Giving Coulter cover
by digby
Trying to cover for Ann Coulter is never a good idea:
On Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” on Monday night, conservative commentator Ann Coulter had a message for President Barack Obama: “Screw you” for the suggestion that gun-rights advocates don’t care about children.
But according to Politico’s Dylan Byers, Coulter was in fact telling the media to screw itself, not the president. In a post on Tuesday morning, Byers criticized The Huffington Post for suggesting that Coulter aimed the expletive at the president:
The Huffington Post has posted a story with the headline, “Ann Coulter To Obama: ‘Screw You’ On Gun Control.” I can’t imagine anything more clicky than an influential right-wing pundit telling the President of the United States to screw himself. Unfortunately for the Huffington Post, that’s not what happened.
The Daily Caller reached out to Coulter, the author of “Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama,” to ask whom exactly she said should screw itself, himself or herself.
“Obama — and anyone else who says that those of us who don’t support ridiculous gun laws ‘aren’t serious about saving children’ (or whatever Obama said to that effect),” Coulter said in an email to TheDC.
I have to give the Daily Caller credit here for thinking to reference Coulter's latest book, which adds some delicious context to the whole thing.
But on a more serious note, I'd have to guess that the rest of what she said is where the hardcores would like this argument to go:
“I think this was obvious from what I said right before — paraphrasing Obama’s point saying that — and immediately afterwards — when I said THEY’RE the ones who don’t care about children because they refuse to do anything about the mentally ill.”
I've been hearing a lot of this in right wing circles lately. And what they propose to "do" about mental illness isn't pretty.The problem is that any treatment, whether it's the cruel 19th century institutions they dream of resurrecting or the 21st century humane version, costs money which they will, of course, refuse to spend.
And I hate to tell them but mental illness can happen to anyone. Even right wing families. They might want to think about that. If they were to approach this with some sensitivity and open-mindedness, there might be a chance for something positive to come out of all this. We do desperately need to upgrade our inadequate mental health system. But I can guarantee that following Ann Coulter will not lead to that solution. For anyone, not even the Republicans.
Oh, and BTW, I don't actually care that she said "screw him" to the president. That's her right. Just like it's mine to say the same thing to her. Ain't America grand?
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