From Rush and Malloy of The Daily News:

'Debate' vs. Coulter-geist

Tough-talking Ann Coulter wouldn't say a word last night.

At the last minute, the conservative pundit canceled her appearance opposite best-selling "Big Lies" author Joe Conason on CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer" - this after having programmers change the debate to fit her schedule.

One might think the roundtable, which featured Wall Streeter James Cramer and Reaganite Lawrence Kudlow, would be a breeze for Coulter. Could she have been afraid of facing Conason, whose book presents evidence that her arguments are ill-researched and calls her lifestyle hypocritical?

Coulter didn't answer our E-mail.

Meanwhile, we hear fellow right-wing tough guy Bill O'Reilly won't even let Conason on his show. (The Fox News Channel star - fingered by Matt Drudge as the instigator of Fox News' much-derided lawsuit against Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" - wouldn't comment.)