Beneath Contempt

Okay, so will somebody please explain to me how it is that on the eve of among the biggest corporate take-overs, Murdoch's acquisition of The Wall Street Journal, a move so ominous that reporters nationwide for that newspaper walked out today in protest, and on a day when the president and vice president of the United States were subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about their subrogation of the Constitution via an illegal NSA spy program, CNN could devote a full hour of programming to that latest American fetish, Paris Hilton. Yes, and while we're at it, please explain, too, how on a day that Congress prepared to vote on controversial immigration legislation, the blogosphere lit up with reports of a cat fight between Ann Cobra (ooops, I mean Coulter) and a presidential candidate's wife? Clearly, desire for big advertising bucks has infected not merely the mainstream media, but the mainstream blogs, too. Yes, yes, greed is an equal opportunity destroyer.

Despite any claim she may have to be a product of the cave she crawled out of, Ann Coulter is beneath contempt, and unfit to clean Elizabeth Edward's shoes. She has shown, like many of her conservative colleagues, that she is expert at weapons of mass distraction. Ann Coulter is the "Roseanne" of political discourse, only Roseanne was funny; Ann is simply sadistic. She's making a fortune proving that while crime doesn't pay, cruelty sure as hell does.

It is immensely disturbing to watch anyone profit, and hugely, off personal attacks intended to deflect attention away from their own overpriced, and over-rated vacuousness.Yes, I know, as the Virginia Slim advertisement goes---"You've come a long way, baby." We now witness the entrance, into politics, of alpha females like Ms. Coulter who borrow the "by any means necessary" ethos from their Republican male counterparts and, in essence, out-Herod, Herod. And for those who have all but given up hope on the women's movement, and all the so-called progress made over the past 30 plus years, we have someone like Elizabeth Edwards to show that one can be brilliant, strategic, make a compelling argument, and manage to hit above the belt. If all women were aspire to be even half as evolved as Elizabeth Edwards, the world would be a far saner, and safer place.

Not only are personal attacks beneath contempt but, ultimately, they show the vulnerability of the attacker. One who tries to capitalize on what they think are another's weak points is not only showing their own intellectual limitations, but their own insecurities. The only thing more contemptible than Ms. Coulter's unprovoked, and unwarranted, diatribes against the Edwards is the willingness of the media, press, and blogosphere to go along for the ride, and take much-needed attention away from the ongoing travesties and outrages of an administration that continues to ride roughshod over our rights.