Miffed Republicans, plus Ann Coulter and the Bush twins, too

Why is everybody so angry?

Published September 1, 2006 7:13PM (EDT)

Labor Day weekend may be the last chance for R&R before the push toward November, but it seems that some on the right are feeling a little too agitated to relax.

The pro-war group Move America Forward is steamed that a reporter for the Air Force Times said that the paper isn't going to "snatch up every column by somebody on the right who's ... supporting the troops."

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns is fired up about the fire season and is demanding that Gov. Brian Schweitzer declare a state of emergency. The only problem? Schweitzer has already done so. Burns spokesman James Pendleton tells the Helena Independent Record ("Burns Urges Schweitzer to Take Steps Already Taken") that Burns was "pretty sure" the governor had already issued a disaster declaration but sent a letter demanding one just to make sure.

As Glenn Greenwald reports, some of the stranger voices on the right are up in arms that Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were willing to say they'd converted to Islam in order to get free from a jihadist group that held them for 13 days. Among the outraged is Real Clear Politics columnist David Warren, who writes: "They were told to convert to Islam under implicit threat (blindfolded and hand-tied, they could not judge what threat), and agreed to make the propaganda broadcasts to guarantee their own safety. That much we can understand, as conventional cowardice. (Understand; not forgive.) But it is obvious from their later statements that they never thought twice; that they could see nothing wrong in serving the enemy, so long as it meant they'd be safe."

And our good friend Ann Coulter is mad about the insufficiently Republican Lincoln Chafee. The headline of her latest column: "They Shot the Wrong Lincoln."

We head into the holiday with no such anger in our hearts. That said, we will spend our time off pondering this: If we're in the midst of "the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century," as the president says we are, what, exactly, will his daughters be doing this weekend to help?


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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