Conason: Coulter's Alleged Voting Fraud Doesn't Bother GOP

By: E&P Staff As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies today, Joe Conason has mentioned fellow columnist Ann Coulter in a new piece about the U.S. attorney-firing scandal.

Conason, of the New York Observer and Creators Syndicate, noted that one reason the attorneys were fired was because the Bush administration didn't feel they were investigating alleged Democratic voter fraud strongly enough. Yet, he added, GOP officials don't seem very interested in probing the alleged voting fraud of "Republican celebrity" Coulter that Florida's Palm Beach Post has written a number of articles about.

"When the far-right columnist and television personality registered to vote in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005, she wrote down the address of her realtor's office rather than her own home address," Conason said in his Thursday piece. "She then signed the form, despite its plain warning that falsifying any information on it would make her liable to felony prosecution -- and which she, as a lawyer, surely understood. According to Palm Beach County election officials, she also voted in the wrong precinct the following year, disregarding a poll worker who explained her error. ..."

"If proved, those acts would be crimes punishable by prison terms of up to five years, but Ms. Coulter has stonewalled the ongoing investigation. (She says the Palm Beach officials are syphilitic and mentally defective.) No charges have been filed so far, perhaps because her lawyer is a prominent Republican who worked on 'Bush v. Gore' in 2000 -- and whom the President then appointed as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. ..."

Conason's column -- which can be read in full here -- was mentioned today on The Brad Blog.

Coulter's column is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.

In other Conason-related news, the Observer/Creators writer is slated to speak April 28 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus. His topic: "The Age of Spin: Controlling the Message."