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Subject:
From:
Alex Effgen <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:41:24 -0400
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In response to the question of Mark Twain on Ann Coulter, I offer
this as relevant:

In a letter to his wife (in Paris at the time) dated "Nov. 10/93,"
Sam Clemens (at the Players Club in New York) wrote, among other
things:

      "The election last Tuesday was a whirlwind!  It swept the
Democratic party off its feet just in the same tremendous way that
the Republican party was swept off its feet a year ago.  It is
curious to see both great parties in turn turning Mugwump.  Yet both
abuse the Mugwumps all through the off-months.
      "The Democratic party had everything their own way & could have
remained steadily in power, but they had no sense, & haven't had any
for forty years.  They had not a single leader in Congress with any
ability; their majority in the Senate was made up of cowards, & their
President of the Senate was a wax figure.  By consequence the country
was left in a state of intolerable commercial congestion 3 months
while those idiots sat pottering in the Senate.  Evidently the whole
country has taken the alarm, & is aghast at the idea of leaving
itself longer at the mercy of these blockheads & poltroons.
      "In this State Dave Hill put up a convicted thief for one of the
loftiest places in the Judiciary.  The people rose with lightnings
and thunder & tempest and snowed him under--buried him past
resurrection under whole mountain-ranges of ballots.  Now you
understand why our system of government is the only rational one that
was ever invented.  When we are not satisfied we can change things."

Terrible to realize how little things change in Washington DC.  I
don't think Clemens or Twain would've tolerated the likes of  Coulter
as human being or author based on his appreciation for our bipartisan
system of government, but as showman and moneymaker, I think he
would've considered her skills impressive.

Alex Effgen

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