Ann Coulter

Ann Hart Coulter (born February 25, 1962) is an American author, columnist, and conservative political commentator. Known for her outspoken style and vitriolic attacks on those with liberal views, she frequently appears on television, radio and as a speaker at public and private events. She is one of the most popular conservative commentators in the United States.

Coulter is very conservative both fiscally and socially. She is an ardent supporter of tax cuts, has spoken against abortion, and strongly opposes any legalization of illegal drugs. She also supported the Iraq War and often criticized members of the Democratic Party for being soft on defense.

Due to her outspokenness and vehement advocacy for American conservatism, she has incurred numerous criticisms. Congressman John Dingell, a senior Democrat from Michigan, once said that Ann Coulter "is not a journalist, a public-servant, nor an analyst and if not for her venom she couldn’t come up with enough words to fill a classified ad, let alone a column." Al Franken, comedian, author and senator, has repeatedly called her a liar and in some of his books has delineated a number of her lies together with documentation to support his denunciation of her.

Early life

Ann Coulter was born in New York City and raised in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her father was an FBI agent who became a corporate attorney.

As an undergraduate at Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences in Ithaca, New York, Coulter helped found The Cornell Review and was a member of the Delta Gamma national women's fraternity. She graduated with honors from Cornell in 1984, and received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Michigan Law Review. At Michigan, Coulter founded a local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.

After law school, Coulter served as a law clerk for Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Kansas City. After a short time in private practice New York City, Coulter left to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for Michigan Senator Spencer Abraham. She later became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights, a public-interest law firm.

Media career

Television, films and radio

Coulter first became a media figure when she was hired in 1996 by MSNBC as a legal correspondent. The network dismissed her at least twice due to her outspokenness. Since then, she has made frequent guest appearances on television, including The Today Show, Hannity and Colmes, The O'Reilly Factor, American Morning, Crossfire, Real Time, Politically Incorrect, and the fifth estate. She made her first film appearance in 2004, when she appeared in three films: Feeding the Beast, a made-for-television documentary on the "24-Hour News Revolution"., FahrenHYPE 9/11, a direct to video documentary designed to rebut Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and Is It True What They Say About Ann?, a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches. She is a frequent guest on many political opinion broadcasting shows, including Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mike Gallagher.

Columns

Since the late 1990s, Coulter has had a weekly (biweekly from 1999-2000) syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. It appears in about a hundred newspapers, on her own web site, and on several conservative websites: WorldNetDaily, Townhall.com, Human Events Online, Frontpage Magazine, Jewish World Review and the Drudge Report.

In 1999, she was briefly a regular columnist for the defunct George magazine. She also wrote exclusive columns weekly between 1998 and 2003 and occasionally since for the conservative magazine Human Events. In it, she discusses judicial rulings, constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and the executive branch.

Honors and awards

In 2000, Ann Coulter received a Conservative Leadership Award from the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and the Conservative Journalist of the Year Award from the Media Research Center. In 2001, she was described as one of the top 100 U.S. public intellectuals in Richard Posner's book on that subject. That same year, George magazine named her "one of the 20 Most Fascinating Women in Politics."

Political activities

In addition to her frequent media appearances and popular writings about politics, Coulter's activities have included advising a plaintiff suing the president and considering a run for Congress.

She debuted as a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal advisor for the attorneys representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Based in part on her experience with this case, Coulter wrote a book critical of Clinton called High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton].

In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for Congress from Connecticut on the Libertarian Party ticket to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman Christ Shays failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays' voting against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. She dropped the idea when the Libertarian Party of Connecticut declined to endorse her.

Reporting

ACORN

On Sean Hannity's 11 September show, she said of the ACORN investigation, said

Appearing on the September 11, 2009, edition of Fox News' Hannity, Ann Coulter said of O'Keefe and Giles, "Those were the two most unbelievable pimps and prostitutes I've ever seen. She has perfect skin, gorgeous hair. Oh, and I really liked the fur coat. I love that These young right-winners [sic], they are so magnificent. Why can't they -- they be the Republicans in Washington?"