Is plagiarism all we've got?

Following the links left in your comments can lead to some very interesting places. Aaron Barlow ends a pretty thorough examination of the plagiarism charges levied against Ann Coulter with this:

Plagiarism of the sort Coulter engaged in certainly does need to be pointed out—but the fact of it should not be used to destroy her career or get her thrown off of the papers that carry her.

There are plenty of other reasons for that[emphasis added].

There are plenty of reasons! Like the fact that she knows nothing about many of the things she talks about, like, say... the very basics of the theory of evolution - or that the creationsism she uses to "debunk" Darwin is itself passé in "intellingent design" cults.

Or maybe her career will crumble around her because of her strident eliminationist statements which teeters on the edge of advocating violence against government officials.

Maybe the smear job suggesting that the surviving wives of WTC victims were enjoying the deaths of their husbands...?

No? Not even her bizarre (for a self-identified fundamentalist Christian) fascination, bordering on obsession, with kinky sex?

Apparently, these views get you invited to spend some quality morning network TV time with Matt Lauer, getting chummy on Today. She is not afraid to say these bizarre, outright crazy things to national audiences. And she sells millions of books which somehow influence policy!

But CNN jumps on the plagiarism bit:

From the July 7 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

KING: For weeks now, conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter has sat high on The New York Times best-seller list with her controversial new book. But there's a new controversy brewing -- not about her comments in that book, but the inspiration behind them. Our Brian Todd is here to explain. Hi, Brian.

TODD: Hi, John. New allegations of plagiarism now against the woman who's made a career out of being a lighting rod...

Is this all we've got on her? Is this the only thing that will make people stop and think to themselves, "Hey, Ann Coulter isn't as bang-up a gal as I once thought she was, that copycat?"

And her book isn't controversial. It's complete rubbish, the very essence of sophistry. A great deal of what she writes is at best just wrong, and at worst outright dangerous. Simply put, she's not only not in the mainstream; she's not even in the fucking river.

What's controversial is that someone this crazy is allowed to say these things unchallenged. Ann Coulter has every right to spout off whatever inanities she wants, but we should also expect that someone will call her on her bountiful bullshit.

But folks are all up in arms about plagiarism. The take-home lesson from this, kids, is that as long as you cite your half-baked sources and ideas properly, you can say just about anything you want about your political enemies, and NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox will keep having you on air.