You may have heard that Ann Coulter has been banned "for life" from NBC, although another news exec quickly stepped up to deny that assertion. Considering the life-span of NBC news execs, the statement probably meant "for as long as I work here..."

Why would a network ban a best-selling author? Its a good question, because people tune in to see Ann Coulter (I know I do...), and that means ratings. Its the same reason Bill Maher keeps showing up on the Tonight Show--he's always a good quote.

Is it because Coulter offends their liberal political views? Possibly but I doubt it. All sorts of conservatives get on the morning talk shows.

No, I think the reason is more basic--Ann Coulter makes her hosts look stupid.

SMITH: You don't think as an African-American, that he was at some greater risk?

COULTER: No, I do not. Because every presidential assassin -- or attempted presidential assassin in the history of the nation has either been a liberal, a communist, an anarchist, someone on the left, or there were two who had no politics whatsoever unless you count John Hinckley, who is certifiably insane. So, you know, we have-

SMITH: Which goes back -- which goes back to -- to your basic point that everything that's wrong with America is the left's fault.

COULTER: No, I have -- I wouldn't have mentioned that all these presidential assassins were anarchists, communists, liberals, they were some form of, you know, basically Obama's base, other than the fact that everyone keeps talking about Obama being at some unique risk. Well, I'm sorry, Sean Hannity's at greater risk. Rush Limbaugh's at greater risk. I promise you George Bush is at greater risk. He has been physically attacked two weeks ago. There's a book fantasizing about George Bush's assassination. There's a movie -- a documentary fantasizing about George Bush's assassination. And there are more hits on going Google for Obama and assassination than Bush and assassination. So maybe we can stop talking about the threat of right-wing violence in a country that is teeming with left-wing violence. At the Democratic National Convention-

SMITH: Take a breath. Take a breath. Take a breath. Take a breath.

Smith, who frankly I've never, ever watched, which surprises me a little, started out the conversation by pulling on audience heartstrings, claiming deep friendship with murdered talkshow host Alan Berg. Berg was machine gunned by White Supremacists in Denver in 1984. The implication he was making is that "right-wing nuts" are gunning for Barack Obama.

Let's do as Smith asks and take a breath--does he have any knowledge, any evidence at all of a White Supremacist plot against Obama? No, of course not--this "journalist" is engaged in nationally broadcast bar-talk, although I have no first hand knowledge of how much alcohol he may or may not have consumed prior to the interview.

What a "journalist" like Harry Smith is supposed to do with a conservative diva like Ann Coulter is what Couric did to Sarah Palin--embarrass them in front of the country. However, since Peter Jennings died, no network anchor bimbos have the intellectual horsepower to hang with Ms. Coulter, and they invariably end up embarrassing themselves rather that the conservative harpy.

The left is an anti-intellectual movement, but with the ironic twist that they believe they are completely rational. That arrogance has led them to try on several occasions to debate conservatives. I recall the Sean Hannity debate with Salt Lake mayor Ross Anderson. The conventional wisdom (from the liberal-left), was that Anderson, a lawyer, would wipe the floor with former construction worker Sean Hannity. The depth of embarrassment at Anderson's dismal performance was as bad as the aftermath of a BYU victory over the University of Utah in their annual football game.

There is of course, no admission of such defeats, except the reluctance to debate, to go on Fox News or otherwise confront the conservative ideological challenge with anything more than ridicule and vulgar pejoratives.

Finally, it might be wise to address the liberal-left equivocation between White Supremacists and conservatives.

Racism has always been and still is a Democrat kind of thing, which has always been less about ideology and more about the political culture of class and race warfare. Do White Supremicists really believe in free markets and smaller government? I don't think so.

They seem to have far more in common with Illnois' black caucus that insist that a black man's Senate seat is forever more a black man's Senate seat, or with Harry "pick a white woman" Reid, than with George W. Bush (who actually has and had major administration figures of color...)