Probe her hard

Hate her or ... hate her, Ann Coulter made some small yet tepidly agreeable news this past spring when we learned that she may have committed a felony by

knowingly giving an incorrect address on her voter registration form in Palm Beach, Florida, and then knowingly voting at the incorrect polling place.

She seemed to be practicing a typical Republican hypocrisy by actually voting while she concurrently held the opinion that women should "have to give up their vote." Or maybe she just meant every other woman but her. Who knows? It's a crazy jumble inside that head.

Nonetheless, the story came and went without much too much attention; it all seemed fairly mild relative to the extant debacles of the day. Well, the story has reimerged as the case will likely be turned over the state attorney's office in West Palm Beach. And so much for police state, tough-as-nails, hang 'em high Coulter. She is refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will probably be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.

Knowingly voting in the wrong precinct is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney's office by Friday.

The police state is for all those other people, not her.

Coulter appears not to have been very helpful in getting the issue resolved at all and Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson claims that she engaged in "efforts to distract and divert focus on the process regarding this complaint. ..." In other words, she is exhibiting standard, generalized behaviour for Republicans. And at this point, I'm not entirely sure any Republican fixers will be all that keen on helping her out. She has become almost a complete pariah for conservatives lately. The RNC won't go near the nut, though she most certainly has her uses: she makes the current crop of congressional Republicans look like moderates.

I think it will be farily obvious what will happen next. Coulter, or her lawyer rather, will annouce that she is completely innocent of any charges that might result, the whole exercise is a politically motivated witch hunt (well, at least part of that will be right), and that all you goddamned, godless, sandal-wearing freak liberals can fry in hell.

Admittedly, this is a tiny snack, a potential scrap of justice that is hopefully only an appetizer to a much large course. But it is tasty all the same.