The American Spectator

I’ve argued for quite some time that Ann Coulter is one of the worst things that has ever happened to conservatives; she acts and talks like a liberal. Rather than provide an intellectual heaviness to her arguments she resorts to vitriolic name calling and snide remarks. In short, she often behaves in a manner that portrays the worst traits of the Left; hurling blanket, and often unfounded, accusations that do much to inflame an audience but does little to support an underlying argument.

p>Thank you for finally taking her to task for her truly tasteless remarks and pointing out that she has probably hurt the conservative movement much more than she has helped. br> — Jason Miyares br> Virginia Beach, Virginia /p> p> David Hogberg replies: br> Three quick points: /p>

1. For those who called me “politically correct” or willing to “make nice with the enemy,” clearly you know next to nothing about me or my writing.

2. Some letters make the legitimate point that we have no need to be polite when describing the enemy. Fair enough. But there are plenty of terms — murderer, terrorist, thug, etc. — that are “impolite” but don’t cross the line into racial epithets. Coulter’s use of the term “rag head” will do nothing to advance the War on Terror. If anything, it will hurt the cause by giving the opponents of the war a weapon (the charge of racism) to use against its supporters.

3. While some of the comments were ad hominem, they were remarkably free of the vitriol associated with a barrage of emails from the political left. I wonder, though, how long that will remain the case with a leader like Coulter setting such a lousy example. For conservatives to maintain higher standards than the opposition requires that we occasionally police our own — even those who have appeared on TV a lot and write best-sellers.