LETTERS ABOUT ANN COULTER: Everyone's Got Something to Say

By: E&P Staff Readers react to E&P Senior Editor Dave Astor's column last week about syndicated columnist Ann Coulter.

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Ann Coulter on the right reminds me of Molly Ivins on the left. Both used to be funny and insightful. Now they are just mean.

Jim Nelms
Ft. Worth, Tex.



I can only assume that an article will be forthcoming shortly lambasting Maureen Dowd, Al Franken, Molly Ivins, etc. for their hateful rhetoric in the same way that you went after Coulter.

Marv Schaefer



I agree with you 100% It's terrible that a conservative should question the motives of leftists who hide behind their victimhood. We really should allow anyone who has lost someone to terrorists to vent their anger against this country on the international stage without being able to defend or state our point of view. You, in effect, are saying not to question anti-Bush wackos because their motives are beyond reproach.

Terry Saulsbury


Where is your "outrage" act when when left-wingers spew hate? Alec Baldwin calling for the murder of the Speaker of the House and his family, Michael Moore, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken, The Daily Kos are just a few examples of left-wing haters. Shouldn't they be silenced too? Oh, that's right. I forgot. When the left hates, it's a GOOD thing because they hate the right people.

Martin Vipa


I am ever so distraught that Ann Coulter's rhetoric has given you the vapors!

Were you equally distraught when Nicholson Baker advocated and plotted the assassination of President Bush in his novel 'Checkpoint'? Did you tremble like an aspen when the anchor of CBS News attempted the political assassination of the President using forged documents? When USA Today published a photo of Condoleezza Rice with the artificial eyes of a dominatrix from Hades (the better to smear her with), did, perhaps, a sparkle of joy appear in your own eye? Are you blind to the venom with the Left assaults the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Libby? Or is that just Speaking Truth to Power?

Your column has unzipped the trousers of your ideology and exposed you as a propagandist ...

Donald C. Leamy
Newton, Mass.



I can't imagine you not approving of Ann. You must have your head somewhere not to hear all the vile and ugly things said about non-liberals by establishment left-wingers. What do you think about the pie thrown at her? Did you apologize for your side for that?

Ann is effective because she's spot on with the truth. Too bad if the liberal left disagrees. Who cares about them. The Jersey girls were correctly labeled by Ann. They are frauds who Ann correctly points are leftwing tools selected as victims, like [Cindy] Sheehan, because nobody is expected to criticize their leftwing agitprop.

Robert Burnett


I agree with your call to end vicious journalism, but once you censor a writer on one side, you have to do the same for those on the other. I think Molly Ivins is the most offensive writer I?ve ever seen (notice, I don?t think she?s a journalist), but I don?t call for my local paper to do away with her weekly column because you have to have the input from all sides, vitriolic or civil. If someone offends you like Ann does, then don?t read her stuff, as I don?t read Molly?s stuff anymore. There are two types of writers ... those that are rude bellyachers, like Ann and Molly, and there are those true journalists that have something civil to say ... like Michael Barone or Clarence Page. I?ll stick with using what time I have here on Earth to follow the Barones and Pages of the world.

Stephen Bartlett
Pensacola, Fla.



You might be correct that Ann overstates the case. But, maybe she just doesn't seem to you as gracious as Krugman, Kristof, Thomas or Dowd. One man's overstatement is another man's understatement. You know, like the patriots and terrorists that are so frequently confused by the media these days. ...

Maybe you feel you deserve her fame and fortune. ...

Positing restraint of trade or book burnings by other means don't often succeed and usually cause unseemly collateral damage, even eventually to the positor.

Victor Myette
Palm Coast, Fla.


Ann has got to be the best political writer of our time. The way she brings out the censorship demands among the socialists is especially telling. Deep down, you people hate freedom.

I plan to enable her in any way that I can. Ann Coulter for President!!!!!

Robert Meldahl


In spite of the vitriol that Ms. Coulter puts out, I see it as far, far less injurious than the traitorous conduct of the New York Times, the LA Times, and other MS print media who flagrantly divulge classified information regarding the war on terror. At some point, mainstream America is going to have had enough of the self-serving arrogance of the MSM that puts each and every citizen at risk, and hopefully will act in a manner suitable to the offenses committed by the 4th estate. It is long overdue.

Ronald Hamric
Pine, Ariz.


You know, in reading your article, one would think that Ann Coulter had actually called for John Murtha to be fragged (killed). However, if you had actually quoted Ann, you would have been shown to be a liar and a fraud. You see, she did not call for him to be fragged, she wrote:

In an e-mail interview by John Hawkins at the Right Wing News Web site, Coulter was asked to give her opinion of certain people, among them anti-war Congressman Murtha, D-Pa. In a style familiar to journalists who have quizzed her via e-mail, Coulter responded with her characteristic single brief line: "The reason soldiers invented 'fragging.'"

That's it. That's all she wrote. That is NOT a call for him to be fragged, so you are acting as a typical lying shill for the drive by "Main Stream Media" who want to frame the discussion in a manner other than is clearly indicated. NO WONDER circulation is dropping at all the "major" MSMs. You can't tell the truth if it doesn't fit your agenda.

R. Theron Dunn
Canyon Lake, Calif.


Letter-writer Theron Dunn is wrong. In declaring that Murtha is a reason GIs invented fragging, Coulter is of course calling for that technique to be used on him. Read her again. Like her mentor from the mud-smeared era of Joe McCarthy, there is nothing despicable or low that she will not say or do.

Wes Pedersen


You might have a point in your column about hateful rhetoric. Each side of the political divide has its share of Simon Cowells, if you will. It is quite dishonest, however, for you to say that Coulter suggested Murtha "should be fragged," or that she would like him "exterminated." If you take issue with Coulter's remarks, fine. But you should refrain from lying about what has been said as it harms only your, and your publication's, credibility ... not Coulter's.

Natisha Cooper
Indianapolis, Ind.