Coulter on a Stick

As you might have already guessed, there is little in this world more fun for me than poking holes in some of the hot air bag pundits from both extremes of the political spectrum. One of my favorite targets is, of course, the nauseating Ann Coulter. (Better know as "The Toxic Twig", to quote the brilliant James Wolcott.) However, I've been saved the trouble of disecting her latest bits of nonsense by the good people at Media Matters for America.

Coulter then said, "Nicholas Kristof wrote about, you know, I'd support this war if A, B, and C happened. Well, A, B, and C have happened. And it did go better than liberals were predicting." Coulter's vague claim follows her May 27, 2004, syndicated column "Tit-for-Tat," in which she declared:

The goalpost of success keeps shifting as we stack up a string of victories. Before the war, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof warned that war with Iraq would be a nightmare: "(W)e won't kill [deposed Iraqi dictator] Saddam, trigger a coup or wipe out his Republican Guard forces." (Unless, he weaseled his way out, "we're incredibly lucky.")

We've done all that! How incredibly lucky.

Kristof continued: "We'll have to hunt out Saddam on the ground -- which may be just as hard as finding Osama in Afghanistan, and much bloodier."

We've captured Saddam! And it wasn't bloody! Indeed, the most harrowing aspect of Saddam's capture was that he hadn't bathed or been de-liced for two months.

Notice how cleverly she twists the words of Kristof, implying that he was talking about our efforts across the entire duration of the war. As Media Matters point out, however, in context Kristof was referring only to the bombing campaign that went on before we even began the invasion.

From Kristof's September 27, 2002, New York Times column -- published more than five months before the Iraq war started:

As the last gulf war showed, a bombing campaign can knock out bridges and barracks, but unless we're incredibly lucky, we won't kill Saddam, trigger a coup or wipe out his Republican Guard forces. We'll have to hunt out Saddam on the ground -- which may be just as hard as finding Osama in Afghanistan, and much bloodier.

This is the sort of partisan hijinks that get misinformation started. And once these poisonous little ramblings hit the airwaves, they are picked up and parroted on every right wing blog and media outlet in the country.

To paraphrase Bilbo Baggins giving advice to young Frodo... you have to be careful when you step out into the blogosphere, my boy. You never know what might wind up sticking to your shoes.