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Ann Coulter to Imus: Apologize to the Girls, Period

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Don Imus should limit his apologies to the girls of the Rutgers basketball team but to no one else, Ann Coulter says.

Coulter told Hannity & Colmes Wednesday night that what was wrong about what Imus said, "wasn't the precise this word or that word, but that he picked on these completely innocent and, by the way judging by their press conference yesterday, lovely girls who are not public figures. They're not trying to have a public platform. They're not discussing issues. They are not fair game.

"He could have called me a ho; he could have called me a flaxen-haired ho; he could have called Al Sharpton a nappy-haired ho; but you can't do that to someone who is not a public figure."

When co-host Alan Colmes recalled that Ann had herself gone after a number of people, she replied that "I don't go after innocent people who just happen to be good basketball players."

And when Colmes began to recite a litany of her attacks on people such as the Jersey Girls (a group of 9/11 widows) and The New York Times, she asked him, "Is this on Imus, or on my greatest hits?"

Coulter added that she doesn't "see the point of him kissing Al Sharpton's ring. He ought to apologize to these girls. I think what he said about them is as bad as the many awful things that were said about Paula Jones and Linda Tripp. They didn't put their looks at issue, they were witnesses to the behavior of a felonious president that's all they did.

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"Linda Tripp gave her tapes to Ken Starr and went into hiding. The vicious things that were said about them at that time I think is as bad as what has been done here.

"I do not think that he should apologize to anyone but these girls. This is not an attack on mankind generally. And not an attack on womankind. It was mean to these girls on this basketball team."

Sean Hannity remarked that the ultimate goal of people who don't like you, for whatever reason, is to absolutely eliminate you from public discourse, to which Coulter replied, "I think that what's bothersome about what's happening with Imus is that he has had a very long career. I would think it would be very hard talking for three or four hours a day on TV and engaging in spontaneous debates, spontaneous conversation, making jokes — and to have one remark be the end of the career does seem a little overboard."

"I don't think he should be insulting private figures," she continued. "He does have a forum and the capacity to speak out, so he should go apologize to them, send them flowers and chocolate and then let them move on. Turning one mistake for people who are talking so much and putting out so many words into a career ending moment I think it is bothersome to a lot of people."

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