The Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute:

What is this? Never heard of it before. Sure, heard about Claire Boothe Luce, spouse of Henry Robinson Luce, publisher of Time magazine, and generally regarded as conservative.

Conservative, but not extreme.

But the CBL Policy Institute is another matter. They're nuts. From their website's front page:

Bring a Conservative Woman Speaker to Your School!

Campus by campus, the word is getting out. One of the best ways to bring a balance to issue debates on your campus is to sponsor a Luce speaker like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Bay Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly or any of our other outstanding conservative women leaders.

"balance"?

Here is an example of what they do. From the the Hartford Advocate: (10 Nov '05) (emp add)

[The UConn College Republicans have] announced who their next sponsored speaker will be Ann Coulter. She'll be at UConn on Dec. 8.

The funding to bring Coulter to UConn was procured by the College Republicans through the school's Undergraduate Student Government, the USG. Typically, the USG will only approve $10,000 in expenditures to bring a speaker to campus, but last month the Daily Campus reported that USG senators voted 14 to 11 (with three abstentions) to approve the just over $16,000 needed for Coulter's appearance. USG money comes from students, who pay into an account controlled by the USG, which uses the money to fund student organizations.

"It is a lot [of money] but USG has funded $10,000 before, for much lesser-known speakers," says Emily Salisbury, the executive director of the UConn College Republicans. "Since she is such a huge name, $16,000 is such a steal."

Coulter's standard appearance cost is around $30,000. Coulter's price was discounted thanks to the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute, a program that helps student groups bring conservative women speakers to campuses.

So, all students, not just the College Republicans, are paying for Coulter, with help from the CBLPI. Nice!

And what has Coulter on her mind these days? From her most recent column: (emp add)

New idea for Abortion Party: Aid the enemy

• In an upbeat speech now being aired repeatedly on al-Jazeera, last week Rep. John Murtha said U.S. troops "cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home."
• It is simply a fact that Democrats like Murtha are encouraging the Iraqi insurgents ...
• The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
• There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats' behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle.
• They fill the airwaves with treason ...
• [T]hey are gutless traitors.

This is pure crap, and we don't normally bother with it, but were surprised to see that Coulter was being paid good money to smear Democrats, with a "policy institute" helping along.

[NOTE: Editor & Publisher took note of Coulter's remarks.]


posted by Quiddity at 11/26/2005 08:35:00 PM