Three weeks ago, I interviewed Ann Coulter about her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism. The interview turned out to be far more popular than I ever imagined, as it was seen by millions of people when the Drudge Report linked to it and it was referenced on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes."
This week I decided to do a follow-up interview with Ann, asking her about what life has been like since the release of Godless.
It has been three weeks since Godless: The Church of Liberalism was released. How does the media coverage of it compare to that of your other books?
It's been about the same. A typical review of the book focuses mostly on what I was wearing that day and how I looked. Then the reviewer finds one sentence in my book, re-writes it in a way that makes me sound crazy, and acts as if he's written a cogent, balanced review of a 300-page analysis of the religion of liberalism.
I read Godless several weeks before its official release. Though insightful, I don't think I would have picked the handful of words you wrote about the Jersey Girls as the most controversial passage. What aspects of the book did you think would anger liberals the most?
I thought they'd be thrown by the title, but then again, so many of them have never heard of God. And then there's the cover photo of me wearing a black dress and smiling - for some reason that always seems to enrage liberals.
After writing a review of Godless and doing my first interview with you, I received mostly negative e-mails within the first 48 hours. Now that the book has been out for several weeks, the positive e-mails from people who actually read the book are pouring in. I have yet to receive a negative e-mail from someone who even claims to have read Godless. Why are liberals afraid of reading your books?
Liberals are not just afraid of reading my books, they're afraid of other people reading my books. That's why they cover them up in bookstores and steal them out of people's mailboxes - people actually call Air America radio shows and boast about having done this, and the on-air people encourage listeners to follow suit. What they'd really like to do is burn all of my books, except that might contribute to global warming.
Godless seems to be the book that launched a thousand pundit wannabes. Why can't liberals stop talking about you?
They attack people they're afraid of, like me, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, the Pope…
Is it accurate for your defenders to say that a lot of what you write is tongue-in-cheek?
Obviously some of the things I write are tongue-in-cheek. These are known in the writing business as “jokes.” Liberals pretend that they can't tell if I'm joking or not because they think people will actually believe, just to pick one example, that I have seriously called for the murder of a U.S. congressman. (I described John Murtha as: “the reason soldiers invented fragging.”) Fortunately, my readers are not as stupid as liberals and know a joke when they hear one.
Tim Russert's Wisdom of Our Fathers became No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list shortly after Godless, yet you don't hear critics saying, “Oh, he wrote a schmaltzy book right before Father's Day just to sell books.” Why is the “just to sell books” insult used to belittle conservative authors? Isn't it more accurate to say that mainstream publishers finally started publishing conservatives just to sell books?
Actually you did hear one critic saying exactly that about the Russert book: Me.
Following our first interview, I received an e-mail claiming I was “just as vicious as Ann Coulter.” I want this on my resume, byline and maybe tattooed on my forehead. How does liberals' hysterical reaction to Godless invigorate you?
You know you're doing something right when you've reduced hordes of liberals to blind, sputtering rage. When I publish a book that doesn't enrage the left, that's when I'll start worrying.
What question do you wish interviewers would ask you?
What's Al Franken really like?
What's Al Franken really like?
He's an arrogant, ill-mannered, mean-spirited, frog-like lying bitch. And those are his good points.
Each year at events like Sean Hannity's Freedom Concert and my organization's Conservative Political Action Conference, you're treated like a rock star by thousands and thousands of people. How do your fans inspire you to continue writing?
By treating me like a rock star at events like the Freedom Concerts, and by making my books No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers' lists.
