Ann Coulter Calls John Edwards ‘Faggot’
Ann Coulter just finished her stand-up routine. I missed the first part of it, so I’m not sure what the dumbest thing she said was.
She needs to update her material, though, since she’s making Phil Donohue jokes. Hint: No one under 40 has any clue who he is. (The joke, in the form of an SAT question, was that Hillary Clinton is comparing herself to Margaret Thatcher. Coulter thinks the analogy would be Margaret Thatcher : Ronald Reagan as Hillary Clinton : Phil Donohue. No, it wasn’t any funnier in person.)
She closed, with no apparent transition, saying that since you now have to enter rehab for uttering the word “faggot,” she wouldn’t be talking about John Edwards. (No, I don’t get it, either.)
I skipped the Q&A, figuring I had the gist of the speech by that point.
UPDATE: I would note that, an hour after the speech, people are still lined up around the block for autographed copies of her book. Granted, most of them are young kids of college age. Some of them are older than I am.
Somehow, I can’t imagine Ronald Reagan being pleased.
UPDATE: Sean Hackbarth has the audio.
UPDATE: The remarks are being widely condemned by the conservative bloggers who covered CPAC. In addition to Hackbarth, who observed that “Ann Coulter almost made it through her CPAC speech without looking like a complete buffoon,” we have:
- Michelle Malkin dubs it “a cheap one-liner.”
- Ed Morrissey: “Yeah, that’s just what CPAC needs — an association with homophobia. Nice work, Ann.”
- Nathan Nelson (who wasn’t on Bloggers’ Row but is from Red State, which was) calls for all conservatives to “shun” Coulter.
- Patrick Ishmael calls the comment “way out of line.”
- Kevin McCullough: “Today at CPAC Ann needlessly painted a target not on herself, but on the Conservative movement as a whole.”
- Bryan Preston: “I’m no fan of John Edwards, but that’s just a stupid joke. It’s over the line. The laughter it generated across the room was more than a little annoying.” He’s got the video.
Then again, there’s SeeJaneMom:
That joke about John Edwards being a “faggot” without saying the word “faggot” is not helpful. True maybe. But not helpful.
The line snaking through Blogger’s Row would suggest that no one cares.
UPDATE: After two hundred folks bought her book for 27.95, she bolts on a line that has waited two hours. I should have bought the book before I went through my AMAZON portal. Rats.
Hmmm. Well, she did say the word “faggot.” Nor is there any reason to think Edwards, who is married with children, is homosexual. But, yes, ducking out on the line of autograph seekers was her major transgression of the afternoon.
Emperor Misha (who wasn’t, so far as I know, in attendance) manages to deliver Coulter’s barb in a way that’s actually funny: “There was absolutely NO reason to insult homosexuals like that, Ann. I know and have known quite a few gays in my life, and I have yet to meet one as effeminate as My Little Pony Edwards. Heck, I’ve yet to meet any women as effeminate as The Breck Girl.” (I’ve never found Edwards to be particularly “effeminate,” but it’s at least a funny joke.)
UPDATE: Joe Gandelman rounds up more reactions.
Conservatives would be better served to ditch Coulter and focus on more serious commentators. But she provides red meat for the ideologues, I guess.
Ann Coulter represents the worst of the movement. I am kind of ashamed that I ever supported her. When I wrote my book I included her as a “resource for conservatives.” I stand corrected.
Check out http://www.FreedomWorks.org At least we are doing some real work on the issues.
I just got out of her speech here. I think you’re right. When I get in arguments with liberals, almost every one uses Coulter as an example, and I always have to say: “No, no, I’m not a conservative like that, not all conservatives are like Ann Coulter.” It’s not a big deal to dismiss her as extremist, but when all the conservatives cheer madly for her and kneel at her feet, it’s hard to make the argument that she doesn’t represent a true conservative.
She speaks her mind, isn’t concerned with being politically correct, and has a wide audience who get offended. Yet, that does not diminish her popularity any. And I have yet to see anyone who could hold their own with her in an argument.
Ann Coulter is just what this country needs. You may disagree with what she says, and you may even be offended. If so, nobody really cares.
I do not understand why you folks even tolerate the likes of Ann Coulter. You have to know she is not helping your cause.
To use another SAT analogy…
Ann Coulter :: Conservatives, as
Militant Lesibio-Fascists (the famed “feminazis”) :: Equal Rights
Ann Coulter is just what this country needs.
Like a fish needs a bicycle.
Ann—-Go girl go–We LOVE you—J
That’s ok, Ann is a c*nt, or maybe a pr*ck, I can’t quite figure this one out.
Now you know why serious candidates, like McCain, didnt bother to attend.
Heres a question. How long will it take for conservatives to conveniently forget what goes on at one of their premiere events, and go back on the attack agaisnt libruls for their incivility?
How long will it take for conservatives to conveniently forget what goes on at one of their premiere events, and go back on the attack agaisnt libruls for their incivility?
And there’s the rub. The vast majority of the people I met at CPAC were decent, honorable folks who were aghast at the likes of Coulter. Yet, nobody had as many people lining up for books.
My guess, by the way, is that the same would be true at a leftie equivalent convention.
Hey, I’m 38 and I remember Donahue.
However, said knowledge does not make her joke funny.
At any rate, the idea that Ann Coulter actually “argues” is to think that Monty Python’s Argument Sketch is a documentary.
And to think that she is good for the country raises question of which country one is talking about.
Yes, James. No doubt the great majority of attendees are perfectly civil, as are the great majority of liberals. The difference between conservative and liberal sewer dwellers is that the conservative ones are supported to the tune of millions of dollars by an adoring fan base, while the liberal ones have to be dredged up out of obscure comment areas in blogworld.
I would imagine that a fine man like Pres. Reagan would be utterly revolted by Ann Coulter.
Tano ever heard of Michael Moore? Al Franken (and Franken wants to run for senate)?
Don’t pretend like there aren’t sewer dwellers on the left that are only to be found in comments sections.
Joe Gandelman at ‘The Moderate Voice ” says “This site after this post is an Ann Coulter free zone. We won’t give her pronouncements more attention or coverage. We’ve deleted comments from anti-semites, anti-Muslim readers and others who left slurs that we didn’t want on this site.”
Good for you Joe; my question is, what took you so long? Coulter’s been saying worse things for years.
Let’s face it; all that really happened here was that the democrats got back some of what they’ve been dishing out for the last twenty years and more. You’ll forgive me if I’m less than sympathetic to their cries of pain, now.
all that really happened here was that the democrats got back some of what they’ve been dishing out for the last twenty years and more.
Care to translate that from Fantasy into English, Bithead?
What’s hilarious is the “shock” that’s being expressed by other conservatives. Wow, no one knew Ann would go THAT far. Bullshit. That’s why you invite her. She says the crap that most conservatives don’t have the balls to say out loud and then they can enjoy the feeling that they’re not alone in their hate.
And yeah, I know the liberals have their own hitmen, but I always fall into the trap of expecting that conservatives will act like grownups.
The first candidate who distances him or herself from the extremists and can make me believe it will get my vote next year.
That’s why you invite her.
She gets invited because she moves a lot of books and fires up the kids that make up a sizable part of the audience.
But, yeah, they know what they’re getting. At CPAC 2006, she called Arabs “ragheads” and called for the poisoning of the Supreme Court. At CPAC 2005, she was just all around weird.
As I noted last year,
Yet they do.
The CPAC organizers should be ashamed for inviting her back year after year and giving her such a prominent stage.
Maybe OTB should decline their next invitation, and cite Coulter as the reason?
Surely it’s worth more to make a principled statement than to retail for us some stump speeches. Of course, my bias may be showing.
>She speaks her mind, isn’t concerned with being
>politically correct, and has a wide audience who
>get offended.
So does P. J. O’Rourke. But unlike Coulter, O’Rourke 1.) isn’t an ass and 2.) is actually funny. To paraprhase Goldberg when Coulter was fired from the National Review, the problem isn’t that she’s un-pc, it’s that she’s a talentless hack.
Coulter has nothing to offer the conservatives but the rhetorical equivalent of dropping her pants at a frat party.
Maybe OTB should decline their next invitation, and cite Coulter as the reason?
Could be, although I’m not sure how much impact that’d have. Likely not much, judging from the lines.
Plus, the Bloggers’ Rows are sponsored by various groups, I’m not even sure it’d get back to the CPAC organizers.
It’s a reference to that actor on Grey’s Anatomy who recently went into some sort of “rehab” (read: desperate career-saving measure) for calling one of his co-stars “faggot.” And no, getting the reference doesn’t make it any more skillful or funny of a joke.
I think Ann’s comments were stupid and unneccessary.
Yet, at the same time, you have to give her credit for not being afraid to speak her mind. Not everybody seems willing to be so straightforward .. *cough* Mitt Romney *cough*
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI
Anderson: Government schooling, I presume?
Look, gang, the leftists have been acting like a bull in a China shop for the last twenty years, basically tearing down any sacred cows that they had the wit to make fun of. But now suddenly when the tables get turned, their own weaponry gets used against them, and we’re supposed to be apologetic? I don’t think so. After so many years of the Democrats being offensive, in my view they have no room to complain when they get offended. And I will be damned if I’m going to let them define what I can and cannot say that a given situation. Those who are going after an at this point over this, the cars would do well to consider that’s precisely what they’re doing… letting the left define the battle. it should be fairly well known by now, that when you let the enemy define the battle, you’ve already lost. The honest truth is, that Coulter’s comments cut a little too close to home for their comfort. Well, tough beans.
And let’s face it, if Howard Dean is so worried, so very offended… maybe it’s because he figures the The Breck Girl isn’t much as a candidate, either.
“Yet, at the same time, you have to give her credit for not being afraid to speak her mind.”
Huh? Why do you have to give her credit for that?
Do you think there is any paucity of people in this world who are willing to speak their mind?
Anyone whose opinion that you have encounted in the public arena is someone who has had the courage to speak their mind. Credit should be granted on the basis of the value in what they have to say.
And no, getting the reference doesn’t make it any more skillful or funny of a joke.
Oh, yeah–that much I got. I just don’t understand the insinuation that John Edwards is gay. First I’ve heard of it, certainly.
Credit should be granted on the basis of the value in what they have to say.
Roger that. And, hell, I’d give her some “credit” if she was making some argument for the free speech right to call homosexuals “faggots.” All she did here was engage in some 3rd grade humor.
There’s a fine line between being homosexual, and being effeminate. First I will suggest to you that that’s exactly what Ann is referring to.
Secondly, isn’t it interesting that the majority of the leftists who were complaining about this statement from her, were themselves just a short time ago suggesting that she was a guy who had a sex change operation. ‘Why, just look at her’ was a statement from event in such comments. Another popular one was “Gee, sorry her sex change operation didn’t work out”. I had hoped the subtle references I had made toward the Democrats getting what they gave, would turn on somebody’s lights. Apparently, that didn’t happen.
I don’t remember nearly the state being made about those statements as the ones that and just made. Double standard?
My only question to the right is, Who Would Jesus Call A Faggot?
So tell me America, why does Ann or anyone else have to embrace gays? Why is it that you are forced to accept and celebrate them? Or be slammed in the press. I can tell you this much. They certainly don’t accept you or your lifestyle. So, she called him a “faggot”. At worst it was juvenile. Oh, wait, are you going to start crying about “hate crimes”? Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from being offended.
The problem with the “joke” isn’t that it should be nailing homosexuals. For all we know, Edwards (married with kids) isn’t gay. His policy has holes enough to attack, why call him a fag?
It really has nothing to do with homosexuals (who for all their ruckus maybe just don’t like being compared to John Edwards). There are people who made “liberal” into a dirty word, and they aren’t conservatives. Now “conservative” is getting dirtier and dirtier, and instead of blaming Dem party hitmen (which there are, no doubt, on both sides of the sand line) maybe conservatives should also look into their own ranks and see where their public message is coming from.
I’ve always thought we’re so disillusioned because we miss the good points of background politicians when Franken and O’Reilly go toe to toe.
When I get in arguments with liberals, almost every one uses Coulter as an example, and I always have to say: “No, no, I’m not a conservative like that, not all conservatives are like Ann Coulter.â€
Oh, poor you. Conservatives have been doing the same sh*t to us for as long as I can remember; sometimes you guys do it to us with people we’ve never heard of (Ward Churchill, anyone?).
Coulter sells a lot of books and has a lot of fans on the conservative side of the ideological spectrum. She’s very high-profile. So until another high-profile conservative steps up and says “Ann, your extremism is not appropriate or welcome in the the Republican Party,” well, you own her.
Funny thing about Reagan’s 11th Commandment is that sometimes it backfires.
James, I apologize for not being clear in my original post. Sleep deprivation, low blood sugar, and a bit of a hangover at CPAC may have contributed to my assumption that meaning was implied.The last part about AMAZON wasn’t even edited properly before I hit send. I sound as drunk as I felt.
Thank you for the gentlemanly nudge.
I have corrected all, clarified my intent and tracked back appropriately.
Well, I ATTEMPTED to trackback. Must be my Typepad server. I can’t get trackbacks to work at HOTAIR either because Bryan assumes that I have the misfortune to reside on a nutroot server. More reason to find a new host.
Thanks James!
Sorry Anderson; Bithead was right!
As a 15 year old observer of the political world we live in, I am shocked to read of Ann Coulter’s lack of professionalism. Her rude, condescending, and totally unnecessary comments were offensive and ridiculous and her opinion should no longer matter. If you can’t say something nice, Ann, shut your mouth!