Carr of 'NYT' on Ann Coulter: Without the Hair and Dress, Just Another 'Nut'?

By: David Carr, the New York Times media reporter, considers columnist/author Ann Coulter in his regular Monday column, and concludes that even though she has new book in need of "flogging," people still act "stunned" by her antics.

Coulter, he writes, "who seems afflicted by a kind of rhetorical compulsion, most recently labeled the widows of 9/11 'harpies.' It is just one in a series from a spoken-word hit parade that seems to fly out of her mouth uninterrupted by conscience, rectitude or logic."

But, Coulter, he adds, knows exactly what she is doing -- selling books, and her latest is already flying off the shelf.

After running through her history of outrage, and bestsellers, Carr winds up: "All manner of televised talkfests, including 'Today,' welcome Ms. Coulter's pirate sensibilities back aboard whenever she has something to peddle, in part because seeing hate-speech pop out of a blonde who knows her way around a black cocktail dress makes for compelling viewing.

"Without the total package, Ms. Coulter would be just one more nut living in Mom's basement. You can accuse her of cynicism all you want, but the fact that she is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."

Several Knight Ridder newspapers ran an editorial Sunday that ripped Coulter. "Ann Coulter, the conservative author/pundit/provocateur, has really lost her moral compass, if she ever had one," the editorial began.