By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter

posted 10/26/04

 

Ann Coulter, a conservative speaker usually on the offensive, quickly found herself on the defensive against two men each armed with a tofu-lemon pie in Centennial Hall Thursday night.

 

"You know, it was meant to be funny.  It was a joke.  The whole thing was in the spirit of comedy,” said Zach Wolff, one of the accused attackers.

 

"I mean I think we proved once and for all that liberals really don't have words an argument or debate, that they have to come up and throw pies at Ann Coulter.  She handled it very well,” said Pete Seat, the state chair for the Arizona College Republicans.

 

The 24 year old men, William Zachary Wolff and Phillip Edgar Smith, who call themselves Al Pieda, were both arrested on numerous charges that included felony criminal damage.  Even before they ran on stage, the pair knew they would be arrested.

 

"We'd kind of been looking around and thinking of different options.  Can we get her outside, on the way to her car? Or, you know, inside, and it looked like inside was the best option and we kind of said, 'well, we're gonna get caught, but, let's go.  It's now or never.  Let's go.  There's the stairway to the stage.  Let's go,” Wolff recalled.

 

And now, there's no going back.  But Wolff says he achieved his goal:  humor, at the same time criticizing Coulter's conservative views.

 

"When throwing a pie can be called assault and bombing civilians called collateral damage, you gotta laugh to stay sane, and that's what I wanted to point out,” Wolff said.

 

Wolff, a registered Green, and Smith, a registered Democrat, say this was not aimed to support any presidential candidate.  Coulter may return to help press charges.