Monday, January 12, 2009

Coulter vs. Huckabee

I cruised past Mike Huckabee's show on Fox last night and found that he was interviewing Ann Coulter. This struck me as of interest. Huckabee hasn't given me much reason to think he would be a good president, but he seems to be a perfectly decent guy. Coulter is a wicked shrew. So I was interested to see whether he would hold her to account for her outrages.

The first segment went fine. Huckabee played footage of Coulter having a pie thrown at her, then followed with clips of her calling Huckabee "stupid" and misrepresenting his positions on a variety of issues. He was polite but unsparing in his critique of her, and she began to look very uncomfortable.

Second segment, not so good. Huckabee praised Coulter's research and arguments and generally defended her book. He made no apparent connection between the shabby way she treated him with the shabby way she treats everybody she disagrees with. Couldn't he see that that it is all of a piece?

Coulter's various offenses against truth have been richly documented, for example, here, here and here. When Huckabee lets her off so easy, he discredits himself.

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