Blue Crab Boulevard

Bad Move

I've seldom mentioned Ann Coulter, she isn't exactly my cup of tea. I laughed pretty hard at a massive putdown she landed on Alec Baldwin. But I also condemned her when she stepped over the line before. Pretty much the rest of the time I ignore her. But she crossed another line today, apparently.

Ann Coulter is speaking at CPAC as I write. As is typical, she gave a brief speech full of her usual witticisms, including a few brilliant attacks on Al Gore’s green hypocrisy. All was good. Until the last few seconds, when she launched into a joke about John Edwards.

Here’s what she said.

“I’d say something about John Edwards, but if you say ‘faggot’ you have to go to rehab.”

I don't think she needed to go there, regardless of her distaste of Edwards. Heck, I think Edwards is a political hack and completely unworthy of the office he is seeking. But I'm not about to cross the line Coulter crossed. She's using a very charged word that was simply not needed and will cause a backlash. It's a bald-faced provocation, unnecessary and almost certain to backfire. Heck, you can insult politicians more easily, more humorously and better than that.

UPDATE: Others: The Moderate Voice, Jules Crittenden, The Volokh Conspiracy, QandO, Done With Mirrors, Right Wing News, The News Buckit, Right Voices, Sean Hackbarth, Riehl World View, Ace of Spades, Captain's Quarters, A Second Hand Conjecture, Ankle Biting Pundits, Winds of Change, OTB, Fausta, Flopping Aces,

Media, Politics | Gaius March 2, 2007

By Matthew, March 3, 2007 @ 12:38 am

I used to like her and still think that some of her one liners are pretty funny, but on the whole, Ann Coulter is an idiot. What a stupid thing to say! Using “faggot” to describe someone reminds me of something you’d hear on a playground from an eight year old.
By James, March 3, 2007 @ 12:42 am

It’s interesting to note that Coulter did this as the Right was trying to paint the Left as potty mouths in their blogs and comment sections.

Coulter isn’t advancing the GOP towards any moral high ground, indeed, she’s helping it retreat down into the gutter for all the world to see.
By Gaius, March 3, 2007 @ 6:29 am

James, if she had said any one of the terms used routinely by a lot of members for the left, she’d be in real trouble right now. You should see the comments that never see the light of day here.
By Ding Fod, March 3, 2007 @ 3:09 pm

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, you don’t chop off fellow conservatives at the knees. Repubs don’t seem to know what they want and are always polite. Dems know what they want and will lie, cheat and fight dirty to get it. The liberal juggernaught continues to roll. PC, multiculturalism, the nanny state, snoopervision of business continues unabated. The profane Daily Kos gets more hits than all the polite conservative sites put together. Coulter knows you have to fight fire with fire. The polite repubs are politing themselves to the dust bin of history.
By crosspatch, March 3, 2007 @ 3:30 pm

Check Curt’s blog over at Flopping Aces. Actually she was making a reference to an interview she did on Fox some time ago and it went over everyone’s head. If you didn’t see the interview on Fox, you wouldn’t “get” what she said at the conference.
By Quilly Mammoth, March 3, 2007 @ 10:29 pm

Yes, Crosspatch, I saw it. It is still stoopid. She knew what she was saying, it’s like a third grader caught rubbing his middle finger along side his nose while looking at someone else. “Just scratching”.

Bah.

Brown Shirt Annie is just as bad as Maher. Both bring nothing good to the battle in the arena of ideas.
By cfaller96, March 6, 2007 @ 12:14 pm

sensible mom said:
Plus it makes her look like sheâ€™s suffering from A BDS-like disease, letâ€™s call it LDS (liberal derangement syndrome), when she calls people names instead discussing issues like an adult.

Oh, this is rich. Ann Coulter says something offensive, and that means she’s suddenly acting like a liberal. Wow. Just wow.

Come back to the real world, sensible mom. It’s really not that scary…