Ann Coulter is the Right kind of woman. Strutting her political stuff, all flowing hair and short skirts, Coulter validates right-wing misogynist bluster and class arrogance. Ms. Coulter mistakes capitulation for independent thinking, when in fact, as long as she echoes Dennis Miller or Bill O'Reilly-attacking anyone who questions American aggression abroad, claiming that Bill Clinton lies with ease, and chanting "classic liberal scandal!"-she'll have a job. To be sure, it is a lucrative career move; reactionary polemic pays well.
Like Dennis Miller, whose transformation from liberal stand-up to conservative rant man boggles the senses, Ann Coulter has broken the code for success in the American hyper-conservative media: embrace the ideology of the moment and claim it as one's own. In the world of mostly male, self-important talk television, female collusion makes an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em kind of sense. In this case, like Camille Paglia, for example, a woman spouts the illiberal ideas most damaging to other women and earns access to those prizes-wealth, television face time, book contracts-largely controlled by men.
