Ann Coulter: Difference between revisions

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== Political activities ==
== Political activities ==
In addition to her frequent media appearances and popular writings about politics and political beliefs, Coulter's political activities have included advising a plaintiff suing the president and considering a run for Congress.
In addition to her frequent media appearances and popular writings about politics, Coulter's activities have included advising a plaintiff suing the president and considering a run for Congress.


=== The Paula Jones–Bill Clinton case ===
She debuted as a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing [[Paula Jones]] in her [[sexual harassment]] suit against President [[Bill Clinton]]. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for ''Human Events'', was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.
Coulter debuted as a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing [[Paula Jones]] in her [[sexual harassment]] suit against President [[Bill Clinton]]. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for ''Human Events'', was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.


Coulter later stated that she would come to mistrust the motives of Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who by August or September 1997 was advising Jones that her case was weak and to settle the case, if a favorable settlement could be negotiated.<ref name=Daley1999 /><ref name=conason/> From the onset, Jones had sought an apology from Clinton at least as eagerly as she sought a settlement.<ref>Barak, Daphne. "[http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1998/09/23/fhead.htm Jones would have been happy with an apology]". ''[[Irish Examiner]]''. [[September 23]] [[1998]]. Retrieved on [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref> However, in a later interview Coulter recounted that she herself had believed that the case was strong, that Jones was telling the truth, that Clinton should be held publicly accountable for his misconduct, and that a settlement would give the impression that Jones was merely interested in extorting money from the President.<ref name=Daley1999 />
The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed via [[summary judgment]]. In November, 1988, during the pendancy of an appeal by Jones's lawyers, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees), in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appeal. By then, the Jones lawsuit had led to the [[Lewinsky scandal|Monica Lewinsky sex scandal]]. Coulter wrote a book critical of Clinton called ''[[High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton]]''.


David Daley, who wrote the interview piece for the ''[[Hartford Courant]]'' recounted what followed:
In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her grade-school-aged children and in particular saying "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund."<ref name=larryking>Jones, Paula. "[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/24/lkl.00.html Paula Jones describes why she's posing for ''Penthouse'']".  ''Larry King Live''. ''CNN''.  [[October 24]] [[2000]].  Retrieved on [[October 24]], [[2000]]</ref> Coulter publicly denounced Jones, writing: "Paula surely was given more than a million dollars in free legal assistance from an array of legal talent she will never again encounter in her life, much less have busily working on her behalf.  Some of those lawyers never asked for or received a dime for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work performed at great professional, financial and personal cost to themselves.  Others got partial payments out of the settlement.  But at least they got her reputation back.  And now she's thrown it away."<ref>Coulter, Ann. "[http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter103000.asp Clinton sure can pick 'em]". ''Jewish World Review''. [[October 30]] [[2000]]. Retrieved [[July 11]] [[2006]].</ref>
<blockquote>Coulter played one particularly key role in keeping the Jones case alive. In ''[[Newsweek]]'' reporter [[Michael Isikoff]]'s new book ''Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story'', Coulter is unmasked as the one who leaked word of Clinton's "distinguishing characteristic" — his reportedly bent penis that Jones said she could recognize and describe — to the news media. Her hope was to foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement...


:"I thought if I leaked the distinguishing characteristic it would show bad faith in negotiations. [Clinton lawyer] Bob Bennett would think Jones had leaked it. Cammaratta would know he himself hadn't leaked it and would get mad at Bennett. It might stall negotiations enough for me to get through to [Jones adviser] Susan Carpenter-McMillan to tell her that I thought settling would hurt Paula, that this would ruin her reputation, and that there were other lawyers working for her. Then 36 hours later, she returned my phone call.
:"I just wanted to help Paula. I really think Paula Jones is a hero. I don't think I could have taken the abuse she came under. She's this poor little country girl and she has the most powerful man she's ever met hitting on her sexually, then denying it and smearing her as president. And she never did anything tacky. It's not like she was going on TV or trying to make a buck out of it."<ref name=Daley1999 /></blockquote>
Coulter also told Isikoff: "We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the President."<ref name=conason>Conason, Joe; Lyons, Gene. "[http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/03/04/willey/print.html Impeachment's little elves]". ''[[Salon.com]]''. [[March 4]] [[2000]]. Retrieved [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref>
The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed via [[summary judgment]]. The judge ruled that even if her allegations proved true, Jones did not show that she had suffered any damages, stating "...plaintiff has not demonstrated any tangible job detriment or adverse employment action for her refusal to submit to the governor's alleged advances. The president is therefore entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of quid pro quo sexual harassment".  The ruling was appealed by Jones's lawyers.  During the pendency of the appeal, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees) in November 1998, in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appealing.  By then, the Jones lawsuit had led to the [[Lewinsky scandal|Monica Lewinsky sex scandal]].  Coulter wrote a book critical of Clinton called ''[[High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton]]''.
In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her grade-school-aged children and in particular saying "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund."<ref name=larryking>Jones, Paula. "[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/24/lkl.00.html Paula Jones describes why she's posing for ''Penthouse'']".  ''Larry King Live''.  ''CNN''.  [[October 24]] [[2000]].  Retrieved on [[October 24]], [[2000]]</ref> Coulter publicly denounced Jones, calling her "the trailer-park trash they said she was", (Coulter had earlier chastened Clinton supporters for calling Jones this name<ref>Ann Coulter "[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199801/ai_n8803510 "'Trailer park trash' strikes back]".  ''Human Events''.  [[January 30]] [[1998]].  Retrieved on [[November 18]], [[2006]]</ref> after Clinton's former campaign strategist [[James Carville]] had made the widely-reported remark, "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, and you'll never know what you'll find") and a "fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person."<ref name=larryking/>  Coulter wrote:  "Paula surely was given more than a million dollars in free legal assistance from an array of legal talent she will never again encounter in her life, much less have busily working on her behalf.  Some of those lawyers never asked for or received a dime for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work performed at great professional, financial and personal cost to themselves.  Others got partial payments out of the settlement.  But at least they got her reputation back.  And now she's thrown it away."<ref>Coulter, Ann. "[http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter103000.asp Clinton sure can pick 'em]". ''Jewish World Review''. [[October 30]] [[2000]]. Retrieved [[July 11]] [[2006]].</ref>  Jones claimed not to have been offered any help with a book deal of her own or any other additional financial help after the lawsuit.<ref name = larryking/>
=== Past congressional candidacy ===
In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for [[United States House of Representatives|Congress]] from [[Connecticut]] on the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] ticket to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman [[Christopher Shays]] failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays's voting against the [[impeachment]] of President [[Bill Clinton]]. She dropped the idea when the [[Libertarian Party of Connecticut]] declined to endorse her. <ref name = "arm candy">Lehman, Susan. "[http://www.salon.com/media/lehm/1999/03/04lehm.html Conservative pinup battles "arm candy" canard]". ''[[Salon.com]]''. [[March 4]] [[1999]]. Retrieved [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref><ref>Browne, Harry. "[http://harrybrowne.org/articles/Coulter.htm We're more ambitious than the Republicans are]". ''[[Harry Browne]]''. [[September 22]] [[2000]].  Retrieved [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref>
In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for [[United States House of Representatives|Congress]] from [[Connecticut]] on the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] ticket to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman [[Christopher Shays]] failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays's voting against the [[impeachment]] of President [[Bill Clinton]]. She dropped the idea when the [[Libertarian Party of Connecticut]] declined to endorse her. <ref name = "arm candy">Lehman, Susan. "[http://www.salon.com/media/lehm/1999/03/04lehm.html Conservative pinup battles "arm candy" canard]". ''[[Salon.com]]''. [[March 4]] [[1999]]. Retrieved [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref><ref>Browne, Harry. "[http://harrybrowne.org/articles/Coulter.htm We're more ambitious than the Republicans are]". ''[[Harry Browne]]''. [[September 22]] [[2000]].  Retrieved [[July 10]] [[2006]].</ref>


== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 19:12, 28 March 2007

File:AnnCoulter01.jpg
Ann Coulter.

Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961)[1] is an American best-selling author, columnist, and conservative political commentator. Known for her outspoken style,[2] she frequently appears on television, radio and as a speaker at public and private events.[3]

Early life

Ann Coulter was born in New York City. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Coulter and her two older brothers were raised. Her father was an FBI agent who became a corporate attorney.[4]

As an undergraduate at Cornell, Coulter helped found The Cornell Review,[5] and was a member of the Delta Gamma national women's fraternity.[6] She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984, and received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.[7] At Michigan, Coulter founded a local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.[8]

After law school, Coulter served as a law clerk for Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Kansas City. After a short time working in New York City in private practice, where she specialized in corporate law, Coulter left to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan, and helped craft legislation that made it easier to deport aliens convicted of felonies. She later became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights.

PARKING SOME REFERENCES TEMPORARILY [9][10] Get her online bio in here somehow. It was deleted as part of a cleanup.[11] [12]

Media career

Television, films and radio

Coulter's first national media appearance came after she was hired in 1996 by MSNBC as a legal correspondent. The network dismissed her at least twice due to her outspokenness. Since then, she has made frequent guest appearances on television, including The Today Show, Hannity and Colmes, The O'Reilly Factor, American Morning, Crossfire, Real Time, Politically Incorrect, and the fifth estate. She made her first film appearance in 2004, when she appeared in three films: Feeding the Beast, a made-for-television documentary on the "24-Hour News Revolution".[13], FahrenHYPE 9/11, a direct to video documentary designed to rebut Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and Is It True What They Say About Ann?, a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches.[14] She is a frequent guest on many talk radio shows, including Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mike Gallagher.

Books

Coulter is the author of five books. All have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Her first book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (ISBN 0-89526-113-8), was published by Regnery Publishing in 1998. The book details Coulter's case for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Her second book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (ISBN 1-4000-4661-0), published by Crown Forum in 2002, remained number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for seven weeks. In Slander, Coulter argues that President George W. Bush faced an unfair battle for positive media coverage.

Her third book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (ISBN 1-4000-5030-8), also published by Crown Forum, defends the presidency of Richard M. Nixon and claims Democratic politicians and the media have treasonously undermined United States foreign policy. She also claims that Annie Lee Moss was correctly identified by Joseph McCarthy as a Communist. Treason was published in 2003, and spent thirteen weeks on the Best Seller list.[15]

Crown Forum published a collection of Coulter's columns in 2004 as her fourth book, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter (ISBN 1-4000-5418-4).

Coulter's fifth book, published by Crown Forum in 2006, is Godless: The Church of Liberalism (ISBN 1-4000-5420-6). Coulter argues, first, that liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, and second, that it bears all the attributes of a religion itself. Godless debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.[16]

Her forthcoming book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, is scheduled to be published by The Crown Publishing Group in October, 2007.[17]

Columns

In the late 1990s, Coulter's weekly (biweekly from 1999-2000) syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate began appearing. Her column appears in about a hundred newspapers and on six conservative websites: WorldNetDaily, Townhall.com, Human Events Online, FrontPageMag, Jewish World Review and her own website. Her syndicator says, "Ann's client newspapers stick with her because she has a loyal fan base of conservative readers who look forward to reading her columns in their local newspapers."[18] Her column on her personal website, anncoulter.com, is also permanently linked to by the Drudge Report web page.[19]

In 1999, Coulter worked for a time as a regular columnist for George magazine.[20][21] Coulter also wrote exclusive columns weekly between 1998 and 2003 and occasionally since for the conservative magazine Human Events. In it, she discusses judicial rulings, constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and the executive branch.

Religious views

Coulter proclaims Christian religious beliefs. At one public lecture she proclaimed her faith in Jesus Christ, saying: "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters."[22] She contrasts her belief that "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it", with the view that "according to liberals, the message of Jesus [...] is something along the lines of 'be nice to people', " which she describes as "one of the incidental tenets of Christianity"[23] Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian,[24][25] she has stated that "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."[26] She has also said: "... Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy—you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism."[27]

Political activities

In addition to her frequent media appearances and popular writings about politics, Coulter's activities have included advising a plaintiff suing the president and considering a run for Congress.

She debuted as a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for Human Events, was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.

The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed via summary judgment. In November, 1988, during the pendancy of an appeal by Jones's lawyers, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees), in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appeal. By then, the Jones lawsuit had led to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Coulter wrote a book critical of Clinton called High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton.

In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her grade-school-aged children and in particular saying "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund."[28] Coulter publicly denounced Jones, writing: "Paula surely was given more than a million dollars in free legal assistance from an array of legal talent she will never again encounter in her life, much less have busily working on her behalf. Some of those lawyers never asked for or received a dime for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work performed at great professional, financial and personal cost to themselves. Others got partial payments out of the settlement. But at least they got her reputation back. And now she's thrown it away."[29]

In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for Congress from Connecticut on the Libertarian Party ticket to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman Christopher Shays failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays's voting against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. She dropped the idea when the Libertarian Party of Connecticut declined to endorse her. [21][30]

References

  1. ↑ Grove, Lloyd. "Mystery of the ages", The Washington Post, September 6 2002. Retrieved on July 24 2006.
  2. ↑ Schmidt Tracey. "What Would Ann Coulter Do?" Time Magazine
  3. ↑ Staff Writer. "I love to pick fights with liberals" The Daily Telegraph July 7 2002. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  4. ↑ Cloud, John. "Ms. Right". Time Magazine. April 25, 2005, p. 6 of 11. Retrieved on March 29, 2007.
  5. ↑ Horowitz, David. "Ann Coulter at Cornell". FrontPageMag.com. May 21 2001. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  6. ↑ From the pens of Delta Gammas (PDF), Anchora of Delta Gamma, Summer 2005, p. 29 (16 in PDF). Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
  7. ↑ "Ann Coulter: bestselling author and political commentator (Profile)". premierespeakers.com. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  8. ↑ Hallow, Ralph. "A lifelong voice for conservatives". The Washington Times. February 21 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  9. ↑ Cloud, John. "Ms. Right". Time Magazine. April 25, 2005. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  10. ↑ Staff Writer. "An appalling magic". The Guardian, May 17 2003. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  11. ↑ Daley, David. "Ann Coulter: light's all shining on her". Hartford Courant. June 25 1999. [$2.50 charge required to view article]
  12. ↑ Moore, Frazier. "Conservative Coulter sounds off in her latest book; Treason aims to change views on McCarthy", Telegraph Herald, 2003-10-05, p. e2.
  13. ↑ "Feeding the Beast: The 24-Hour News Revolution (2004) (TV)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  14. ↑ "Is It True What They Say About Ann? (2004)" Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  15. ↑ Guthmann, Edward. "An outbreak of partisan warfare on the best-seller list is encouraging authors to stoke the fires of readers hungry for political squabbles -- and the Bay Area is fertile ground for Bush-whackers". San Francisco Chronicle. December 2 2003. Retrieved on July 10 2006
  16. ↑ "New York Times bestseller list: hardcover nonfiction". New York Times. June 25 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006. [Registration required to view article]
  17. ↑ Randomhouse.com
  18. ↑ Astor, Dave; Mitchell, Greg. "Newspaper clients, and syndicate, stick with Coulter". Editor & Publisher. June 16 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  19. ↑ Drudge, Matt. "11/18/2001 edition of Drudge Report" DrudgeReportArchives.com. November 18 2001. Retrieved on October 25 2006
  20. ↑ Coulter, Ann. "A Republican tribute to John", www.uexpress.com, July 28 1999. Retrieved on October 22 2006.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lehman, Susan. "Conservative pinup battles "arm candy" canard". Salon.com. March 4 1999. Retrieved July 10 2006.
  22. ↑ Olasky, Marvin. "South Park vs. Ann Coulter". World. August 13 2005. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  23. ↑ The passion of the liberal, townhall.com, March 4 2004
  24. ↑ Norman,Tony. "If Ann Coulter's a Christian, I'll be damned". Commondreams.org. June 10 2006. Retrieved July 31,2006.
  25. ↑ Thoreau, Jackson. "U.S. founders and Christ were liberals: we cannot let right-wingers like Coulter define liberalism". OpEdNews.com. June 9 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
  26. ↑ E&P Staff. "Coulter: Press Either 'Incompetent' or Full of 'Left-Wing Bias'". Editor and Publisher. July 31 2006. Retrieved July 31 2006.
  27. ↑ De Pasquale, Lisa. Exclusive interview: Coulter says book examines 'mental disorder' of Liberalism". Human Events. June 6 2006. Retrieved on July 10 2006.
  28. ↑ Jones, Paula. "Paula Jones describes why she's posing for Penthouse". Larry King Live. CNN. October 24 2000. Retrieved on October 24, 2000
  29. ↑ Coulter, Ann. "Clinton sure can pick 'em". Jewish World Review. October 30 2000. Retrieved July 11 2006.
  30. ↑ Browne, Harry. "We're more ambitious than the Republicans are". Harry Browne. September 22 2000. Retrieved July 10 2006.

External links

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