Annie Get Your Quote

It's not notable when Ann Coulter says something inflammatory. It is notable, apparently, when she says something that she actually wrote:

Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless," according to a plagiarism expert.

John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book's text through the company's digital iThenticate program.

He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter's weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

Barrie, CEO of iParadigms, told The Post that one 25-word passage from the "Godless" chapter titled "The Holiest Sacrament: Abortion" appears to have been lifted nearly word for word from Planned Parenthood literature published at least 18 months before Coulter's 281-page book was released.

A separate, 24-word string from the chapter "The Creation Myth" appeared about a year earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle with just one word change - "stacked" was changed to "piled."

Another 33-word passage that appears five pages into "Godless" allegedly comes from a 1999 article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.

Maybe Coulter is seen as such a liability now that even Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Post, is trying to cast her out of their little club. Interestingly, all it took was a little pressure for Universal Press Syndicate, Coulter's column publisher, to agree to an investigation.

At any rate, this should be a fun one to track. Coulter has already voted at the wrong precinct in Florida this year - which is actually a felony. Now plagiarism, which normally ends a writer's career. Will there be any accountability?

Or, the real question may be, who are these bad writers she's stealing from, and should they maybe get fired? It's a "starve the beast" option.

UPDATE: Coulter claims that the Post "has been reduced to tabloid status." Reduced? The Post INVENTED tabloid status! She needs to find whoever wrote that for her and chew them out.