During a discussion on the December 1 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking -- hosted by Independence Institute President Jon Caldara -- right-wing pundit Ann Coulter claimed the Democratic Party is “a dying party” and repeated a false claim that “by historical standards,” Democrats “should have been picking up 67 seats in the House” during the recent election. In fact, no party has gained “67” seats in any midterm election in the last 60 years. Coulter also erroneously claimed that the issue of minimum wage is “the only policy position [Democrats] have that they're willing to tell us,” ignoring a widely reported Democratic agenda for the first 100 hours of the new Congress. Referring to Democrats, Coulter also stated that “they hate America first” and that “the reason they hate George Bush is because he's fighting the war on terrorism.”

Offering her assessment of Democratic gains during the midterm elections, Coulter said, “I don't really think you can blame the Republicans here” and stated she had “predict[ed]” some Republican “setbacks.” She further stated that, “by historical standards,” Democrats “should have been picking up 67 seats in the House.”

COULTER: But I don't really think you can blame the Republicans here. I think it was the sixth-year election. It's something I've been writing about, talking about, predicting. In fact, I think the speech you saw me give out in Boulder three years ago, I'd be saying, this -- this is, there are going to be some setbacks, and by historical standards --

CALDARA: Yeah, but --

COULTER: -- they should have been picking up 67 seats in the House.

CALDARA: This wasn't, this wasn't a bad loss for Republicans as far as seats statistically speaking --

COULTER: If they hadn't taken --

CALDARA: -- for a six-year --

COULTER: -- Right. If the Democrats had not taken the Congress, they would have to give it up as a party. It would be over.

CALDARA: I feel all better now.

COULTER: No, it's too bad it didn't happen this election, but it's going to happen. It will happen in our lifetimes. I mean, look at how they win. They run by pretending to be Republicans. They run as gun-totin' Democrats.

Coulter later stated, "[I]f the Democrats were on the upswing they would have ... at least matched and maybe beaten the historical average" for gaining seats in Congress. She further stated that the Democratic Party is “a dying party” because “they couldn't even get half of the historical average of a midterm election”:

CALDARA: How long until Republicans not only get back into power, until they actually act like Republicans should?

COULTER: Um --

CALDARA: -- I'm looking closer to a decade, in my book.

COULTER: Oh, I definitely don't think so. No, I mean, if the Democrats were on the upswing they would have -- they would have at least matched and maybe beaten the historical average. In fact, they, they -- they couldn't even get half of the historical average of a midterm election. No, they are a party, they are a dying party, and, like I say, right now they have to make the decision, you know, can we go two years without telling Americans what we really believe? How do they do that? Can they really spend two years talking about nothing but the minimum wage? And once they start being themselves, well then Americans will remember, oh, that's why we hate these people.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Coulter's comments on Independent Thinking echoed previous statements she has made about the vitality of the Democratic Party. Previously, Coulter based her assertion about Democratic gains on her false claim that "[t]he average of the midterm election pickup since World War II is about 40 seats," and claimed that because Democrats “lost seats in Bush's first midterm election,” they “ought to be picking up 60 or 70” seats in the House, given what she said was the average. Contrary to her assertion that “by historical standards,” Democrats “should have been picking up 67 seats in the House,” the average gain in the House for any party after a post-World War II midterm election is about 25 seats. Moreover, no party has gained “60 or 70” seats in any midterm election since World War II. With the exception of the 1994 election, neither party has gained more than 10 House seats in a midterm election since 1982, and the last time either party gained more than 40 seats in a midterm election was in 1974.

As The Washington Post reported in an “Election 2006” chart published on its website, the Democrats took 29 seats in the House in the November 7 election -- in other words, four more seats than the post-World War II midterm election average.

Coulter also falsely stated that the issue of minimum wage is “the only policy position” Democrats have “that they're willing to tell us.”

COULTER: I mean, all of the op-ed columnists, the opinion columnists, have been advising the Democrats what to do, and their advice, pretty uniformly across the board is, don't let anyone know what you believe. Don't do that crazy stuff that we know you all support. Thomas Edsall wrote that in The New York Times a few days ago. He said, you know, abandon all of the racial politics, sucking up to the unions and the sexual freedom, abortion issues. Well, OK, what do they have left? Are they just going to talk about the minimum wage for the next two years? I mean, minimum wage will be a thousand dollars an hour before Democrats give up on that as an issue. It's the only -- it's the only policy position they have that they're willing to tell us, and I just don't think that can last.

However, the Democrats' plan for their “first 100 hours of business” has been widely reported by media outlets such as the Associated Press and The New York Times. For example, a November 9 New York Times article noted that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “vowed to use the first 100 hours of the new Congress to push through what Democrats dubbed their 'Six for '06' agenda.” While the minimum wage is part of the Democratic agenda, the program also includes plans to “repeal subsidies for oil companies and incentives for companies to send jobs overseas, cut interest rates on student loans, give the government the authority to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription drug prices, and expand opportunities for embryonic stem cell research.” A November 29 Associated Press article also reported, “House Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has queued up” a bill to increase federal funding for embryonic stem cell research “for passage in the first 100 hours of business.”

In addition to issuing falsehoods, Coulter stated that Democrats “hate America first ... and George Bush is protecting America from ... its enemies, that's why they hate him”:

COULTER: It's a big -- it's a big line among right-wingers, and something I have been arguing with my fellow right-wingers about, that the reason the Democrats oppose the war on terrorism is just because they hate George Bush so much. And I've always said, no; the reason they hate George Bush is because he's fighting the war on terrorism. What they do, they hate America first, that's the number-one principle, and George Bush is protecting America from, from its enemies, that's why they hate him; thus, if a Democrat were doing the same thing, say Hillary Clinton voting for the war in Iraq, or, oh -- just to name a random, Joe Lieberman -- they'd hate them too. And I think the evidence is in, and I'm right.

As David Harsanyi of The Denver Post noted in a December 3 column about Caldara, Coulter was in Denver to attend the Independence Institute's 22nd annual Founders' Night Dinner. According to Harsanyi, Caldara kicked off the Founder's Night dinner “by honoring a couple of 'chicks' of liberty, including Helen Kriebel, whose innovative free-market immigration ideas are finding national attention; Pam Benigno, director of the institute's Education Policy Center and a tireless advocate for educational choice; and ... Ann Coulter.” Harsanyi further noted:

Let me just first say that standing between former Sen. Bill Armstrong (one of the most courteous and proper men you'll ever meet) and Ann Coulter (whose miniskirt kept climbing to, um, near-perilous heights) is a fairly unsettling clash of civilization.

Having never met Coulter before, though, I was surprised to find a very gracious, funny and inquisitive woman. A celebrity who gave every admiring guest her full attention.

Until she hit the stage, that is.

I won't detail Coulter's ... let's call it ... barbed speech other than to say accusing Democrats of being “quislings and cowards” was the closest you're going to get to a compliment.

Coulter's talk, more a conservative comedy routine than policy critique, was funny at times and exactly what you should expect from a woman who began her column about the Democratic National Convention in 2004: “Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston. ...”

As Media Matters for America has noted, Coulter has a history of leveling personal attacks, accusations of treason, and calls for violence against those with whom she disagrees. For example, in her latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum, June 2006), Coulter presents “liberalism as the opposition party to God” [Page 22] and attacks widows of the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks who have spoken out on political issues, calling them “self-obsessed” women acting “as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them,” and portraying them as “enjoying their husbands' deaths” [Page 103].

Colorado Media Matters also has noted previous false statements that Coulter has made as a guest on Caldara's Newsradio 850 KOA show.

An October 2 Penny Parker column in the Rocky Mountain News noted that “Independence Institute honcho Jon Caldara included this note in his weekly e-mailed newsletter”:

“Excitement is building since we announced that Ann Coulter will be our featured speaker at this year's annual Founders' Night Dinner on Nov. 29. And there is more good news. By demand of those purchasing many of the $10,000 tables, table dances will now be included at that level. The bad news is the dances will be from me, not Coulter.”

From the December 1 broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking with host Jon Caldara:

COULTER: But I don't really think you can blame the Republicans here. I think it was the sixth-year election. It's something I've been writing about, talking about, predicting. In fact, I think the speech you saw me give out in Boulder three years ago, I'd be saying, this -- this is, there are going to be some setbacks, and by historical standards --

CALDARA: Yeah, but --

COULTER: -- they should have been picking up 67 seats in the House.

CALDARA: This wasn't, this wasn't a bad loss for Republicans as far as seats statistically speaking --

COULTER: If they hadn't taken --

CALDARA: -- for a six-year --

COULTER: -- Right. If the Democrats had not taken the Congress, they would have to give it up as a party. It would be over.

CALDARA: I feel all better now.

COULTER: No, it's too bad it didn't happen this election, but it's going to happen. It will happen in our lifetimes. I mean, look at how they win. They run by pretending to be Republicans. They run as gun-totin' Democrats.

[...]

CALDARA: What are you looking for in the next couple years?

COULTER: Um -- it's going to be very interesting. I mean, all of the op-ed columnists, the opinion columnists, have been advising the Democrats what to do, and their advice, pretty uniformly across the board is, don't let anyone know what you believe. Don't do that crazy stuff that we know you all support. Thomas Edsall wrote that in The New York Times a few days ago. He said, you know, abandon all of the racial politics, sucking up to the unions and the sexual freedom, abortion issues. Well, OK, what do they have left? Are they just going to talk about the minimum wage for the next two years? I mean, minimum wage will be a thousand dollars an hour before Democrats give up on that as an issue. It's the only -- it's the only policy position they have that they're willing to tell us, and I just don't think that can last. Right?

[...]

COULTER: It's a big -- it's a big line among right-wingers, and something I have been arguing with my fellow right-wingers about, that the reason the Democrats oppose the war on terrorism is just because they hate George Bush so much. And I've always said, no; the reason they hate George Bush is because he's fighting the war on terrorism. What they do, they hate America first, that's the number-one principle, and George Bush is protecting America from, from its enemies, that's why they hate him; thus, if a Democrat were doing the same thing, say Hillary Clinton voting for the war in Iraq, or, oh -- just to name a random, Joe Lieberman -- they'd hate them too. And I think the evidence is in, and I'm right.

[...]

CALDARA: How long until Republicans not only get back into power, until they actually act like Republicans should?

COULTER: Um --

CALDARA: -- I'm looking closer to a decade, in my book.

COULTER: Oh, I definitely don't think so. No, I mean, if the Democrats were on the upswing they would have -- they would have at least matched and maybe beaten the historical average. In fact, they, they -- they couldn't even get half of the historical average of a midterm election. No, they are a party, they are a dying party, and, like I say, right now they have to make the decision, you know, can we go two years without telling Americans what we really believe? How do they do that? Can they really spend two years talking about nothing but the minimum wage? And once they start being themselves, well then Americans will remember, oh, that's why we hate these people.

CALDARA: It's going to be a good time?