Political Analyst Criticizes Liberals

Harvard conservatives filled Boylston Hall’s Fong Auditorium last night to hear outspoken political analyst Ann Coulter present her views on liberals, judicial activism and the war on the terror.

In a speech entitled “Liberals’ Invisible Ink on the Constitution,” Coulter explained her opposition to left-wing, activist judges who are not strict constructionists of the U.S. Constitution.

“Strict construction means nothing more than not making things up,” she said. “But liberal activists are always inventing constitutional rights. They love an enormous, behemoth, metastasizing federal government.”

Coulter said she worried that if liberal judges are given too much influence, they could ultimately make it impossible to punish criminals.

Coulter stressed that the political future of the Supreme Court is uncertain, since President Bush could appoint as many as three Supreme Court justices before 2004.

Her discussion of judicial activism focused mainly on the issues of abortion and racial discrimination, but was directed towards the current military struggle in Afghanistan by audience questions. “The fact that [the Taliban] are now hiding tanks in mosques I think proves that this is not a religious war. They have brought that into the war. We haven’t,” Coulter said.

She praised President Bush for his national address on Sept. 20 and his cultivation of bipartisan unity in Congress. “Since the beginning, he’s always been reaching out to the Democrats,” she said. “That’s an especially important part of George Bush right now.”

Coulter drew a crowd of nearly 150, including some students who voiced their opposition to her views.

“I think that it’s rare for there to be a conservative on campus who’s willing to stand up to the liberals,” said Harvard Republican Club president Robert R. Porter ’00-’02. “We invited the College Democrats because we wanted to promote an open dialogue.”

Coulter is a columnist, attorney, author and former legal counsel to Sen. Spencer Abraham on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her 1998 book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Coulter has also been named “One of the 20 Most Fascinating Women in Politics” by George Magazine, and she is a frequent guest on political talk shows.