Ann Coulter was on the Today Show yesterday pushing her new book in which she slanders the widows of 9/11 victims.

“These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing Bush was part of the closure process.”

[…]

“These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.”

The widows, who have formed a group called the September 11th Advocates, released a statement.

We did not choose to become widowed on September 11, 2001. The attack, which tore our families apart and destroyed our former lives, caused us to ask some serious questions regarding the systems that our country has in place to protect its citizens. Through our constant research, we came to learn how the protocols were supposed to have worked. Thus, we asked for an independent commission to investigate the loopholes which obviously existed and allowed us to be so utterly vulnerable to terrorists. Our only motivation ever was to make our Nation safer. Could we learn from this tragedy so that it would not be repeated?

We are forced to respond to Ms. Coulter’s accusations to set the record straight because 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. [HT to Crooks and Liars]

I know that giving Ms. Coulter any more attention than she already gets for her pronouncements that make Eva Braun sound like the Singing Nun could be seen as giving her more than she deserves (Don Hazen at AlterNet begs us to ignore her), but when she goes completely around the bend like this, you have to watch; it’s like watching someone swallow a live igauana (something not outside the realm of possibility with her). You’re horrified yet enthralled.

The righties like to say that if they have Ann Coulter, the left has Michael Moore. I’m sorry, but it’s no contest. Michael Moore is a scruffy guy in a baseball cap with a frat-boy sense of humor and a penchant for embarrassing people. That’s a far cry from saying the New York Times building should have been blown up or advocating wholesale slaughter in the name of Christianity. Michael Moore may be snarky, but he’s not dangerous, and he doesn’t appear on network television to slander widows and orphans by name.

It’s interesting to see that some conservatives are distancing themselves from her, perhaps out of fear that she’s going to become the poster child for everything that is toxic about right-wing nutsery. It’s a little late for that, folks; she’s all yours and we’ll be all too happy to remind you of that.