I just read Spinsanity’s magnificent debunking of Ann Coulter’s new screed, Treason, in which she warns us on the very first page, “Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence.” And it’s all downhill from there.

I can’t urge you strongly enough to read this shocking, witty, supremely insightful article. It surgically dissects Coulter’s argument, not in terms of ideas but simply in terms of misuse of quotes and bold-faced lies. At times it’s downright hilarious:

[Quoting Coulter] “Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America’s self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn’t slowed them down.”

Of course, Coulter must engage in a complicated set of rhetorical tricks to accuse liberals of “fifty years of treason” (in a 2001 column, it was only “twenty years of treason” — did inflation set in?).

If you don’t know Spinsanity, be sure to check it out. It is the only site I know totally dedicated to identifying and unravelling misleading media spin, be it from the left or the right. They go after all the spinmeisters with merciless honesty, and their analyses are cited by intelligent bloggers on all sides, from Andrew Sullivan to Orcinus to me.