THIS IS SPINAL TAP THE NEW ANN COULTER BOOK TOUR

Before I talk about Ann Coulter's latest stunt, let me point out that although her previous book debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, today the Times revealed that her current book did not debut at #1. (It hit #3, outsold by Alan Greenspan and Clarence Thomas. The list was e-mailed today and will be posted online over the weekend.)

She may not get to #1 at all this time. She's trying to grab attention in a media market that's saturated with celebrity authors plugging new books -- not just Greenspan and Thomas but Eric Clapton and Bill Clinton, not to mention well-connected media stars and semi-stars such as Steven Colbert, Chris Matthews, Jeffrey Toobin, and Howie Kurtz. Mother Teresa has a book out. O.J. Simpson has a book out. The Dog Whisperer has a book out. This book tour's not going to be the usual cakewalk for Coulter -- too much competition.

So she's pulled one of her stunts -- and you should note that it took place on an incredibly low-rated cable show -- a show with ratings so low they've been known not to crack six digits, even though the show is on TV coast to coast. That gives you some idea of how hard it is for Coulter to grab the attention she desperately craves. Last time around, she was slagging 9/11 widows on the Today show -- this time, she's making a cynical bid for attention on a show that, ratings-wise, is one step above public access:

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws." ...

Why this riff now? Hard to say. In the past she's been let go by National Review (for after she made inflammatory remarks about Muslims in her first post-9/11 column), and she's been canned by USA Today for another offensive column -- maybe she's deliberately trying to lose her gig as one of the syndicated columnists at Jewish World Review. If so, it's kind of a comedown from USA Today and National Reviw -- most people don't even know JWR even exists, much less that it publishes Coulter's column.

Or maybe Coulter lifted the "incomplete Jews" riff from from the Left Behind books because she's hoping it'll make her books sell as well as those books do. Don't get your hopes up, Ann.

(Via Too Sense.)