Why I can't help but love Ann Coulter

Beliefnet: What portion of liberals would you say are religious in the more conventional sense of the word: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, even Wiccans?

Coulter: Hmmm, so you consider Wiccans “religious... in the conventional sense”?

Please. Don't splutter at me that she's a reckless bomb thrower. Of course she is! So was Lenny Bruce, who famously remarked of LBJ "Where's Lee Harvey Oswald when you need him?" But you know what? Bruce could be funny and perceptive, as when he remarked that the Catholic Church is the only "The Church". And Coulter's damn funny and perceptive too. Which is why she drives her ideological opponents crazy. Do I look to her for political wisdom and guidance? Of course not! But I do look at her as a fine political satirist and usually find myself laughing at her remarks, even when I know they are not what you would call accurate policy statements.

More here.

Oh and I also enjoyed these tidbits:

Beliefnet: We've done some polls here at Beliefnet, and a surprising number of Democrats at least say they are religious. Some 61 percent say they pray daily and 72 percent attend worship services once a month or more. How would you explain that?

Just curious: What percentage of them know which Testament the Book of Job is in?

Beliefnet: Do you think it is persuasive to trudge out long-dead horses such as Willie Horton (1988) or Piltdown Man (1912) and flog them one more time?

The word you're searching for is "dredge," not "trudge."

Beliefnet: You say that the Episcopal Church is "barely even a church." Why?

Because it's become increasingly difficult to distinguish the pronouncements of the Episcopal Church from the latest Madonna video.

Beliefnet: Is it important to you as a woman to be standing up for positions that many people (especially liberals) think are unrepresentative of women: opposing abortion, favoring the death penalty, and so forth?

The answer to any question beginning "Is it important to you as a woman" is: No. It's important to me as a Christian and an American to take the positions I take, but I would hold the same positions if I were a man. And by the way, despite your nearly mystical fascination with polls in earlier questions, you have apparently not brushed up on the abortion polls if you think opposition to abortion is "unrepresentative of women." No matter who takes the poll or how the questions are asked, women almost always oppose abortion more than men do. Abortion is a convenience for men who want to be able to have sex with women without consequence. Women love and protect children. Godless men--like Herod in Jesus' time, the Pharaoh in Moses' time, and Bill Clinton in our time--target babies for destruction.

Beliefnet: As a woman, do you long for that source of great fulfillment for many women: a husband, a family? Or do you see your life's vocation as primarily in the public arena?

As a journalist, do you long to have a sense of decorum? Or do you see your life's vocation as primarily asking strangers utterly inappropriate personal questions?

One last observation and then I'm done. As is the custom of journalists who don't quite get the joke, the publication of this interview is larded with quotes designed to get you to perceived Coulter as a holier-than-thou Pharisee. This is easily done because her reckless bomb-throwing "I don't give a shit what my critics think of me" attitude prompts her to make outrageous comments that are a goldmine for this sort of thing. Nonetheless, it is patently obvious to me that the Beliefnet has taken what is a manifestly self-deprecating remark and turned it into a Pharisaic boast. To wit: the email I received from Beliefnet bills the interview this way: "Ann Coulter: 'An Extraordinarily Good Christian'" and both the intro paragraph and the intro to page four of the interview repeats this meme. But when we get to the quote we discover it reads this way:

Beliefnet: What does it mean to be a good Christian, and do you consider yourself to be a good Christian?

To believe with all your heart at every moment that God loved a wretch like you so much that he sent his only son to die for your sins. Most of the time, I'm an extraordinarily good Christian.

In other words, "Most of the time I believe that I am a wretch for whom God sent his Son to die". Not much of a boast, but the irony is largely lost on the author, who rather plainly dislikes her subject. A lost opportunity, it seems to me, since it would be interesting to get past the persona of political combatant and laff-getter and find out what might be at the core of what appears to be a genuine faith in Christ.