As Coulter As Ice

In shocking news, Ann Coulter is a bad person.  Surprise! Apparently ignoring the golden rule and the maxim that two wrongs don't make a right, Coulter is now advocating that right-wing pundits begin to attack the two young Obama girls.

In response to offensive jokes by David Letterman about one of Sarah Palin's young children, there was a media uproar and Letterman had to eat crow and apologize on air.  Bill Maher has recently made disparaging comments concerning the 2012 Republican Candidates.  Coulter had this to say to Sean Hannity on March 21st:


“I just say that going after the children generally ought to be off limits. It has not been off limits for Republicans, though, conservatives have taken the Obama children off limits.”  She added, “so maybe it’s time to start imitating liberals in another way and go after the Obama children. By the way, that has been done grotesquely and viscously over the years by the left.”


True? To an extent.  And for heaven's sake, it's despicable.  It should not be done.  Children are innocent victims of their parents' choice to enter politics.  Children should be off limits, Coulter is right about that, but the way to make your point is not to attack the children of your opponents.  This isn't just an ethical thing about the proper way to conduct a disagreement, there are real victims here and they are CHILDREN.  They may suffer severe psychological harm from public scrutiny, harassment, and embarrassment.  Growing up is hard enough to do without some idiot on television making jokes about you in front of the whole nation.

Here's what Coulter is wrong about, though.  The right doesn't consider children off limits!  Rush Limbaugh, honorary member of Congress and Republican stalwart, attacked Chelsea Clinton in 1993.  She was thirteen!  That's the time in a young girl's life when self-confidence is precarious at best and all of the awkward developments that nature throws at you are in an bizarre state of mid-development.  That's also the time when Rush Limbaugh said the following:


“Socks is the White House cat, but did you know there is also a White House dog?” 


 He then held up a picture of Chelsea Clinton. 


Ok, so nobody is considering Rush Limbaugh "fair and balanced."  Same thing for Bill Maher.  They are entertainers who use the somewhat different and harsher language of satire.  That doesn't mean that they can't overstep their bounds, and attacking children is a flying leap over the line of appropriate.


Ann Coulter, however, tries to represent herself as an intelligent voice in political discourse.  For her to advocate reprisal for the rather disgusting jokes concerning the children of certain Republican politicians by attacking the children of Democratic politicians lowers her to the level of Letterman, Maher, and Limbaugh.  It makes her and incendiary and rather idiotic entertainer who ought not to be taken seriously, as well as one with questionable morality.  


Oops, was this not funny?  Oh yeah, that's because attacking and humiliating children and masquerading it as entertainment isn't funny.