Calling for Nuclear War “Edgy”

Analysis:

This article is about how the Kent County Republican Party will be bringing author and columnist Ann Coulter to Grand Rapids to keynote their annual Lincoln Day Dinner this March. In the article two people are quoted, Carol Van Andel and John Van Fossen, who are the co-finance chairpersons for the Kent County Republicans. They describe her as “Edgy” and say that “she’ll inspire and excite people.” No other people are interviewed in the piece about Coulter. The article describes Coulter as a “firebrand conservative” and that she “rips liberals at every opportunity.” It is noted in the article that Coulter once stated that “I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning. Boom! … thay’re a major threat. I think it would be fun to nuke them and have it be a warning to … the world”.

This style of rhetoric is typical for Coulter, who has a history of making statements calling for the physical destruction or imprisonment of people she disagrees with. She recently wrote in a column that “I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.” Shortly after the attacks on Sept. 11 2001 she gained notoriety for saying “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” She was also reported saying that “We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.” Readers should ask themselves that given the fact that Coulter has called for the intimidation and imprisonment of Americans she disagrees with as well as unprovoked nuclear attacks on sovereign nations, if perhaps the Grand Rapids Press was making a rather significan understatement when they referred to her in the headline as “edgy.”

Story:

‘Edgy’ speaker brings fire to local event

Saturday, January 14, 2006

By Steven Harmon

The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS — You don’t know what envelope Ann Coulter, firebrand conservative commentator, will push when she gets going.

But that’s the draw, Kent County Republican Party officials said Friday in announcing Coulter will keynote their Lincoln Day Dinner in March.

Described by Time magazine last year as “quite likely the most divisive figure in American politics,” Coulter is expected to attract upward of 1,500 to the annual event as Republicans gear up for an active 2006 campaign season.

“What I like about her is she stands up for what she believes and she doesn’t mince any words,” said Carol Van Andel, the party’s co-finance chairwoman who came up with the idea of bringing in Coulter. “She’s edgy. I like edgy.”

Coulter’s $30,000 speaker’s fee will be picked up by the Kent County Pachyderms, a group of GOP women whose mission is to get women involved in Republican politics. The event will be held March 16 at DeVos Place’s Steelcase Ballroom. Ticket cost has not been determined.

“She’ll inspire and excite people,” said John Van Fossen, the party’s other co-finance chairman and director of external affairs for the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids. He is a former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland. “She’s going to do what Lincoln Day dinners are supposed to — attract more to the party and motivate the base.”

Previous speakers at the event in recent years were U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Plans have not been finalized, but Coulter has said she will make herself available for other events on that day, such as a book signing, GOP officials said. She has had four bestsellers on the New York Times list, including a 2003 book “Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.”

In that book, as she does at every opportunity, she ripped liberals: “Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots.”

Once, on CNN’s Lou Dobbs’ show, she said, “There are a lot of bad Republicans. There are no good Democrats.”

She aims her fire globally, too. Speaking to a New York Observer reporter, she said, “I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning. Boom! … They’re a major threat. I just think it would be fun to nuke them and have it be a warning to … the world.”