WatchAnn Coulter squirm like a cornered snake on Chris Matthews’ "Hardball". Squirm, Ann, squirm. Flip your mane. Wiggle. Twist. Turn. Distort. Attack. Play victim. Slither slime. Hiss and spit venom. Shake your rattle. But whatever you do, don’t have the courage or integrity to appropriately answer Elizabeth Edwards confronting your vicious personal attacks on her husband John Edwards.
On Tuesday’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews announced that Elizabeth Edwards was on the phone wanting to respond live to Coulter having said the day before on “Good Morning America” that if Coulter is going to “say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” Coulter was responding to why she called John Edwards a “fag” back in March during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Edwards told Coulter that “… in the south when we -- when someone does something that displeases us, we wanna ask them politely to stop doing it. Uh - I'd like to ask Ann Coulter -- if she wants to debate on issues, on positions -- we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today -- um but uh it's quite another matter for these personal attacks that the things she has said over the years not just about John but about other candidates -- it lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely stop the personal attacks.”
Instead of responding to that request Coulter threw out a red herring that she had “made a joke” (about John Edwards being gay) and that “they've been raising money off of it for six months since then.”
Matthews then presses the point that Elizabeth Edwards was referring to the comment the day before that Coulter had made. Coulter then lied that “I didn't say anything about him actually either time.”
Then Elizabeth Edwards said “Ann, you know that's not true. And once more its been going on for sometime.”
But Coulter didn’t stop flinging those red herrings and going on the attack. Her response was “I don't mind you trying to raise money. I mean it's better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor.” Coulter also accused Edwards of bankrupting doctors so that they couldn't deliver babies. Attack and squirm, Ann, anything to avoid the issue at hand.
But Ann goes on to use other tricks of deception. When Edwards sticks to Coulter’s lack of civility, Coulter resorts to the classic strawman. In other words, Coulter simply grossly distorted what Edwards was saying and then attacked the caricature Coulter had fabricated. Specifically, Coulter said in response to being asked to stop personal attacks, “OK, great the wife of a presidential candidate is calling in asking me to stop speaking.” Coulter also implies that John Edwards wasn’t man enough to call himself.
Watch this four minute video clip. Watch Ann Coulter squirm, lie and indulge in ad hominem attacks. Hopefully it will be the last time Coulter is allowed to slither across the screen without being exposed for the snake she is.
B. 1952, GA, USA. D. To Be Determined. Beloved husband, father, grandfather, lover, confidant and friend of many from bikers to Zen masters; American writer and speaker, known for his criticism of Mammon's unholy trinity of big business, big government and big religion; served the least of them professionally as psychologist and voluntarily as activist for decades; loved to shoot basketball, billiards and the bull; lived free, died game. (memorial sketch by davidhewsonart.com)
Ann Coulter is like the villains at the end of Mel Gibson movies that get up after the audience thinks they're done for, or the Terminator who can't be terminated.
I believe it was after her disgusting "faggot" comment that several newspapers dropped her column either because their readership rose up in protest, or the editors decided she'd gone one vile, hateful comment too far.
Maybe that's what it will take. One newspaper at a time to drop her columns, and one host at a time to never have her on as a guest. Yeah, like that'll ever happen. After each of these debacles, she seems to pop back unscathed...and so do her book sales, which says a lot about some of the population.
Frankly, I think she's Carl Rove's eviler twin, and like Rove who is rumored to keep his job and have control over Bush and a whole bunch of people, because he has naughty photos of them, I think Ann does, too.
by
Sandy Sand (132 articles, 0 quicklinks, 169 diaries, 1262 comments)
on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 5:52:45 PM
I agree. The fact that Edwards didn't say such tends to prove that it wasn't a setup by the "liberal media" as at least one conservative web site is claiming. To me, Coulter equating Edwards' request with a cessation of writing is Coulter agreeing that she would be nothing without hate and personal attacks.
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Richard Mathis (127 articles, 103 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 121 comments)
on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 7:32:28 AM
Being a Gay Man I am offened by word " Faggot". I do not pay attention to any right winged neocon talk show host. . I did listen to Ms Edwards talking to Ann. I loved they way she put her down. If anybody noticed the crowd cheered for Ms. Edwards. The Progressive commuty should just stop talking about her and Rush. the feed on attention and the ris from us. We should not lower ourselves to their standards
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Gareece (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 46 comments)
on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 8:40:48 AM
with her tirades Coulter is digging up her own grave and the conservatives are encouraging her with fat checks.she is a disgrace and Edwards is right, she is lowering standard of the debate, she is brining it down to her level..
while she is "wishing" a terrorist attck on Edwards, a Purdue students student is facing charges for posting "threatning" messages against Bush and Co on online forums..looks like conservatives enjoy more freedom of speech then the rest of us
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MikaG (3 articles, 3 quicklinks, 29 diaries, 32 comments)
on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 9:31:18 AM
Coulter is an element of a much larger phenomenon -- celebrity behavior which is illegal, pathological, hateful, or just plain outrageous. When a movie star, athlete, or political figure engages in such behavior, a large segment of the population relishes in her/his presentation by the media.
In Coulter’s case, she presents nothing of value. Her commentary is solely directed at personal attack on others. Those who read her books or watch her performances are much like those who enjoy watching the schoolyard bully as he attacks his hapless victim.
That these people make a career out of what they do comes only from the fact that they have a willing audience ready to welcome their behavior. If she never appeared on another TV show, was never excepted as a columnist, and had no purchasers for her books, then she would no longer have victims. Thus, you have an affirmative opportunity to communicate with her employers, publishers or editors to let them know that you will no longer subscribe to their publication, or view their programs while she receives compensation from them.
Like a disease with no one to infect, she will eventually simply disappear.
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Sherwin Steffin (14 articles, 24 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 81 comments)
on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 3:48:16 PM
You said it all by saying that her getting air time says it all. Ann Coulter being considered worthy of a repeated public hearing is sad commentary on the status quo of current American culture.
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Richard Mathis (127 articles, 103 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 121 comments)
on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 10:21:21 PM
