Coulter, Malkin Better Get Ready for Round 2

Meghan McCain drops the gloves again

The last time Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham took aim at Meghan McCain, things did not turn out well for them.

Ingraham especially embarrassed herself when she mocked McCain as a "plus-sized model".

The latest battle comes after Michelle Malkin identified McCain as a conservative commentator who needs to "shut up" during a live public online chat about her new book.

"So Michelle Malkin successfully rounds out the trifecta of extreme female conservative pundits, following Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter, who believe that I, and Republicans like me, need to shut up and get out of the party," McCain wrote on her blog. "Is this surprising? Not really, given my father’s complicated history with the extreme right of the GOP."

"What do Malkin and the other conservative pundits hope to accomplish by arguing that people 'like me' have no place within the Republican Party?" McCain asked. "And who exactly are people 'like me'? Young people? Moderate people? Young female people? People with tattoos who go to biker rallies?"

One could expect that Malkin, Coulter and Ingraham would probably answer that people like Meghan McCain (and her father, John) aren't sufficiently conservative for their meager tastes. Few people credit them with an understanding that conservatism only truly succeeds as a "big tent" movement, and that moderate conservatives like the McCains are key to making such a thing possible.

"The Republican Party should be a place for all kinds of people, and I hope my fellow moderates come to see that the party is the place for them, too," McCain continued.

As McCain rightly notes, the mass exodus that people like Malkin, Coulter and Ingraham advocate would only help the Democrats.

"If the party continues to demand that people leave, I guarantee you that they will," McCain noted. "If you tell people there is no place for them, they aren’t going to fight for their right to stay. They are going to rush into the open arms of the other team."

One can imagine that the Democrats would be more than happy to have John and Meghan McCain on their team, even if Michelle Malkin lacks the wisdom to see the benefit.

"The old conservatives of the past need to start accepting that this is a new era and I am a part of a new generation," McCain concludes. "I am as sick of the infighting as everyone else, but I would like to point out that I am not the one starting this fight or demanding that the other half of the party leave."

A Republican party with Meghan and John McCain is a stronger Republican party -- especially since John McCain has begun out-networking President Barack Obama.

If Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham can't recognize this, they'd better get the hell out of the way for people who can. One thing is for certain: Meghan McCain is not taking the slings and arrows of the extreme right-wing lying down.

She's dropping the gloves and fighting back.