Franken distorts Coulters stance on education criticism visa vi Jim Jeffords and George Bush

Franken takes two Coulter quotes out of context, trying to make her look inconsistent. He introduces this distortion with

And what really burns Coulter is that, in the fawning liberal media,

Then he quotes Coulter as follows:

Jim Jeffords’s degree from Yale cannot be cited often enough. (And consider that Jeffords got into Yale long before the terrorizing regime of the SATs, back when admission to the Ivy Leagues turned on social class rather than standardized tests.)

Franken continues:

Quick. Yale, low SATs, social class? You thinking about who I’m thinking about?

Yet, on page 33, how does Coulter answer people who think our president may not be the brightest star in the firmament? Why, he “graduated from Yale College and Harvard Business School.”

So consistency is not the woman’s strong point.

Did Coulter really miss that both Bush and Jeffords went to Yale?  Let’s look at what she actually wrote:

While the media treats George W. Bush’s Yale education like some sort of scam, Jim Jeffords’s degree from Yale cannot be cited often enough. (And consider that Jeffords got into Yale long before the terrorizing regime of the SATs, back when admission to the Ivy Leagues turned on social class rather than standardized tests.)

As we can see, Franken picked up his version of her quote in the middle of a sentence. Coulter was actually contrasting the media’s coverage of Bush’s Yale education with their coverage of Jeffords’s Yale education.

Moreover, Franken’s reference to page 33 of her book is also a distortion. Here is the context. Coulter pointed out that Martin Sheen, who said Bush is a “moron,” never went to college. Moreover, Michael Moore is a college dropout. Does this not seem like a perfectly reasonable place for Coulter to drop in the fact about Bush graduating from Yale College and Harvard Business School? Of course there is no inconsistency between pointing out that fact and exposing the media double standard with its treatment of Bush and Jeffords’ Yale educations.

In the same paragraph, she also says:

But try flip-flopping around that scenario. Imagine a no-account college dropout attacking Al Gore’s intelligence on national TV. The audience wouldn’t get that. It would be strange and confusing.

Wow.  Coulter is making a legitimate point.  That explains why Franken left out the context.

She elaborates on page 156, where she points out that in Gore’s sophomore year at Harvard; he “got one D, one C-minus, two Cs, two C-pluses, and one B-minus.” (Washington Post, March 19, 2000) She also points out that Bush earned an MBA from Harvard while Gore dropped out of law school and failed 5 of his 8 classes at divinity school.