An appalling magic

The USA has a raucous chorus of broadcast shock jocks and rightwing loudmouths, but Ann Coulter is the undisputed star. Arguably more appealing, unquestionably the sharpest shooter, she is, of course, the darling of conservatives and a hate figure for the left - but there are others, among her detested liberals, who are gripped in fascinated awe by her scorching invective. Jonathan Freedland confronts her and recognises a truth about the United States today: Bush isn't an aberration and Coulter expresses what many Americans think

Saturday May 17, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,956452,00.html
Say "American conservative commentator" and what do you picture? A middle-aged guy in shirt and necktie, right? Speak of a "hardline Republican pundit" and what else comes to mind? Perhaps a big-mouth butterball like Rush Limbaugh? Or a Bible-bashing, burn-in-hell televangelist like Jerry Falwell? Or a gun-stroking, right-between-the-eyes cowboy à la Charlton Heston. Right? Chances are, you are not picturing a Manhattan blonde with dating worries and enough acid one-liners to blow the Manolo Blahniks off the Sex And The City gang. Chances are you are not picturing Ann Coulter: columnist, TV star, bestselling author, heroine for the ultra-right and hate figure for what remains of liberal America...

...Above all, there is something about Coulter's attackers that makes you want to rally to her side. They denounce her with such vitriol, and sexism, that she almost emerges - and she would barf at these words - as a target for feminist sympathy. In print she is trashed as a telebimbo or fembot, and her hate mail routinely damns her as a slut, bitch and whore. Even the much-admired online magazine Salon once ran a piece that demeaned Coulter in thoroughly misogynist terms."