The Daily Kos has a roundup of recent quotes from demagogue Ann Coulter, where she justifies the murder of
abortion providers. It’s the sort of thing that makes your stomach turn a little bit.  Last year In 2007, at a Reclaiming America for Christ conference,
Coulter said:

"Those few
abortionists were shot, or, depending on your point of view, had a procedure
with a rifle performed on them. I’m not justifying it, but I do
understand how it happened…. The number of deaths attributed to Roe
v. Wade about 40 million aborted babies and seven abortion clinic
workers; 40 million to seven is also a pretty good measure of how the political
debate is going."

 

After this conference, Coulter said something
similar at the 2008 Values Voters Summit, this time blaming the alleged absence
of democracy in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey for the increase in violence:

"…I understand
when you take democracy away from people, some of them will react violently."

Never mind that the case was allowing women to make their
own reproductive decisions, without the required consent of their husbands or
parents, and this is drastically more democratic than anything Coulter would
seem to suggest. It’s horrifying that Coulter is justifying terrorism. In
her case, terrorism is acceptable so long as you agree with the cause; how
nuanced.

Coulter appeared on the O’Reilly
Factor this week to discuss the murder of Dr. George Tiller, offering these gems:

"I don’t really
like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd
trimester." And, "I am personally opposed to shooting abortionists, but I don’t
want to impose my moral values on others."

The problem with Coulter’s tone is that, in addition to its absurd
wit, it’s accompanied with a wink and nudge to the anti-abortion crowd, mitigating
murder and terrorism in the name of their cause. Coulter is feeding far-right extremism, and she knows it. This is irresponsible and dangerous, though I suppose it sells books.