comments are her own. So much so they post it twice at the begining and end of the column.
Margaret Carlson , who was a columnist and deputy Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.
Coulter, Lacking All Shame, Scores a New Low: Margaret Carlson
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Is there someplace a television network won't go in search of notoriety, novelty, shock value and ratings?
If you are following the spectacle known as Ann Coulter, the answer is no. NBC's ``Today'' show last Tuesday happily hosted the right-wing extremist, who will do or say anything to feed her attention-addiction disorder. The attractive, painfully thin blonde has outdone herself in the last few days, each appearance more shrill than the last.
Famous for being vile -- she's written that anyone who questions the Iraq war is a traitor -- she plowed new ground with host Matt Lauer. He picked up on this particularly cruel passage about some of the spouses of Sept. 11 victims.
``These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.''
She noted that one of them made an ad for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, failing to mention that another 9/11 widow made one for President Bush.
On Fox, Coulter reprised her Lauer interview, asking why the ``harpies'' (she suggested they might have been divorced by their husbands had they lived) couldn't just ``take the money and shut up about it.'' She wouldn't concede they would rather have their husbands than a million dollars, and wondered ``Do I have to kill my mother so I can be a victim too?''
To Kill For
It slipped my mind that Coulter had a mother. Maybe she'll give her a talking to. Coulter leaves the impression that she would kill someone to be on TV, the charge she so blithely levels at the widows.
What reduced Coulter's appearance to the nether regions wasn't that she did everything but set herself on fire, but what happened at the end. Lauer got all folksy, as if he were Jay Leno chatting with Jennifer Aniston about her latest movie on the couch. Smiling ear-to-ear, Lauer said to Coulter, ``It's always fun to have you.''
ABC and CBS, however far they trail the ``Today'' show in the ratings, should feel proud that they passed on the fun of a Coulter moment.
Lauer knew what he was getting. Coulter is famous for vulgar statements. Impeachment was too good for Bill Clinton; she suggested he be ``assassinated.'' She wants all Muslims converted or shot. She said her `` only regret about Timothy McVeigh is that he chose to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City rather than go to the New York Times Building,'' later adding that she should have said ``after everyone had left the building, except the editors and reporters.''
Someone Say `No'
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_carlson&sid=axcDhX0RSJpM