In her December 9 nationally syndicated column, titled "The new and improved racism," and as a guest on the December 8 edition of FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter continued to accuse liberal and Democratic journalists and politicians of racism for criticizing black conservatives. Coulter also attacked “black liberals,” specifically New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert and Times media critic Caryn James, for “launching racist attacks on black conservatives.” James, however, is white.

Citing criticisms of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by the late Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory and former National Prison Project executive director Alvin J. Bronstein, Coulter wrote the following in her December 9 column:

The late Mary McGrory, a white liberal, called [Justice Antonin] Scalia “a brilliant and compelling extremist” -- as opposed to McGrory herself, a garden-variety extremist of average intelligence. But Thomas she dismissed as “Scalia's puppet,” quoting another white liberal, Alvin J. Bronstein of the American Civil Liberties Union, to make the point. This is the kind of rhetoric liberals are reduced to when they just can't bring themselves to use the N-word.

She also joined other conservative pundits who have accused Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) of racism for criticizing Justice Thomas on NBC's Meet the Press:

Most recently -- at least as we go to press -- last Sunday Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, had this to say about Justice Clarence Thomas: “I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written.” You'd think Thomas' opinions were written in ebonics.

Coulter also specifically attacked New York Times “black liberals” Herbert and James for “launching racist attacks on black conservatives.” Even though James is not black, Coulter still noted that of the “liberals launching racist attacks on black conservatives” that she quoted in her column, “only two are themselves black: the two who write for the New York Times”; Herbert and James are the only Times writers Coulter cited.

From Coulter's December 9 column:

Columnist Bob Herbert sneered of [national security adviser Condoleezza] Rice's nomination [as secretary of state] in the New York Times: “Competence has never been highly regarded by the fantasists of the George W. Bush administration.”

[...]

In “America (The Book),” by Jon Stewart and the writers of Comedy Central's “Daily Show,” the section on the judiciary describes how to make a sock puppet of Clarence Thomas and then says, “Ta-da! You're Antonin Scalia!” On grounds of originality alone, Mr. Stewart, I want my money back.

But reviewing the book in the New York Times, Caryn James called the sock puppet joke one of the book's “gems of pointed political humor.”

[...]

Curiously, of all the liberals launching racist attacks on black conservatives I've quoted above, only two are themselves black: the two who write for the New York Times [Herbert and James]. So I guess there are still a couple of blacks taking orders from the Democrats. Isn't there an expression for that? I think it begins with “Uncle” and ends with “Tom.”

Coulter made similar comments about Democrats and liberals and racism on FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor on December 8:

COULTER: They [liberals] feel like they have blacks on the plantation, they can say whatever they like. And, interestingly, you don't even hear Hispanic conservatives attacked in the same way that people like Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas are, and -- and, I mean, just look at it. Look at what the Democrats' minority leader in the Senate said this weekend. He praises Scalia as “Oh, he's one smart guy, and his opinions, can't dispute the logic, though I disagree with them,” and then he says of Clarence Thomas “He's an embarrassment. His opinions -- they're just poorly written.”

[...]

O'REILLY: Isn't it loathsome, though, to use bias attacks to try to demean people with whom you disagree with politically? That's just loathsome, isn't it?

COULTER: Yes, although I will note -- I mean, I haven't particularly gone after the political cartoons. I think political cartoons are different. What I'm saying is that the serious thinkers, the political consultants, the people -- the pundits on TV, their attacks -- and the Democratic senators and representatives -- their attacks on black conservatives are instantly to revert to the most old-fashioned racist attacks. “Oh, yes, dummy.” “Black chick. She's a dummy.”

[...]

O'REILLY: But silence on the left is very, very telling because if they -- if you called a liberal black person dumb, you know all hell would break loose.

COULTER: I think we could use a little more silence from the left. To the contrary. I think they're in rage over the election, and they're lashing out at the blacks.