Ann Coulter: Our Jonathan Swift?

Watching Howard Kurtz on Reliable Sources this morning brought the redoubtable blonde menace to the left---Jonah Goldberg called her a Medusa's Head pulled out of a sack to frighten the girlie-men and their androgynous women---front and center to my consciousness as a latter-day incarnation of Jonathan Swift, who often exaggerated by saying the unthinkable [A Modest Proposal: if the Irish are starving, eat them as food] in order to clarify the unpleasant reality no one wants to confront.

As Goldberg pointed out, Coulter excoriates and vilifies the identity politics of victimization, whether it be grieving Gold Star Mom [in a swipe at radical-activist Cindy Sheehan], black stripper [serial rapee in Durham, NC], "Jersey Girl" widow of 9/11 martyr, or Joe Wilson [wife off-limits because of job].

The left loves these no-fly zones where the radical accusers are sacred cows. This "infallibility" which gives credence to someone as an entitlement because they were a "victim" casts a religious halo over frequently insipid partisan tripe.

The hypocritical MSM leftist-tilt talking heads like Matt Lauer and Brian Williams earnestly intone that by attacking radical wives that "a line has been crossed" or a barren childless harridan like Dowd will piously give a free pass to radical activist Sheehan---all because of some sort of exalted status given a war victim.

These left-tilt MSM types don't give the time of day to the thousands of parents who still support the war despite losing a son or daughter to the vicious conflict in Iraq. Nor does the hypocritical left-tilt MSM showcase badly wounded soldiers who continue to support the war despite the heavy personal price they have paid.

Yes, Coulter is self-absorbed and a cottage-industry has been erected around her psyho-drama persona. Yes, she probably loses fence-sitters with her penchant for preaching to the choir. Yes, she serves as a convenient foil to less emotionally flamboyant types like Bill O'Reilly who criticize her for lapses in taste and decorum---talking moderately in comparison to her diatribes.

But as Karen Tumulty observed on the Reliable Sources panel, Coulter demonstrates how far the level of common discourse has descended towards out and out screech-fests. And Michelle Cottle actually commends Coulter for getting her message into the marketplace of ideas---nevermind Coulter's over-the-top language and hyperventilating talking-head goggle-eyed kinetics on the Today Show.

Finally, Jonah Goldberg notes that Michael Savage lost his show on MSNBC because of his excessive language, but Coulter persists in holding national attention because---she's blonde and good-looking and articulate. As Goldberg says, Coulter actually is a first-class constitutional writer and thinker, but prefers cutting and thrusting on-air to the scalpel and stitch of scholarship.

And, as Swift's tombstone notes, saeva indignatio [savage indignation] cuts her heart.