Martin Peretz Channels Ann Coulter

Lindsay Beyerstein points out the latest piece of bile from Martin Peretz. He has the audacity to go after Mariane Pearl: the wife of slain Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Daniel Pearl.

There's a tacky story on today's "Page Six" in the New York Post about Mariane Pearl -- yes, the widow of Daniel -- and her conflicts with the Wall Street Journal. It's about money and celebrity and Mariane's desires to use the Journal as the instrument of her fame. You see, when Muslim terrorists kill your husband it's only fair to profit off his death. Wasn't that a clause in Daniel's insurance policy?

There was something that bugged me about Peretz's post. The hatefulness is standard issue Peretz. His quote reminded me of something I read somewhere. I then remembered Ann Coulter made a similar attack against the 9-11 widows known as the Jersey Girls.

These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzies. I have never seen people enjoying their husbands’ death so much.

Peretz and Coulter feel it is their patriotic obligation to spit venom at those that have been personally victimized by terrorism. They are so emotionally insecure that they need to go after women that have questioned America's post-9-11 national security. Years from now, people will read the vicious things Peretz and Coulter wrote and wonder just how fucked up these Bush apologists are.

Lindsay accuses Peretz of being sexist. I'm not going to argue the point. I just think that is the beginning of his problems. Peretz tells everyone within shouting distance he is a diehard Democrat. He ran a publication that's specialty is bashing Democrats and producing Left-wing haters such as Michael Kelly, Andrew Sullivan, and Mickey Kaus. His publication had fact-check problems with Stephen Glass, Ruth Shalit and Scott Thomas Beauchamp that could be spotted by a high school editor.

Peretz has long ties to the American Enterprise Institute, publicly defended the convicted Lewis "Scooter" Libby, accused Jimmy Carter of being an Anti-Semite and a list of misdeeds goes on. Any respectable would of had Peretz removed for his conflict of interests and turning the New Republic into a money-losing laughing stock. Washington operates under a different set of rules. No other major American publication would let a former publisher run blog posts that makes Instapundit seem civil.

Eric Alterman's article of Peretz and the TNR horror show is worthy of reading.

A big thanks to Eric Alterman for linking to this post.