| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Bush Kills Women" |
| Date: |
14 Jun 2006 12:43:19 PM |
| Object: |
Colmes challenges Coulter's Claims |
Colmes challenged Coulter's claim that "you never see conservatives ...
using someone's tragedy"---
http://mediamatters.org/items/200606130008
Appearing on the June 12 editions of the Fox News programs Hannity & Colmes
and The Big Story with John Gibson, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter continued
her attacks on the widows of 9-11 victims and added that "you never see
conservatives ... using someone's tragedy." But as Hannity & Colmes co-host
Alan Colmes noted, Debra Burlingame, whose brother died in the 9-11 attacks,
and "a little girl who lost her mother during 9-11" were both "used to
promote President Bush" during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Coulter's response to Colmes's examples? "[H]e's the commander in chief."
Colmes asked, "[S]o it's OK to use someone's tragedy if you're the commander
in chief?"
Coulter has repeatedly used inflammatory remarks about the widows of 9-11
victims to promote her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown
Forum, June 2006). She repeated these attacks on The Big Story during an
interview with guest host and Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew P.
Napolitano. Coulter said that "the left keeps using human shields to promote
its half-baked liberal bromides," and that the 9-11 widows are "enjoying
their celebrity status." Coulter cited former Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA),
anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) and Sen. John
Kerry (D-MA) as other examples of "victim spokesmen, which the left always
springs on us." Napalitano appeared to accept Coulter's allegation, asking
Coulter: "[W]hy is the left, then, willing to use people who are victims to
promote its political causes?"
As Media Matters for America has noted, far from being immune to challenge,
the purportedly "infallible" spokespeople Coulter cited have faced strong
Republican opposition in the political sphere and, often, ad hominem attacks
from conservatives.
On Hannity & Colmes, Colmes asked Coulter whether Bush also used "tragedy to
promote a political agenda," citing Burlingame's advocacy for Bush's
re-election and a commercial supporting Bush during his 2004 re-election
campaign, which highlighted Ashley Faulkner, the daughter of a 9-11 victim.
On the opening night of the 2004 Republican National Convention, as Media
Matters has noted, three relatives of 9-11 victims gave speeches broadcast
on national television -- Burlingame and two women who lost their husbands,
Deena Burnett and Tara Stackpole. On numerous occasions, Burlingame publicly
supported Bush's re-election. Following the public disclosure of Bush's
warrantless domestic surveillance program, Burlingame defended the program
in a February 6 New York Post op-ed and in appearances on the April 3
edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show and on the January 30 edition of Fox News'
Hannity & Colmes. Further, a conservative advocacy group, Progress for
America, released an ad in October 2004 in support of Bush's re-election
titled "Ashley's Story." In the ad, Faulkner recounted the story of Bush
embracing her at a campaign event. Said Faulkner: "He's the most powerful
man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I'm safe, that I'm
OK."
From the June 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
COLMES: You always ignore Debra Burlingame, who's been used to promote
President Bush. And let me show you something that President Bush, a
commercial that President Bush ran during his last campaign for president.
Let me show you a little piece of that. We don't have that; I'm sorry. He
ran a commercial using a little girl who lost her mother during 9-11 and
used that and that helped sell him to the American people. Was that using
9-11?
COULTER: No, you refuse to grasp the distinction --
COLMES: Was that using the tragedy to promote a political agenda?
COULTER: No. He's the commander in chief. Do you think FDR didn't run on
World War II when he was running for president? He's the commander in chief.
He's the one responsible for the response. You didn't have a little girl
denouncing John Kerry and saying he wasn't doing enough to fight the war on
terrorism.
COLMES: So it's OK to use someone's tragedy if you're the commander in
chief --
COULTER: You never see conservatives doing this.
COLMES: -- and running for office?
COULTER: No, he's not using someone's tragedy. He's talking about the war
on terror, which we are in the middle of -- He's the commander in chief.
From the June 12 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson:
NAPOLITANO: Ann Coulter joins us now. Ann, welcome here. So, why is
everybody up in arms about what you said this time?
COULTER: Probably because people like you keep describing it as what I say
about 9-11 widows, which is nothing of the sort what I say. I'm talking
about the Jersey Girls, the self-described Jersey Girls, four of probably
tens of thousands who had relatives die in 9-11. These were the four who
were -- used their platform as victims to viciously attack George Bush,
Condoleezza Rice, demand a 9-11 Commission, be feted in Vanity Fair, and, of
course, cut campaign commercials for John Kerry. If what I say is so
outrageous, I don't know why there's this -- this compulsion to misdescribe
what it is I'm talking about.
NAPOLITANO: Let's -- let's put up on the screen exactly what it is you did
say in the book about these four people. Quote: "These broads are
millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their
status as celebrities. I've never seen people enjoy their husbands' deaths
so much." Now, why did you call them "broads"?
COULTER: I don't know. Why didn't you just ask me that question? You sort
of have to read the whole chapter to get the flow of it. I think the point
is clear, that the left keeps using human shields to promote its half-baked
liberal bromides. Let somebody else make the point. Make someone --
NAPOLITANO: What do you mean when you say they enjoy their husbands'
deaths?
COULTER: Pardon?
NAPOLITANO: I'm sorry, Ann. What do you mean when you say they seem to be
enjoying their husbands' deaths?
COULTER: I mean what I say. They're enjoying their celebrity.
NAPOLITANO: This is the point that really got under their skin, and which
they said nobody revels in our husbands' deaths. We wish they were alive.
COULTER: No. Technically, what they said is, we did not enjoy watching our
husbands die, which, of course, isn't what I said. What I said is, they're
enjoying their celebrity status, based on the fact that they can promote
themselves as -- as victim spokesmen, which the left always springs on us.
And it's become far more prevalent, with Cindy Sheehan and the Jersey girls
and Joe Wilson -- oh, can't respond because his wife works at the CIA.
NAPOLITANO: All right.
COULTER: Well, that's the only reason he was even sent to Niger.
COULTER: Max Cleland. You can't talk to Kerry or Murtha about war,
because, well, they fought in Vietnam. Well, send up somebody we can respond
to, then. And, yes, you have to read the full flow of the chapter.
NAPOLITANO: What is wrong with the Jersey Girls expressing a political
opinion deeply left of center?
COULTER: There's nothing. The problem is, we're not allowed to express one
back. That's my point.
NAPOLITANO: All right. Why is the left, then, willing to use people who
are victims to promote its political causes?
COULTER: Well, that's the question. I mean, as I describe in this chapter
on the liberal doctrine of infallibility, they've come up with various
methods over the years to prevent an opposing viewpoint from being heard. It
used to be easy; they just wouldn't put us on TV. They had 100 percent
control of all news dissemination in America. That -- that got broken by
hate radio, the Internet, and, of course, Fox News, which has driven them
out of their minds. And so, consequently, the next trick is to send forward
these -- well, they complained about, you know, hate speech and hate radio
and angry white men.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
COULTER: Well, you know, they weren't sending us chocolates and flowers
back when they were attacking Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Judge [Robert]
Bork. What they mean by divisive voices and a lack of civility in debate is,
conservatives get to talk, too. And so, now -- I mean, they done this for
years, but it's far more prevalent now. They send up victim spokesmen,
making the same points [Democratic National Committee chairman] Howard Dean
could make, except, if you respond to Howard Dean, he won't turn around and
say, "My husband died."
NAPOLITANO: Right. Before I let you go, why do you call them godless? And
who precisely are you saying is godless?
COULTER: I have already responded to that in last week's column. I'm
describing the whole philosophy of liberalism, the religion of liberalism.
And I call them godless because liberalism is a religion. It's just not
God-based. It's precisely in opposition, the opposition party to God. They
worship Mother Earth. They're obsessed with global warming and the furbish
lousewort but don't mind disemboweling human embryos or humans in the womb.
It is a religion. It's a godless religion.
NAPOLITANO: Ann Coulter -- the book is called Godless: The Church of
Liberalism. Ann, thanks very much.
COULTER: Thank you.
.
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| User: "Alric Knebel" |
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| Title: Re: Colmes challenges Coulter's Claims |
14 Jun 2006 01:05:28 PM |
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Bush Kills Women wrote:
Colmes challenged Coulter's claim that "you never see conservatives ...
using someone's tragedy"---
http://mediamatters.org/items/200606130008
I wouldn't exactly call what he tentatively offered as a "challenge."
Considering what the rest of the article said, he should have stuck to
his guns about the Burlington woman, who lost her husband in 9/11, who's
been showcased on several occaisions to support Bush. This argues
neatly against her claim the Republicans use these victims, too.
Instead, he segues into some Bush campaign ad, at which point she
defends Bush's right to do that because he's a wartime president. Had
he stayed with the Burlington woman, his argument would have been
symmetrical, giving her now place to go. It's almost as if he was paid
to take a dive.
Then Napolitano fed right into her shtick, and let her rave on some
more, even feeding her a good line to keep her going, "Why do you say
liberals are godless?" Then it was off on another screed. Remember,
now, this was on Fox, and they're not likely to make things too
difficult for her. And they didn't.
--
Alric Knebel
http://www.ironeyefortress.com/C-SPAN_loon.html
http://www.ironeyefortress.com
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