The attention-grabbing vocabulary of Ann Coulter is not what conservatives want as a newsworthy talking point.

Instead of shocking the public into listening with unfortunate comments, how about grabbing attention by celebrating the party's positives - like Jennifer Gratz. Instead of the stand-up-and- outrage-them message Coulter typically exudes, Gratz counsels: "I'd give the same advice my parents gave: Stand up for your beliefs. And I'd add that you really can do anything that you set your mind to."

That's the kind of mind-set that helped Gratz pass Proposal 2, lauded by her peers at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where she received its Ronald Reagan Award.

Gratz was executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which amends the state's constitution to prohibit "state entities from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin." With 58 percent of the vote, its passing was no small victory.

Gratz's approach stands in dramatic contrast to the misleading and hyperbolic rhetoric of her opponents in Michigan. One of the opposition ads, for instance, declared: "If you could have prevented 9/11 from ever happening . . . would you have? If you could have prevented Katrina from ever happening . . . what would you have done? On Nov. 7th there's a national disaster headed for Michigan . . . the elimination of affirmative action. And on Nov. 7th there's only one way to stop this disaster . . . by voting No on Proposal 2."

But these cheap attacks haven't thwarted Gratz. And they haven't discouraged her colleagues' praise.

Fellow Michigander Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, in nominating Gratz for the award, wrote of her and her MCRI struggle, "Along the way she was reviled by demonstrators and her integrity was probably questioned by a liberal judge, whose derisive words were used in the well-financed campaign against the MCRI. . . . I was completely impressed with Jennifer's natural skill, maturity, good judgment and courage under fire. No matter what was thrown at her, she never lost her poise and determination."

The conservative moment is grounded in ideas. We believe those ideas, as expressed and as acted upon, have consequences - because they do. Every politically interested college student knows Coulter; many have heard her on campus. They should know and hear Jennifer Gratz.