With the predictable regularity of a locust plague, Ann Coulter and her enablers at the once-reputable firm of Random House have issued yet another volume of fascistic entertainment. Now the hard-drinking, trash-talking, fortysomething bachelorette bills herself as a Christian moralist, in holy battle against the liberal heathens.

That whiff of brimstone in the air may only be the match she is striking for her next cigarette.

But her version of "Christianity" turns out to be a strangely modern and convenient faith, which encourages heaping scorn on bereaved widows, bearing false witness against them on television and publicly gloating over the ill-gotten profits thus attained. Leaving behind the golden rule of the Gospels to "do unto others as you would have them do to you," she embodies a new rule of gold: You can never be too rich, too thin or too vicious.

But that was then, and this is now - and these two pious politicians remain silent in the face of a malevolent attack visited on their erstwhile friends. Both men know that it is a lie to call these women partisans or profiteers. Both know that these women - and the families they helped to lead - brought honor and purpose to a legislative process that is often petty and corrupt.

Shame on the silent Senators. And please, let's hear no more from either of them for a while about tolerance, respect and decency.