Demonic by Ann Coulter Read Free Book Online

employees.” The story ominously added, “Perhaps Bill Sparkman wasn’t given the time to follow that sage advice.” 26
    New York magazine ran an article about the dead census worker, asking, “Has Nancy Pelosi’s Fear of Political Violence Been Realized?” Somehow blaming Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN)—whom it called “wide-eyed” and “hysterical”—the magazine said a right-wing vigilante “wouldn’t be all that surprising, considering the sheer volume of vitriol directed at the federal government and the Obama administration these days by conservative media personalities, websites, and even members of Congress.” 27 Poor besieged liberals! Americans were committing hate crimes against them by asking Congress to cut spending! (Liberals are still trying to figure out how to blame John Hinckley’s shooting of Reagan on conservative rhetoric.)
    On CNN’s AC360 , Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, said, “At this point, this was such a symbolic and personal anger, that I’m led to lean towards someone who has severe anti-government feelings, perhaps someone who’s seeking revenge.” 28
    But for truly crazy zealotry, we turn to MSNBC. Asked by Ed Schultz on The Ed Show whether political rhetoric was driving people to commit crimes, MSNBC analyst and former FBI profiler Clint VanZandt said, “Absolutely. As I say, Ed, there are the fringe of the fringe. There are people sitting there saying, you know, you’re going to have to pry the gun out of my cold, dead fingers.… They listen to talk radio. They read blogs that are only on one side or the other. They watch programs that only have one side.… And for many of us, that just says, well, there, I believe it. For others, that says, by God, I’m not going to take it. I’m going to do something about it. And that fringe of the fringe, one more time, will pick up a gun.” 29
    But the one person most hysterically committed to the idea that a right-winger had murdered Bill Sparkman was MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Rachel’s main move is constant eye-rolling at the crazy things conservatives believe—which generally turn out to be true. But then she will transition in an instant to deadly serious earnestness about the possibility of, for example, anti-government right-wingers causing Sparkman’s death.
    The week the census worker’s death first broke, night after night, Maddow devoted large portions of her show to fearmongering over this “troubling story.” Letting her feminine side come out, she started to seem more like her MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann.
    Beginning her show with this “very serious breaking news,” Rachel reported that the FBI was investigating and that the census chief had called it “an apparent crime.” The only reason the FBI would be involved, she said, is that “it is a federal crime to attack a federal worker on the job or because of their job.”
    And so it went, with Rachel breathlessly reporting this “breaking national news” every night, quoting anonymous sources calling it a homicide and digging up rare video footage of Sparkman to show his human side.” 30
    One of Sparkman’s friends, retired state trooper Gilbert Acciardo, had been quoted in the Lexington Herald-Leader saying he had warned Sparkman to be careful working in that part of the state. Thinking she had found a fellow conspiracy theorist, Rachel invited him on the show. But despite Rachel’s portentous, leading questions, Acciardo repeatedly shot down her Deliverance fantasies.
Maddow: What—what in particular made you worry about him going to that part of the state?
Acciardo: Well … the road system over there is a little bit—they have smaller roads over there, and I was just afraid for his safety on driving the roads.…
Maddow: Did he ever express any concern to you about his work with the Census Bureau—any problems he’d ever had on the job?
Acciardo: No—just