Behind the Ann Coulter zingers

AP/MSNBC:

Ann Coulter, the conservative pundit with a penchant for creating controversy, caused a ruckus when she called 9/11 widows Â?witchesÂ? and accused them of using their husbandsÂ? deaths for their own political gain.

It is just the latest of the high-emotion, sharp-rhetoric attacks that she has leveled in four previous books and frequent appearances on cable television programs. Her firebrand style even inspired NBCÂ?s Â?The West WingÂ? to create a Â?a blond, Republican sex kittenÂ? in her mold.

In her latest book, Coulter criticizes the four New Jersey widows who pushed for an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed their husbands at the World Trade Center. The women also backed Democrat John KerryÂ?s presidential candidacy in 2004.

Â?These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. IÂ?ve never seen people enjoying their husbandsÂ? deaths so much,Â? Coulter wrote.

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Ann Coulter is really attacking a form of liberal Democrat political theater that hides weak arguments behind a "don't pick on me, I'm a victim" or "I'm a war hero" facade. Cindy Sheehan is a prime example of Democrats choosing someone as a prop for their weak ideas on national security. The so called Jersey girls are unrepresentative of 9-11 victim families, but they used their victim status as a shield and a sword in attacking the President. It is a way of asserting positions that might not be defensible in a debate over the ideas expressed. They are used precisely because they expect the media to react the way it did when Coulter's statements became public, but in the process they proved Coulter's point.