You're right, her original comments referred only to the four widows (something I was not aware of). If it was mentioned last night, I did not catch the qualifier. At the same time, her comments are over the top. It seems that every time Anne Coulter has a book to sell, she feels compelled to raise the rhetorical bar.
Morris 9/11 widows blast pundit's book
Author: Women 'enjoying husbands' deaths' at WTC
BY MATT MANOCHIO
DAILY RECORD
When conservative pundit Ann Coulter took a swipe at four outspoken New Jersey women who lost their husbands during the attacks on Sept. 11, she might not have realized it, but other 9/11 widows and widowers were paying attention.
Coulter writes in a new book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," that the widows -- Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg and Patty Casazza -- whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act "as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them."
She also wrote, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."
She reiterated her statements during a recent television interview on the "Today" show on NBC.
"Attacking 9/11 widows must be good for sales of Ann Coulter's new (and I'm sure not very interesting) book," Tracy Anne Larkey wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record. Larkey is a Chatham Township resident whose husband, Robin, was killed while working for Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.
"It amazes me how people still try to cash in on September the 11th," she wrote. "Buying luxury items and having a nice car or extension built on ones house doesn't make up for the violent, horrific deaths our loved ones suffered at the hands of terrorism. Does that mean I am enjoying my husband's death? Who cares how or why these brave 9/11 widows pushed for the commission to investigate the attacks? So what if they did it in grief. They got the job done and I am grateful to them for that."
Larkey continued to say that when she and her children realized that her husband had been killed by terrorists, "it felt like we were the only ones in the whole world that this happened to. And it at times still does," she wrote. "I wouldn't wish our suffering on anyone. All the money in the world won't compensate for my husband not being at our son's graduation. Who's self-obsessed now?"
Julia Rathkey, of Mountain Lakes, whose husband, David, was killed on Sept. 11, said Coulter's comments were "offensive, clearly."
"I don't know if she's ever grieved herself," Rathkey said. "I don't know if Miss Coulter's ever had a significant loss or experienced grief. Different people have different coping mechanisms. In fact, if she does not know these people or know their circumstances, I don't quite know how she can judge them."
She continued, "You can't make those generalizations. My first question to her is how many 9/11 widows do you know and how well do you know them? How do you make this supposition, and what do you base it on?"
Roger Kyte, of Boonton Township, who lost his wife Angela on Sept. 11, disagreed with Coulter's tone.
"I think her words were unnecessarily sharp," Kyte said, adding that he isn't too high on people who use their Sept. 11 "celebrity" to promote a certain cause, for instance, what should specifically be done to rehabilitate the World Trade Center site.
"I don't appreciate that anymore than I appreciate Tom Cruise or Gwyneth Paltrow condemning the war in Iraq or the eating of meat. I think there are too many people in society who are endowed with 'celebrity.'They try to use it to their full advantage, and I think they go overboard with it. Too many people are swayed by a cache of celebrities."
He continued to say that "when I see these people doing these things I block it out or turn it off," he said. "I don't like what they're doing in many cases (like) what's going to happen at the trade center site."
He said that several groups, each one with a certain agenda, will be looking for air time for their views.
"That disturbs me," he said. "I don't like it."
For their part, the four New Jersey widows originally targeted by Coulter responded with a joint statement that read: "We have been slandered. Contrary to Ms. Coulter's statements, there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again. We adored these men and miss them every day."
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