Fayetteville : Coulter pillories liberals in speech
Posted on Thursday, February 16, 2006
FAYETTEVILLE — Conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter came to the college town where Bill Clinton once taught law and skewered the former president Wednesday night.
Speaking to an audience of about 1, 100 that gave her two prolonged standing ovations, Coulter compared the recent Palestinian elections, in which the militant group Hamas won a majority, to Clinton’s presidential wins in 1992 and ’ 96.
“Sometimes you do have bad elections. We elected Bill Clinton by a plurality twice,” Coulter said, drawing cheers and a smattering of boos at the Walton Arts Center.
“As we speak, Bill and Hillary Clinton are having closeddoor meetings on Capitol Hill,” Coulter said. “The first item on their agenda : how to make Howard Dean’s death look like an accident.”
The Clintons lived in Fayetteville from 1973 until 1976 while serving on faculty at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s School of Law. The couple was married in a house near campus in 1975. The university purchased the home last year and leased it to the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, which turned it into a museum.
Some in the crowd jeered after Coulter called Clinton a “pot” smoker and a draftdodger. She took repeated jabs at Democrats during her hourlong speech.
Republicans and the Bush administration drew her fire, as well. Coulter complained about the White House’s handling of Vice President Dick Cheney’s weekend hunting accident.
“I don’t know if any of you have watched Scott McClellan, but he’s a moron,” Coulter said, referring to the White House press secretary. “The reason we are winning is because liberals are insane, not because we are a smooth-running operation.”
Coulter criticized the media for “overkill” in their reporting of the Cheney story.
She admonished Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican who is considered a 2008 presidential candidate in some circles, for “spending a little too much time with Bill Clinton for my taste.”
The talk was sponsored by UA’s College Republicans, Associated Student Government and University Programs office.
Coulter, who writes a syndicated column, is the author of four New York Times bestsellers — How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must ), Treason : Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, Slander : Liberal Lies About the American Right, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors : The Case Against Bill Clinton.
The lecture was free and open to the public, but Coulter’s representatives barred media photographers and television news crews inside the arts center’s 1, 201-seat auditorium. She appeared on stage flanked by three security guards.
Coulter’s speech was briefly interrupted by a man in the balcony, who stood and yelled at Coulter and audience members for about 30 seconds before he was removed by a security guard.
Coulter also exchanged words with one woman in the crowd, who yelled, “Not in Iraq !” when Coulter said that U. S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction.
“Yes in Iraq,” Coulter responded. “Maybe instead of yelling, you should read.” There were no incidents at Coulter’s Jan. 26 appearance at Philander Smith College in Little Rock. But she abruptly stopped speaking 15 minutes into a speech at the University of Connecticut in December. She switched to a question-and-answer format when students started chanting “You suck, you suck.”
To contact this reporter : cbranam@arkansasonline. com
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