Max Blumenthal is a genius

Who but a genius could make me take Ann Coulter’s side in a dispute?

I doubt there’s anyone else in the world who, this weekend, could lead me to take Ann Coulter’s side in a dispute. But when Blumenthal asked Coulter “why, as an exponent of the sanctity of marriage, you’ve had three broken engagements and never been married,” he set himself up for a perfect comeback: “Thank you for respecting my right to privacy.” Here’s the clip, with the Blumenthal-Coulter confrontation at the end.

Not only was the question positively Coulterish in its rudeness and crudeness, it wasn’t even logical. Presumably, if you feel that marriage is sacrosanct, you ought to be very cautious about getting married. I was impressed that Coulter actually came up with the right response on the spot, rather than just flipping Blumenthal the bird as he no doubt hoped she would.

How dumb do you have to be to ask Ann Coulter a nasty question to which there’s a good answer, given all the nasty questions you could ask her that she’d have no good answer to? He scores somewhat better with some of the other denizens of CPAC-land (which after all isn’t very hard to do), but based on this performance I’d have to say that he’s nasty, he’s stupid, and nobody (in his or her right mind) loves him.

That some other bloggers on my side of the aisle seem to approve of his antics seems to me like a serious lapse of morals, taste, and tactics. No, Blumenthal doesn’t descend to the Coulter level of obnoxiousness, but is that really the standard to which we wish to hold ourselves?

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com