Coulter was for Mitch McConnell before she was against Mitch McConnell. Coulter has favored RINOs for years and is “shocked, shocked” when they act like RINOs.[1]
For years, conservatives have warned Coulter about McConnell (just as they did with Romney).[2] Coulter never listens to anyone but herself.
Coulter Loves McConnell, Not Cruz
Two years ago, Coulter praised McConnell, calling him “the Ted Cruz on campaign finance reform … Mitch McConnell was so strong on that, was so brave, was attacked by the media, never backed down. And just one other point – he is leader of the Senate … he has to gather all the Republicans together.”[3]
Yet, Coulter opposes Cruz and insists we should not primary Republican candidates like McConnell. Coulter said, “We can’t get anything done unless we have a majority in the Senate. So stop blowing Senate races for Republicans. That’s a big lesson from this.”
For years, but especially since the 2012 election, Coulter has lambasted the Tea Party and insisted that we elect “Republicans” irrespective of their actual ideological purity.
But Coulter’s political playbook does not work,[4] as McConnell himself proves.
Coulter was so entranced with McConnell that she refused to acknowledge any negatives about him, prompting Glenn Beck to say, “I’m sorry, Ann, you’re out of your mind crazy if you think that Mitch McConnell had nothing to do … with a two billion dollar work project in his state.”[5]
Nevertheless, Coulter was ecstatic at the thought of a McConnell-Boehner dynamic duo courageously confronting Obama on key issues. As she told Hannity,
“If we have the Senate, too, with Mitch McConnell and John Boehner passing repeals of Obamacare and terrific things, the media won’t be able to keep maintaining its Republicans who are doing nothing but passing birth control laws. They will have to report on the bills that get passed out of both houses of Congress and our do-nothing president keeps vetoing. That will set up a presidential candidate very well for 2016. This is a very important election, please, Republicans.”[6]
Coulter’s Paean to McConnell
One year ago, Coulter wrote a paean to McConnell in which she called anti-establishment Tea Party conservatives a “mob” and insisted McConnell is not an establishment RINO.[7]
Coulter claimed, “For months and months, for example, I’ve been demanding facts – not shibboleths or epithets – from the anti-Mitch McConnell brigade.”
But Coulter has studiously, myopically, and willfully ignored the facts presented against McConnell.
Coulter asserted, “There are breathless headlines all over the Internet claiming, ‘McConnell Supports Amnesty!’ but when you click on them, the links don’t work and the claims don’t make sense.”
Except, of course, the senselessness was really coming from Coulter.
Coulter continued: “I know this from looking up McConnell’s actual voting record, as opposed to reading nonsensical jeremiads against McConnell on the RedState blog.”
Coulter mocked her opponents: “Here’s the counter-argument from the anti-McConnell crowd: HE’S A RINO! HE’S AN ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN! HE’S BEEN A TERRIBLE LEADER! MITCH LIED, KIDS DIED!”
Except, of course, the “anti-McConnell crowd” was right.
After an historic victory last November, the first thing McConnell promised was that there would be no government shutdown. Isn’t that like Obama taking off the table “boots on the ground” before negotiating with an enemy?
Likening the Tea Party to a mob, Coulter added: “Ladies and Gentlemen, there you have all the attributes of a mob: Slogans in lieu of logic and evidence, beliefs impenetrable by facts, emotional hatred of the ‘enemy’ and the acceptance of wild contradictions.”
But the Tea Party was correct. McConnell should have been primaried. Coulter has a habit of preferring RINOs to the Tea Party.
Coulter repeatedly tried to convince Hannity of her point of view, saying, “As I said on this program a few weeks ago, if you want to see who’s really going after the establishment, I wanna hear they’re going after someone who supports amnesty. … The only thing standing between us and amnesty right now is Mitch McConnell.”[8]
McConnell caved without a fight!
Coulter Knows Best!
Just a few weeks ago, Coulter again claimed to know what’s best for America.
Coulter’s pride and arrogance were on full display as she attacked prominent conservative leaders: “Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, all the alleged conservatives.”[9]
Coulter claimed that those people – Limbaugh, Palin, alleged conservatives – don’t read and don’t know what they are talking about, in contradistinction to Coulter, who boasted: “My thought is that everyone should just listen to me because I do read.”
In that interview, Coulter again compared Romney to Reagan,[10] as she has done since Romney’s disastrous defeat in 2012:
“Romney is the ferocious Terminator on immigration, but these idiot conservatives – because he looks good in a suit, he looks presidential, he got more of the white vote than Ronald Reagan did in 1980 – ‘no, we must hate him.’”
Yes, Coulter called Limbaugh, Palin, and the Tea Party “idiot conservatives.”
Coulter again reiterated her three-year-old political playbook:[11] vote Republican regardless of their ideology.
“There is a suicidal tendency on the part of some conservative activists – not you and me, we actually care about the country – which is to say, their idea of what constitutes a ‘true conservative’ means ‘anyone the big money people don’t like.’ So, if you don’t have a chance to be president, that’s the one that ends up getting anointed – the ‘true conservative.’”
Did you notice that those “idiot conservatives” – Limbaugh, Palin, Tea Party – also don’t “actually care about the country?”
Coulter continued her jaundiced view of the Tea Party, insisting, “Many conservatives determine who a ‘true’ conservative is by who is most likely to lose. That really proves your conservative bonafides.”
But wait, didn’t Romney lose?[12]
In settling for less than Romney, conservative powerhouse Ann Coulter expressed her confidence that she could “influence” a President Walker or President Cruz to follow her immigration prescription.
In the summer of 2014, Coulter demanded that Republicans obey her orders: “We can’t just abandon the field right now. You have to vote Republican, even for crap-ass Republicans, and I would name them but I’m not going to. You have to vote Republican.”[13]
Coulter commanded Republicans and Libertarians to resist primarying an incumbent (or establishment) Republican: “Why are we attacking Republicans right now? There are a lot of bad Republicans, there are no good Democrats. The country is in the balance. You have to vote Republican right now!”
But “crap-ass Republicans” – by definition – will not vote conservative.
And didn’t.
Coulter Sees RINOs will be RINOs (sort of)
Aghast at the Senate’s repeated capitulation to Obama’s amnesty actions, Coulter finally recognized McConnell’s cowardice, sort of. (To be fair, he is behaving as the establishment Republican he has always been.)
Coulter complained – of her courageous hero – that he had sold out to the media, saying:
“Mitch McConnell will get all kinds of dividends on this from editorials in the New York Times. They will be praising his bravery. It takes a lot of courage – takes lots of courage to betray your constituents, to break your promises in the interest of bipartisanship and that is what Mitch McConnell is going for. No, of course this is a total cave.”[14]
Coulter also penned a polemic attacking all of those “crap-ass Republicans” that she insisted we vote for.
Coulter wrote:
“Back when they needed our votes before the last election, Republicans were hairy-chested warriors, vowing to block Obama’s unconstitutional ‘executive amnesty’ – if only voters gave them a Senate majority. The resulting Republican landslide suggested some opposition to amnesty.”[15]
Coulter continued:
“Before the election, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained that Obama’s decision to delay his executive amnesty until after the election was a ploy to prevent Americans from ‘hold(ing) his party accountable in the November elections.’”
Coulter continued:
“Now McConnell is Senate majority leader – and he claims his hands are tied.”
Coulter continued:
“If a Republican majority in both houses of Congress can’t stop Obama from issuing illegal immigrants Social Security cards and years of back welfare payments, there is no reason to vote Republican ever again.”
But wasn’t that the Tea Party’s point? If you elect RINOs, you get Republicans In Name Only.
But just last night, Coulter defended the GOP cave in on what she regards as an existential threat to America. She said, “I blame the media more than the Republicans.”[16]
What? We elected Republicans, not the media.
RINOs will always behave like RINOs! When will Coulter learn?
Update: McConnell keeps caving!
Endnotes:
[1] See “Case Study # 5: Coulter v. Tea Party,” Propaganda: Orwell in the Age of Ann Coulter, 2014, available as a free PDF download at www.coulterwatch.com/propaganda.pdf.
[2] See “Case Study # 6: Romney v. Everyone Else,” Propaganda: Orwell in the Age of Ann Coulter, 2014, available as a free PDF download at www.coulterwatch.com/propaganda.pdf.
[3] Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck Show, 10/15/13.
[4] See “Case Study # 7: Political Playbook,” Propaganda: Orwell in the Age of Ann Coulter, 2014, available as a free PDF download at www.coulterwatch.com/propaganda.pdf.
[5] Glenn Beck, Glenn Beck Show, 10/15/13.
[6] Ann Coulter, Hannity, FNC, 10/21/14.
[7] Ann Coulter, “Right-Wing Mons? Say It Isn’t So, Conservatives!” 3/12/14.
[8] Ann Coulter, Hannity, FNC, 3/4/14.
[9] Ann Coulter, Joyce Kaufmann Show, WFTL, 2/2/15.
[10] See “Coulter Stumps for Romney – Again!” at http://wp.me/p4jHFp-4V.
[11] See “Case Study # 7: Political Playbook,” Propaganda: Orwell in the Age of Ann Coulter, 2014, available as a free PDF download at www.coulterwatch.com/propaganda.pdf.
[12] See “Chapter 2: Presidential Follies,” Never Trust Ann Coulter – at ANY Age, 2013, available as a free PDF download at www.coulterwatch.com/never.pdf.
[13] Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity Show, Premiere Radio Networks, 8/12/14.
[14] Ann Coulter, Hannity, FNC, 2/25/15.
[15] Ann Coulter, “GOP Double-Crossing Traitors,” 2/18/15.
[16] Ann Coulter, Hannity, FNC, 3/5/15.
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