Ann Coulter – Dead Head and the Pride of Cucamonga

c Flying Debris / Vanity Fair
Ann Coulter checks out Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh on stage right during the final Dead show at Soldier Field in Chicago


The entire liberal establishment hates Ann Coulter for one reason or another. Last week it was because she used some "bad words" to describe four widows who had inserted themselves into the political world. Mind you the words weren't as bad as what Al Franken says on a regular basis. Ms. Coulter's point was that being widows (their husbands were murdered on 9/11) shouldn't inoculate one from being criticized for saying wacko things like Bush knew about 9/11 beforehand. Ms. Coulter has commented that she finds liberal's fascination with her comments concerning the four NJ widows to be enlightening and amusing because the title and theme of her book is that liberals are Godless. I personally think that Ms. Coulter does not do her ideas any favor by being so incredibly bombastic. I also do not share her views about liberals necessarily being Godless.

Anyways, Ann Coulter is a long-time Deadhead who received the vinyl album American Beauty for Christmas as an eleven-year-old; so Jambands.com was sent out to interview her and as usual, the Coulter interview is a doozy. It includes this tidbit about the Clinton/Lewinsky battle:

"My collection of Dead tapes, by the way, was the reason I heard one of the Linda Tripp tapes before Ken Starr did. Tripp's lawyer obviously needed to hear the tape before turning it over to the prosecutor, but he only had an old 1950's tape player and couldn't get it to work and Ken Starr wanted the tape the next morning. He was terrified he'd hit the wrong button and erase the evidence. In the wee hours of the morning, it occurred him, a Deadhead himself, that he knew one person in D.C. who definitely had a tape machine. So, at around 2 AM, he called me and asked to come over to use my tape deck."

Her list of favorite Dead tunes is also quit good (some of us can add or detract from the list):

"My favorite Dead song is the last song I heard, and my favorite concert was the last concert I went to, but among my favorite songs are: “Eyes of the World”, “Loose Lucy”, “Franklin's Tower”, “Althea”, “Fire on the Mountain”, “Deal”, “Sugar Magnolia”, “Unbroken Chain”, “Cassidy”, “Pride of Cucamonga”, “Uncle John's Band”, “Ripple”, “Casey Jones”, “I Will Take You Home”, “Passenger”, “Stagger Lee”, “Tennessee Jed”, “Mississippi Half-Step”, “Good Lovin'” - I even love “Alabama Getaway”, which I gather Deadheads are supposed to spurn for being “commercially successful.” (Of course, we were also supposed to say “Phil makes the band.” I love Phil, but when Jerry died, that turned out not to be true.)"

Pride of Cucamonga is a personal favorite of mine and I must say Amen Honey with the Phil comment.

Her snarkiest comment is one that is almost impossible to disagree with:

“Apart from Al Gore, Al Franken is the most un-Deadhead like person I know of who purports to be a Deadhead."

This interview is not a shock to this Deadhead, I've seen Ms. Coulter at work and the Dead thing fits in, as she said "(a)s a Deadhead and a freedom-lover, I am wounded to the bone that you think the two do not naturally go hand in hand.

Of course Ann has her own question with her own answer:

"By the way, you did not ask me what my favorite bumper sticker or button is . . . and I know the answers to those questions! Bumper sticker: 'Dead For Life'; button: 'Jews For Jerry.'"

One of my favorite buttons from a Dead show is "Dose Me I'm Irish" (from a St. Pats Day show 1993(?), an Irish guy like me didn't need to be "dosing" on LSD to find amusement in that button), I wore it to the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to watch Bill Clinton give his acceptance speech. The looks that I got from those geeky Democratic operatives made it clear that they had no love for the Dead, for fun or even for humor. On the other hand for ten years I have asserted that I was one of the few people in the hall who was gainfully employed. Being a flunky on some padded government payroll doesn't count; the janitors, the wait staff, security and I seemed to be about it for non-flunky employment. The Coulter interview can be found here.

Could Ann be some sort of Sugar Magnolia?

“takes the wheel when I’m seeing double; she pays my ticket when I speed”


Hat Tip: Wizbang.