, progressive, or the much-maligned word, liberal, is a world of hapless degenerative lowlife scum. Muse Coulter doesn't mince words. Nay, she flings them helter, skelter knowing some will stick, and that's all that matters. Such must have been the case when she wrote, "liberals have no confidence in a free nation. They are invariably mesmerized by the self-advertised brutality of savages." How else could one explain such vulgarity?

Another example of her boorish style was in her article about Judge Posner and the 2000 election. She began that article with these scathing words, "Democrats regularly insult the intelligence of half the public in order to win the votes of the terminally stupid. As long as their lies bamboozle enough clods to give them a political edge, they will say absolutely anything. The Easily Demagogued are a key Democratic constituency, right after Steely-Eyed Zealots"

It would appear that she is not attempting to win anyone over with gentle persuasion. Instead, it is clear that she is writing to a select audience of narrow-minded, illiterate individuals. Why else would she write such exaggerated, untruthful, loathsome, and detestable assertions?

Another instance of her tactless vituperation were these comments in her weekly column. Her topic was regarding the inclusion of the United Nations in the peacekeeping efforts in Iraq. Muse Coulter wrote, "The idea that we would involve those swine in the postwar occupation of Iraq is so preposterous that it's under serious consideration as next week's slogan for the Howard Dean campaign."

Therein striking a double whammy. She managed in one sentence to insult in the most vile and ignoble terms the countries that comprise the United Nations and a democratic frontrunner. My, my she's good.

Her comment on war didn't go unnoticed either. In fact, it caused quite a stir. You may remember this one. "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

Aah, such humanity. Reminds me of Robert Duvall's infamous line in Apocalypse Now, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

But nothing is more grotesque than when Muse Coulter puts her unique spin on historic fact. Her manipulation and rendition of history is reminiscent of a flimflam salesman touting snake oil. Her tendency is to rewrite it at whim. Facts for Muse Coulter are simply concepts that require her justification and elocution. A personal favorite of mine is her idolization and glorification for the villianized and misunderstood Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In fact, Muse Coulter refers to it as "The Myth of McCarthyism" and suggests, "It was the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times". All because, as she states, "Liberals are fanatical liars, then as now. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie."

"Liberals", she said, "denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals..." One can almost sense her seething. The problem is that her readers believe this shameless sham of revisionist history.

Muse Coulter wrote, "McCarthy was not tilting at windmills," but that "He was tilting at an authentic Communist conspiracy that had been laughed off by the Democratic Party." That "liberals have used a fictional event forged of their own hysteria - "McCarthyism" - to prevent Americans from ever asking the simple question: Do liberals love their country?"

Muse Coulter must believe that the events that fill our history books, and are documented in the Library of Congress, and are etched in the memory of those who lived through the years of McCarthyism, are all figments of the imagination.

Ann Coulter, Muse Coulter is an immoral, unscrupulous reprobate. I find her style of journalism reprehensible. The fact that she is consciously portraying fraudulent lies and intentionally untrue versions of facts to an unwitting citizenry is, and should be a crime. One could say, 'shame on the citizens', and that too would be true. But I would argue it is the unprincipled editors, newscasters, and producers who are at fault for not calling her on the carpet. It is our historians who haven't stood up and forced her hand that should be ashamed for allowing her to propagate her lies. And all of us that know how outlandish her retelling of history is - we too, are at fault. Some might say, "We reap what we sow".I say, God forbid.

- Bio: Norma Sherry is co-founder of Together Forever Changing, an organization devoted to educating, stimulating, and igniting personal responsibility particularly with regards to our diminishing civil liberties. She is also an award-winning writer/producer.

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