April 17, 2004 by s.z.

Why We're in Iraq Here's part of the transcript from Ann Coulter's Wednesday night appearance on "Scarborough Country" (with guest host Pat Buchanan and fellow guest Robert Reich): COULTER:  I think the point is this is going to be hard.  It‘s going to take a long time.  But it‘s something that absolutely has to be done.  We need... BUCHANAN:  Why?  COULTER:  We need an Arab Israel over there.  We can‘t keep pimping for Israel.  We need a puppet government.  We need to be on the ground.  We need a friendly government.  We need democracy. And what if they don't want to be our puppet goverment? REICH:  Ann, I really would very much like to have your view on this.  What happens if their form of democracy says: “We don‘t want Americans here.  We don‘t like America.  We want radical Islamic fundamentalists.  We want to have a radical Islamic fundamentalist state that is virulently anti-American”? And what happens if their democracy turns out to be a democracy that actually harbors terrorism because they hate America so much?  What happens then?  What is our response then?  Is that a kind of democracy that we are willing to stand for?  COULTER:  No.  And it‘s not going to happen.  REICH:  How do you know it‘s not going to happen?  (CROSSTALK) COULTER:  To hypothesize, you know, what if they elected Adolf Hitler?  OK, we‘ll cross that bridge when we get to it.  But it‘s not going to happen.  REICH:  Well, see, that‘s exactly the problem, crossing that bridge when we get to it.  The fact is, there‘s no route, there is no highway, there is no signpost.  The administration has given us absolutely no indication of where we are going, why we are going there.   COULTER:  Yes, it has.  It very clearly has.  Iraq is going to be an American-loving, Western-style democracy because we want it to be one.  THAT'S why.  And how is that going to happen?  The way George Bush told us it would.  You know, through freedom.  And we will win this war, because America is virtuous -- and not afraid to kill lots of people to prove it.  And because George Bush is a Democrat. BUCHANAN:  Ann Coulter, Colonel Hackworth suggests that the way we are fighting this war, for example, in Fallujah, I guess we killed about 600 or something like that, and we came in very heavy and very tough after the murder and mutilation of those four contractors, that that may not be the way to fight the war.  What are your thoughts on that?  COULTER:  Wars are similar in some ways and different in some ways.  All wars are.  But, no, the idea that this is Vietnam is preposterous.  Only the Democrats could take the world‘s greatest superpower to war and lose the war.  Democrats lost Vietnam because they don‘t believe in America‘s virtue.  They‘re squeamish about projecting America‘s power around the world.  Look at John Kerry.  He votes for the war, but then doesn‘t vote to fund it.  That‘s how the Democrats take the nation to war.  They love throwing American troops and money around the world.  But then they won‘t commit to when.  In Vietnam, a Republican either wouldn‘t have gone to war or would have fought it to win.  And as long as George Bush is president, this is not going to be another Vietnam.  REICH:  I don‘t know how we could have won Vietnam, given how we began Vietnam.  And do you think that if we had stayed in Vietnam we would have won it and that we should have stayed and continued to bomb?  COULTER:  I think it‘s a curious fact is that we only lose wars that Democrats run. REICH:  That is absolutely bizarre.  That reasoning is absolutely absurd. Well, it's the only kind of reasoning of which Ann is capable: Right makes might.  The American way is the only way.  Republicans are good, Democrats are bad.  And everything would be perfect, if not for those meddling liberals.  She's just the kind of apologist the Bush Administration deserves. 8:39:55 PM

More A.M. Radio News Jonah Goldberg, compelled by "Frankenfreude" to share his views on Air America with us: Here's what set off my latest bout of FF. Air America is off-air in Chicago and L.A. because they bounced a check after only two weeks of broadcasting, according to Arthur Liu, the owner of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., who was essentially renting airtime to Air America. The folks at Air America deny this, claiming that Liu is lying and — I quote — a "Liu-ser." I am delighted to hear that making fun of Asian last names is now socially acceptable according to liberals. Because, per Jonah, the liberal creed requires never making fun of the last name of a guy who has been cheating you and then lying about you when you stop payment on a check -- if the guy is Asian.  However, the conservative creed REQUIRES you to make extra fun of Asian names (because they are inherently funny), which is why it's a better creed. Franken justifies his relentless personal and ad hominem attacks on conservatives by asserting that his victims are mean-spirited and they deserve it. That may cut it for his fans, but it's not based in anything resembling principle. If it's wrong for Limbaugh and Coulter to do what they do, it's wrong for Franken to do it too. Right? More to the point, it's lame.  I thought liberals were the people with the "positive agenda"? All of this amounts to snarky, "me too" copycat liberalism. Air America was founded, we've been told, to be a "liberal version" of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. Am I the only one who hears children talking about how they'll build a bigger, better tree house because the cool kids won't let them play in theirs? In fact, it's for this reason that I'm confident Air America will stagger on for a while: It's simply too important to the self-esteem of liberals. Yes, conservatives have copyrighted the "making personal and ad hominem attacks" method of political discourse, and so it's lame if the liberals do it too.  Everybody knows that "conservatism" = "mean-spirited," so it's too late for the liberals to jump on that band wagon.  Besides, they're supposed to be the nice ones, and so it's just not fair if they respond to Limbaugh and O'Reilly in kind.  So, Jonah is going back to that tree house his mother built for him (the one with the big "No Liberals Allowed" sign on it) and hang out with his cool kid friends.  THAT will teach them. 3:03:45 PM

I Thought it Was the Liberals Who Were Supposed to Disdain "Fly Over Country" From the NY Post: CONTROVERSIAL talk show host Michael Savage is moving up to prime time and WOR's entire lineup is shifting to accommodate him. . . ."It's enormous," the Bronx-born blabber told The Post.  "The number of people on the Cross-Bronx Expressway is probably bigger at 6 than in the entire Midwest." 2:33:10 PM