Three People We Can Do Without

Three people made the news in a big way last week. All received mounds of news coverage. It’s too bad, because none of them really has anything worthwhile to say. It just proves yet again that ours is a celebrity culture where outrageous behavior and opinions are enough to make you famous.

PARIS HILTON got out of jail and gave a one-hour interview to CNN. Unfortunately, she had about 10 minutes of things to say and then began again, and again, and, well, you get the idea. I know she’s an easy target, but her whole life is devoted to personal PR, so she can’t really complain when we focus critically on her. Let’s just say we hope she’ll do more with her life than party the nights away, but we’ll see. Count us as skeptics.

ANN COULTER got into another smackdown with the Edwards family, this time with Elizabeth Edwards, who called her during an appearance on “Hardball.” In this case, both used the other for their own purposes. Coulter got headlines, yet again, for boorish and quite offensive comments (this time it was something like, “I hope John Edwards gets killed in a terrorist attack.” Ha ha). Elizabeth Edwards pounced and was quite skillful in moving the focus away from her husband’s lagging presidential campaign to her face-off against the bete noir of every Democrat, and if the truth be told, many Republicans too. “Send us money,” she asked, “so that we can …” Can what? Stop Ann Coulter? Not really, because she’s not running for president. Elizabeth Edwards wants money for her husband’s presidential campaign. The appeal seems to be working and the campaign is reaping lots of cash. As I said, both got what they wanted. It’s a great country.

MICHAEL MOORE is back with yet another movie, “SiCKO,” that is sure to be praised by Hollywood, the media, and liberals everywhere. Moore makes it extremely difficult for one to resist ad hominum attacks. He is arrogant, foul-mouthed, mostly clueless about public policy, and contributes not a lot to the public dialogue. The most remarkable thing about “SiCKO” is that his policy prescriptions are pretty much in line with many Democratic leaders, including a number of candidates for president. He actually believes that turning responsibility for healthcare over to the federal government will make things better. Remember, this is the same federal government that liberals routinely denounce for an inadequate response to Katrina, that can’t protect our borders, that can’t fund and maintain good schools, that can’t guarantee greater income equality, that can’t protect us against cheap foreign imports. That same federal government, says Moore, is somehow going to improve healthcare in America if we just turn to socialized medicine.

Fortunately, Michael Moore is rich enough that he doesn’t have to go to Canada or England or anywhere else for care where there is socialized medicine. He’s rich enough to be treated in the good old USA. Too bad he is rich and hypocritical enough not to practice what he preaches.