Say what you want about Ann Coulter, because she certainly says enough about everyone else.

‘Another attractive Democrat,’ Coulter derides as officials removed a rowdy audience member at her recent Indiana University appearance. ‘I think we should have saved the ushers some time and just removed all the ugly people.’

Later, as more protestors bemoan Coulter’s appearance, she sneers, sarcastically asking for their dismissal.

‘You guys are doing a great job,’ she says. ‘I guess they did hire Democrats as ushers.’

This is not the most outrageous thing Coulter, a right-wing political pundit and bestselling author, has said. She is a frequent guest at universities, generally considered left-leaning institutions. In the past few months, Coulter has visited Perdue University, Western Michigan University, George Washington University and University of Connecticut, among others. At each institution, Coulter exposes her many faces. She will speak in Goldstein Auditorium.

Coulter could not be reached for comment for this story.

Ann Coulter is hateful

Coulter is her own vaudeville act. She tries using humor – at times teasingly successful, but more often than not, overtly racist. Be certain, Coulter’s comedy offends. At her UConn appearance, a student asked how she’d react if she had a gay son. She responded, ‘I’d say, ‘Did I ever tell you you’re adopted?’

Coulter has called Muslims ‘ragheads’ and referred to an IU student as ‘gay boy,’ according to an article in the school’s newspaper, The Daily Student. She infamously wrote on Sept. 13, 2001: ‘We should invade (Arab) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.’

‘I think it’s just sad,’ said Adam Jentelson, the policy and advocacy manager for campus progress at the Center for American Progress. ‘I heard what she said at (the Conservative Political Action Conference), the ‘ragheads’ comment. It’s hateful and it’s useless.’

‘She’s going to say some things that are going to get people angry,’ said Tiffany Damick, president of SU’s College Republicans. ‘We know it. But I have to hear my crazy liberal professors every class I go to. So if people are going to get upset for a night, they’ll have to deal with it. That’s why we have free speech.’

Ann Coulter is respectable

Let’s be fair – for a moment – to someone who, at first glance, may not deserve it. At times, Coulter is downright hilarious. At other times, even worthy of some respect.

At each of Coulter’s campus appearances, many boo. Even so, she keeps speaking and facing her detractors. At her December appearance at UConn, students jeered Coulter so loudly that she cut her speech short. At Arizona in 2004, two outraged students threw pies at Coulter (the pies missed) and were arrested.

Coulter’s response to the pie-throwing incident on Sean Hannity’s radio show: ‘They ended up with their faces smashed in and spending the night in the Pima County Jail, where I’m sure – being good liberals – their views on gay marriage will serve them well.’

To an extent, this is Coulter’s shtick. She can make a quick joke when she’s caught and jab at her opponents in the same sentence. She is the David against the perceived liberal Goliath, and she earns hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing it. Still, you can’t help but respect some part of it. She attends these speeches knowing she’ll be booed. Unlike her president-elect, Coulter doesn’t surround herself with only supporters at public forums. If anything, she surrounds herself with haters.

‘She realizes it’s hard to be a conservative and an American college student,’ Damick said. ‘If it weren’t for her, there’d be no conservative voice on our campus, so she’s helping us out, helping us reinforce what we believe in and standing up to others while she does it. I admire her for helping us like that.’

‘She’s not, I guess, cowardly, in that she shows up to her appearances,’ said Carl Skutsch, creator of the now-defunct anticoulter.com Web site. ‘But all it does is give her another opportunity to say, ‘See, these Democrats, they don’t believe in free speech. They want to shut me up.’ She says the most outrageous things and, in effect, creates her own strong-man opponent.’

Ann Coulter is a cartoon

Where liberals fall short is by trying to engage her in legitimate discussion, attempting to deconstruct the argument, when, in reality, all they do is give credence to a position so outrageous it can’t be argued within the confines of logic. Immediately, they become just a biased liberal.

‘It’s not as though (Coulter) doesn’t offer thought and discussion,’ said Bob Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television and a television, radio and film professor at SU. ‘This is entertainment-based discussion. What is being done is entertainment. She and others like her have created this character who is fun to watch.’

Already, there is a strong anti-Coulter presence on the SU campus. The Student Environmental Action Coalition argued in a letter to The Daily Orange that – much like HillTV’s ‘Over the Hill’ content – Coulter’s ‘openly racist, sexist and hateful remarks’ make students feel unsafe. SEAC urged the student body to express any concerns it has. Additionally, faux advertisements swarmed campus, contending that the student fee was supporting racism in bringing Coulter.

It’s just the kind of response that keeps her career going.

‘I think when people stop throwing pies, it’s a bad day in Ann Coulter’s career,’ Thompson said, ‘because the whole mythos she’s created is she’s standing up to the pie-throwers.’

‘There’s definitely an element of showmanship there,’ Jentelson said of Coulter’s persona. ‘Where the line is between what she believes and what she says, no one knows. Maybe her hairdresser, if anyone. I just hope there is a line there.’

Published on March 6, 2006 at 12:00 pm