Burkman again echoed Coulter's 9-11 widow attacks on Scarborough Country: "[W]ithin hours of those towers going down, these women were ready to make money and exploit this tragedy!"
On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Republican strategist Jack Burkman, echoing right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, whom he was defending, declared that "within hours of those [World Trade Center] towers going down," the wives of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks "were ready to make money and exploit this tragedy!"
On the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Republican strategist Jack Burkman resumed defending and echoing right-wing pundit Ann Coulter's attacks against the wives of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, declaring that "within hours of those [World Trade Center] towers going down, these women were ready to make money and exploit this tragedy!"
In a discussion with host Joe Scarborough, Burkman demanded that people ask "some questions about these widows, these witches of New Brunswick," and wondered how long it took the widows to "hire[] PR agents" after the 9-11 attacks: "Did they wait two days? Did they wait a month?" Burkman then surmised that "I think it was done in the first week." Burkman then "challenge[d]" the 9-11 widows "to a debate" about the allegations, but suggested that the widows would decline "because they have a lot to hide" and "don't want the nation to see" their desire to "exploit this tragedy."
As Media Matters for America noted, Burkman recently appeared on Scarborough Country to defend Coulter's statements "[a]ll the way," asserting that Coulter "understates the point" and is "telling the truth." Burkman added that the 9-11 widows -- whom he compared to anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan -- "exploited commercially" the deaths of their loved ones, that they had "breathlessly ... stepped just into the fame thing," and that "before the bodies are cold, they're out selling and trying to make money." He further argued that Osama bin Laden is "shocked" and "amazed" because of "what these women have done and others have done with 9-11, they have commercialized him." Burkman later claimed "because of this PC thing," the 9-11 widows "get away with it."
From the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:
SCARBOROUGH: With me now to talk about it: Air America host Mike Papantonio and Republican strategist Jack Burkman. Jack, let me start with you. What's wrong with New Jersey legislatures [sic] pushing for a Bush [sic: book] ban? A lot of conservatives, according to liberals, don't care for the First Amendment anyway.
BURKMAN: Well, they're taking away her First Amendment rights. It's just silly. It's a hideous restriction on free speech. I'll tell you this, though, Joe. Her next book advance is going to be about $15 million.
You know, Joe, the one thing I would ask -- let's make some news tonight, here. Nobody is asking the basic, factual question. The focus is on Ann Coulter, and I certainly support everything she's saying. But, let's have some questions about these widows, these witches of New Brunswick. Is it the case that they hired PR agents in the days after? How long did they wait? Did they wait two days? Did they wait a month? I think it was done in the first week, and I think there's evidence that they had lawyers, PR people, literary agents, all of these folks telling them to go out there.
And so I say to the news media tonight -- and I will throw down the gauntlet right on this program and challenge all four of those women to a debate. I challenge you to tell this country when you did what you did. But they won't. They won't because they have a lot to hide, and they don't want the nation to see that within hours of those towers going down, these women were ready to make money and exploit this tragedy!
[...]
BURKMAN: If it is the case that these women hired lawyers and PR agents and literary agents in the 48 hours after the Trade Center attack, if that's true, will you join me in joining with Ann and saying she said the right thing?
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Whatta man, delve into the private lives of loss to prove your small-minded, smearing, political point!
what should have been at best a one day cable-only shout fest between ann lovers and haters has turned into a week plus media blitz event from the today show to the tonight show. with nothing accomplished except polarizing further the ideologues on both sides digging in their heels and milking this book of coulter-esque opinions into a circus. i bet coulter never even dreamed she'd get this much mileage even though it's pretty obvious she chose her words more than carefully and knew exactly what she wanted. and she got it and more. all this will die down soon, thankfully, because it's repetitive ad nauseum at this point. love or hate her, she ain't no dumb blonde.
Right On, what insight, as usual.
Yawn.
what is insightful, or rather illuminating, as well as enriching to ann and her publishers, are when people like you stomp up and down unending. the madder you get the richer she gets. good job.
I am not mad, I find her pathetic, as I find someone who makes her seem even remotely normal as she spews her fact less hate around .
Every time it rears it's ugly head. The 9/11 widows history and personal life is just that, PERSONAL. Just because they backed a political candidate is no reason for anyone to say the hateful things said about them. No one is prying into the personal life of the woman who has become a media darling of the right who is also a 9/11 widow. She supported Bush in his re-election, she supported the recent government wiretapping abuses. If someone on the left were to pry into her private life it would be just as wrong.
Every day it becomes more apparent that a large part of the Republican Machine is in favor of the tactics used against these women. This should not be forgotten. It should be kept alive until November and allow the American people to judge for themselves whether we are still a country endowed by it's creator with certain inalienable rights or are we a nation overcome by it's own hatred.
It seems to me you can't handle criticism Jack, so you play the angry liberal card. I'm smarter than that me' boy. Truly, it's the conservative that's angry.
... she's still Ann Coulter.
That's OK if money is all you love. But most people would not put their dignity, honor, and humanity up for sale, for ANY price. No matter how much cash she can amass, who would trade places with one of the world's foremost hatemongers? There just isn't enough money in the world to make it worthwhile to wake up in the morning and see her face staring out of the mirror.
She IS a great spokesperson for the rightwing cause, for rightwing morality, and rightwing "character". Note that her entire thrust is DESTRUCTION. The things she opposes, she seeks to destroy. The things she SUPPORTS ... Bush, War, her personal version of "Christianity" ... are all DESTRUCTIVE.
It's pie easy to DESTROY. It's far harder to create, to lift up, to CONSTRUCT better lives for people. It's only reasonable that a hateful and destructive ideology would have a hateful and destructive spokesperson.
What do you call a person who trades their dignity for $$$?
What might that make Ann?
I have no doubt this was planned, but Ann is proving what she really is here.
I suppose anyone can do what Ann is doing to make money if they are a sociopath, don't have a conscience at all, heavily sudated or a combination of the above.
Your "yawning" responses would clearly be different if it were Randi Rhodes firing off such ridiculous venom and it was Bob Beckel defending her. Clearly, you wouldn't be as bored, Right On.
---"nothing accomplished"---
The hate-monger that is Ann Coulter has been exposed to many, many more people than ever before, and that's nothing but a good thing. She is no longer as much of a dirty little secret. She is quickly becoming persona non grata even amongst conservatives. She'll still sell books because there will always be people who love the smell of her garbage. But this one-trick pony has dug a deep, deep hole for herself and as yet hasn't figured out that she needs to stop digging before her :15 are up. Sunshine is the best disinfectant-the more the better.
If you find the Coulter threads so irritating , why don't you skip them. Don't read them and don't comment on them, simply move on to an unrelated thread that interest you. Let those who want to read and comment do so in peace. Talk about control issues. Since you feel this need to control what happens in this blog why don't you start your own .
The only ones actually talking about Ann's comments on TV are conservatives, all of whom agree with her.
If anybody is drumming this issue up bigger than it should be it's the conservatives.
What they've done here is construct yet another Strawman fallacy. The Republican Professional Liars are masters at this by now. In defending Coultergeist against a few mewling protests, they make it seem as if her free speech rights are under massive attack.
Another example of their Strawman obsession is the idiotic notion that Liberals are saddened by Zarqawi's death. But, repeat a lie often enough...
Is Jack Burkman as insane as Coulter?
Because if he is serious about what he said then that is the only explanation.
the stock market is tanking, our commander-in-chief is in Iraq uninvited pretending to be "president of iraq " instead of doing the job he is expected to do. Hey Bush, you are president of the USA wether you like it or not.
For that two bit punk Jack Burkman to back up Ann the shemale Coulter saying that the 9.11 widows couldn't wait to cash in on their husband deaths is funny only because it was Jack Burkman and the other slime that make up the new GOP were using these women husbands deaths on 9.11 to justify whatever the smirking half wit did from tax cuts to Paris Hilton to going into Iraq.
the conservatives used these women's husband's death from 9/11 to further paris hilton? makes sense.
Yeah. It's called the Estate Tax, aka Paris Hilton tax. Your buddies in Congress are trying to give a tax break to the most productive in our society; the children of the extremely wealthy.
9-11: The gift to conservatives that keeps on giving.
You nailed it.
This video will pretty much cover it.
It is the GOP that is the greatest exploiter of 9/11.
Deny it. I dare you.
I watched that segement on Scarborough Country with Mike Pap and that slimeball Jack Burkman, conservatives didn't mind making political hay of 9.11 when it benefits them from Bush getting sick 70 to 90 percent approval ratings only days after 9.11 and the Republican sure didn't mind to use 9.11 as a political rally cry for their mid term races back in 2002 and the Republican National convention come on now, the Republicans might as well called it the Remember 9.11 and re elected Bush convention. What really ticks Ann and the other right wing media whores is that it's ok to use 9.11 for political reasons that benefit their cost but don't use 9.11 to force some form of change from this republican government watch out.
This was McCarthyism at its lowest: making vile accusations against 9/11 widows based on nothing but his certainty that there are votes & money to had out of it. He even challenged them to debate him on his baseless smears! I wonder if he would be willing to debate me on the question of whether he has frequently had sex with his grandfather's corpse & the family dog. I challenge him to tell the nation when he did what he did.
This DOES illistrate, however, that Crazy Annie DOES speak for the neocons, & that there is NO limit on how far they'll go & how many lies they're willing to tell to maintain power.
What a smirking little black shirt punk!
Roetzel & Andress 1025 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 220 Washington DC 20036
The above is this *hitbags office address in Washington. I say we wait for him and take him up on his "challenge" in the street. Lets see how much he smirks then!
Coulter is allegedly a woman. This guy is a man trying to make a name for himself with the nutcases on he conservative side.
I wonder what the principals at Roetzel & Andress (his employer) would think of the bad publicity we can really bring to bear by having this clown on staff? Right now they think they are getting over... we can make that not the case.
Which is entirely unlike how the GOP has made money exploiting this tragedy...
The difference is, these women are actual victims of the act. The GOP are just reptilian opportunists.
Even if every word out of Burkman's mouth is true what difference does it make? Big deal. I don't care what the Jersey Girl's did or didn't do as far as publicists and what not. You lose your husband in a horiffic way you have a responsibility to stand up and say something. Waaah, waah Jersey Girl's are infalable, waaah! It really is quite pathetic. But it's the reality they create for themselves. The RNC talking heads can't face the fact their boy allowed 9-11 to happen because of gross incompetence. Incompetence we still see today.
Lance Armstrong is a major league a**hole to say anything about cancer.
I had said I did not blame moderate Republicans and conservatives for the NeoCon craziness, as this story unfolds I am going to have to recant this position. If Republicans keep covering for her, just like everything else they try to apologize for I am going to start saying it is a GOP talking point.
Knew he was going on National TV.
He knew he wanted to ACCUSE these women of something. That "something" could be easily researched, so that instead of "accusing", he could relate FACTS instead of making a "bet" based on his own uneducated and uninformed suspicion.
These women banded together with a common desire: to have the events surrounding their husband's death examined objectively, with a hope that such KNOWLEDGE could prevent any mistakes or miscalculations that occured. They requested, and then demanded, the issue not be ignored. Did they seek "publicity" professional help along the way? Certainly seems reasonable they would; after all, they were promoting a cause that was being resisted by our government.
This guy Burkman is pretty confident that somewhere along the line, such a pro was consulted. From THIS, he feels confident that he can turn that into these women being insincere and callous, some sort of golddiggers and morally calculating.
Even if they DID seek such advice, the conclusion Burkman wishes to draw is invalid and assinine. But Burkman makes his charges without even KNOWING.
How many good people with valid concerns and reasonable questions must be DESTROYED in order to prop up this president? How many more will die because partisans demand that his decisions be considered infallible and above question?
Alright Right on you wanna know how you guys on the right used the events of 9.11 one remember back at the RNC convention? How many times did the GOP speaker after GOP speaker mention 9.11 ? I tell you right on more than 50 times, remember back during the 2004 election when Bush and Cheney run tv ads using news clips from that day showing fire fighters and rescue workers removing bodies from the ruins, as for the tax cuts for Paris Hilton Right on you know those early months after 9.11 the Republicans used the event of that day to push neo con policy from tax cuts for the top 2% to invading a country that did nothing to us.