WHAT WAS THAT YOU WERE SAYING, ANN COULTER?

The attempting car bombing in Times Square brings to mind some vile words from Ann Coulter -- no, not the obvious 2002 quote ("My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building"), though that does come to mind as well, but this one, from 2005:

...the savages have declared war, and it's far preferable to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York (where the residents would immediately surrender). That strategy appears to be working. Then again, maybe it's just that it's so damnably hard to find parking in New York ...

Well, now I suppose we've had a test of your asinine theory, Ann. We still don't know who's responsible for the bomb (The New York Times tells us that "federal and local officials said there was no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued Sunday by a Pakistani Taliban group that has a reputation for making far-fetched attempts to take credit for attacks"), but let's say it's the work of jihadists: we didn't "surrender"; a guy reported it and cops from the NYPD (which is "America's best counterterrorism force," according to one journalist) responded to the threat, secured the area, and are digging deep to find the party or parties responsible.

Well, obviously. But it isn't obvious to Coulter and her ilk, who've long argued, especially during the Bush years, that Democratic-leaning cities and states are pro-terrorist fifth columns. Out there in the Coulter/talk radio/Free Republic/Fox News world, some people believe in all seriousness that if you've expressed opposition the war in Iraq or waterboarding or even the Republican Party, that means you're pro-terrorist -- you're actually rooting for terrorists to win.

I don't see any New Yorkers cheering this bomber or any accomplices on, or turning the bomber into a folk hero -- which, you'll recall, is how some heartlanders regarded the Olympic bomber, Eric Rudolph. You're going to hear a big cheer in this town if the perp is caught -- yes, wingnuts, even from liberal Democrats. We loathed Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, and quite a few of us are to the left of Obama, but we have no love for scumbag car bombers.

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Oh, and on the parking question -- it's been suggested that the bomber deliberately parked by the Viacom building out of anger at the appearance of Muhammad in a South Park episode -- there's this counterargument from the Mahablog:

Doug Hughes points out (and I should have thought of this) that it's terribly difficult to park exactly where you want to in Manhattan. If someone were determined to park a car right next to the Viacom building he might have had to drive in circles for hours until a spot opened up. It's more likely the perpetrator just parked as close to Times Square as he could get.

There's something to that.