I'm always amused when I hear liberals pretending to be outraged over controversial comments from conservatives. While the US has thousands of troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, liberals have been bashing the commander in chief for 'recklessly taking us to war.'

Some on the left have referred to the president as a mass—murderer and called him 'Hitler,' statements that only serve to give our enemies a sense of justification for putting our soldiers in their crosshairs. While those troops face mortal danger every minute of every day, pusillanimous senators like Ted Kennedy add to their peril by telling the world that the war in Iraq was 'a fraud, made up in Texas to give Republicans a political boost.'

Meanwhile, Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean said, 'The idea that we're going to win in Iraq is just wrong.' Imagine how debilitating that statement was to the soldiers dodging bullets and seeing their buddies blown apart in roadside bombs. I don't know about you, but when I hear US officials endangering the lives of American men and women in uniform during a war, I call it treason. Liberals call it merely exercising their right to free speech.

Yet, when conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter makes provocative statements about those who bash Bush and criticize the war effort, liberals are aghast. Coulter's recent comments about the 4 widows of 9/11 victims is a perfect example. In Coulter's new book, Godless — The church of liberalism,' she specifically takes to task the so—called 'Jersey Girls.'

'These self—obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them ... These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief—arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.'

Well, liberals went ballistic! One would have thought someone had criticized the Spotted Owl or slandered the Alaskan Caribou. The false sense of outrage was pathetic with every leftist wacko from sea to shiny sea making his or her way to a microphone to condemn Coulter for being mean spirited. Keep in mind, she was criticizing those women who had put themselves in the middle of the political arena by going around the country endorsing John Kerry for president, and blaming Bush for 9/11. Oddly enough, they didn't seem to have much criticism for the terrorists who were responsible for obliterating the lives of their husbands and about 3000 others.

Ms. Coulter was right on target; the moment these women went political with their newfound status they became fair game for those who disagree with them. They can't hide behind the sanctuary of victimhood when they make the transition from grieving widows to Democrat activists and war critics.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D—NY) made the mistake of opening her mouth about Coulter:

'Perhaps her book should have been called 'Heartless,' Clinton said, adding that the author was mean—spirited. That gave the conservative firebrand the opportunity to slam the former First Lady, who had repeatedly run interference for her womanizing husband.

'I think if Ms. Clinton is worried about people being mean to women she should have a talk with her husband,' Coulter told radio host Sean Hannity.

'This is, I remind you, Bill Clinton's wife,' Coulter added. 'And I'm the one who's mean to women? Before criticizing others for being mean to women, perhaps Hillary should talk to her husband, who was accused, credibly, of rape by Juanita Broaddrick and groping Kathleen Willey at the very moment Willey's husband was committing suicide.'

Yes, we can all remember watching Ms. Broaddrick on national television describing the brutal rape at the hands of Bill Clinton when he was the Attorney General of Arkansas. We can also remember the sexual trysts in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky. Where was the outrage from Hillary and the NOW crowd when Mr. Clinton was behaving like a serial sexual harasser? Have we forgotten when he stood before a national audience, pointed his finger in our faces and said, 'I did not have sex with that woman?'

Of course, he admitted it later, but only after he told the public that he didn't consider oral sex to be sex. The problem that liberals have with Ann Coulter is that she doesn't allow them a free pass when they use inflammatory rhetoric. Radical Democrats use people like Cindy Sheehan and the Jersey Girls to promote their leftist agendas in the same way that thugs use hostages to keep from being fired upon. Ann Coulter has masterfully taken away their human shields.

Bob Weir    6 11 06