Joy Behar’s strength on The View is that she is steadfastly, uncompromisingly, and humorously liberal. If Elisabeth Hasselbeck were smarter and funnier, and way less shrill, she would be a worthy foe for the comedienne. She’s not, of course, but Behar was forced last night to face someone who is: Ann Coulter. Say what you will about the conservative scribe, she’s got a sense of humor that never fails her, and on the surface she is an excellent debater. If she doesn’t want to answer a question, she’ll question the syntax of it. If she’s faced with a glaring bit of ridiculousness from her own books or previous statements, she’ll pretend like she meant it straight (“No, really, I think Scott McLellan is actually retarded!”). It’s not real discourse, but it works for television.
Behar covered for Larry King last night on CNN, and Coulter was her guest for the hour. As much as we love the View co-host, we have to hand last night’s victory to Coulter. Probably the main problem is that Joy lets her emotions and beliefs run away with her from the very start, while Coulter, as always, gleefully can’t seem to believe that anybody is taking her own comedy act seriously. Click through to watch highlights.
Bonus! Joy asks Ann whether she wanted to have sex with George Bush, and Ann says she tried to date a liberal but she couldn’t handle the “dinky little … electric car.”
