Outside the Beltway

WHY THE RIGHT ATTACKS COULTER

James Joyner · Thursday, July 24, 2003 · 1 comment

Sam Tanenhaus defends columnist Ann Coulter from attacks made by her opponents on the right, thereby making their point.

Here’s a guess:Coulter’s conservative critics fear that her legions of fans–and lots of others, too–see no appreciable difference between her ill-informed comic diatribes and their high-brow ultraserious ones, particularly since Coulter’s previous performances were praised by some now on the attack.

Tanenhaus then goes on to explain that Coulter’s vituperative style has a long and proud tradition on both sides of the aisle. He then concludes,

Ann Coulter may have committed “treason” against conservative good taste. But she’s done the rest of us a favor. She has exposed the often empty semantic difference between the “responsible” right and its supposed “fringe.”