Politics

Coulter vs. Malkin: Female conservatives clash over Palin

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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Last Sunday, in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter took what some have seen as a swipe at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, saying that the eventual Republican candidate shouldn’t pick “a novelty candidate” as their vice presidential nominee because it “would ring too much like Sarah Palin.”

Conservative blogger and commentator Michelle Malkin challenged Coulter’s characterization, suggesting in a post on Monday that Coulter was part of the “war on conservative women” Malkin had opined on a month ago.

“‘Novelty candidate’ means an outside-the-Beltway, outside-the-establishment public servant who speaks from the heart, lives political and personal life on her own terms, and embodies all that Coulter’s best Hollywood friends like misogynist Bill Maher hate,” Malkin wrote on Monday. “Sometimes, the war on conservative women isn’t just being waged by the Left. This is a form of political fragging. Shame.”

If Coulter is indeed waging a war on conservative women by attacking Palin, it’s a departure from her previous gestures toward the former Alaska governor. As Malkin pointed out, Coulter appeared in the Citizens United film “Fire from the Heartland,” a documentary about conservative women in today’s political environment.

And despite harsh and public criticism of Palin’s running mate, Sen. John McCain, even going so far as to say she would vote for Hillary Clinton over him in 2008, Coulter proclaimed the former Alaska governor the Human Events “conservative of the year” that year. Coulter also wrote the laudatory blurb three years ago for Time magazine when it named Palin to its Time 100 list.

But despite Coulter’s previous overtures, Malkin is sticking to the sentiment in her prior blog post. Late Wednesday, Malkin responded to a query from The Daily Caller and said Coulter’s recent remarks saying that a Palin-type “novelty candidate” pick for the GOP vice-presidential spot would fall flat discounted those gestures.

“She is questioning the sincerity of countless conservative women across the country who are sick and tired of being smeared by liberal cowards hiding behind the humor card,” Malkin wrote in an email. “Her most recent statements call into question her past praise for Palin and her past participation in a documentary that explicitly takes on liberal hate of conservative women. Opportunism? Schtick? I know I am not the only one questioning her. I’m just one of the few willing to question her out loud.”

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