Elizabeth Edwards is my new heroine!
In just a few days, she has demonstrated that she has more courage - and courage of conviction - than all of the 2008 Presidential candidates of both parties combined - including her own husband.
Just the other day, she took on the Radical Religious with her comments in San Francisco during the Gay Day Parade: "I don't know why somebody else's marriage has anything to do with me," she said. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
If one really thought about her comment, one would be hard-pressed to defend the idea that there is something about gay marriage that is at all threatening to straight marriage, and I speak as a hetero male who has been married over 30 years. But then, I'm only bigoted against bigots.
Speaking of the hard press, said behavior is the domain of the Wicked Witch of the East Coast, Ann Coulter. For years now, Coulter has been spewing invective at all non-Republicans without any meaningful rebuttal - until now. The response, coolly measured and delivered, came from Elizabeth Edwards:
"[I]n the South when someone does something that displeases us, we ... ask them politely to stop doing it. I want … to ask her politely stop the personal attacks."You wrote a column a couple years ago which made fun of the moment of [her son] Charlie Dean's death, and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said ask me about my dead son. This is not legitimate political dialogue.
"I'm making this call as a mother. I'm the mother of that boy who died. [T]hese young people behind you are the age of my children. You're asking them to participate in a dialogue that's based on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues and I don't think that's serving them or this country very well."
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
Elizabeth Edwards does seem like a nice lady. Ann Coulter clearly is not. But then anyone who thought she was is an idiot. She's a cunning stunt, if you take my meaning.
However, while Edwards is dead on about gay marriage, she's not quite on target with her confrontation of Coulter. Even though Coulter is unspeakably irritating and frequently wrong, Edwards is even more wrong to expect Coulter to change or stop speaking out in the style which has become characteristic of her. Coulter is all about bitchy comments and making mean fun of people. It's what she does. To try to silence her or to try to shame her into suppressing her personal style is just wrong, no matter how idiots online voted.
What really troubles me - and it's rampant in your article - is this drive by those on the left like Edwards and yourself to silence anyone who disagrees, is critical or who holds an unapproved opinion. Coulter has an absolute right to be as big a braying jackass as she wants. You have the right to take exception, but you're crossing a line when you try to silence her. The politically correct fascism of the left troubles me enormously.
It also troubles me that I went out and found the video of this and had to sit through almost 5 minutes of that creepy woman playing with her hair while that laughing troll in the schoolgirl uniform stood behind her in the audience. It was a surreal and purely unpleasant experience. I'd like to share the suffering, so do go check out the video on YouTube.
Dave
2 - Jeff Friedberg
Say whatever you want, the Right loves it when you freak out like this--let's have more. Come on, make my week :)
BTW, Ann Coulter is a goddess, and you're not :)
3 - Rufus T. Firefly
How was EE trying to silence AC? It was just political theater, a publicity stunt to get Edwards some air time because her husband is basically tied for third with all the other Dem candidates.
She wasn't speaking to Ann; she was speaking to the audience watching the show because aside from the usual rabble that fills this site, the majority of the public wants the discussion of politics elevated.
It's so obvious the left want Coulter around, to do her thing and be a punching bag, not to silence her. Why do you think Edwards again used Coulter to solicit money? They may say they don't want her around, but they don't mean it. Just like they don't want to lose Gonzales or Cheney. If you can't see it, you should hold off on throwing around the word "idiot."
4 - Media Tycoon
Ann Coulter is taken out of context a lot...
There is a video on Drudge right now where she explains her "fag" comment.
On a similar note...didn’t Edwards have some anti-region bigot running a blog on his campaign site not too long ago?
Let’s face it, both sides are filled with classless people who say horrible things. The difference is the left cries when ann coulter talks. the right doesn't cry when bill Maher wishes that Dick Cheney was assassinated.
On that day, Bill Maher essentially declared himself a terrorist. He should be in Gitmo, but you don't hear conservatives say anything more than the fact that he is a wacko.
5 - ophu
I like to think of mean people as sandpaper. If those who are personally attacked have the fortitude to withstand it with good grace when they are rubbed the wrong way, they'll come out of it smooth and polished, with plenty of poise. And the sandpaper, in time, will just be old, worn-down and ugly.
6 - George Orwell
There seem to be quite a few misconceptions about this whole Ann Coulter thing.
1)Bill Maher never wished that Dick Cheney be assassinated. It would be nice if the people who kept trying to propogate that lie would actually look at the transcript.
2) Ann Coulter did in fact state that from now on she would just wish for John Edwards' death.
3) She also implied that he was in fact a faggot.
4) She also stated that John Edwards had a bumper sticker on his car shamelessly exploiting his son's death.
5) She also stated that the 9/11 wives were glad their husbands had died in the WTC.
6) Like all bullys, once she's called on her hate-filled speech, she resorts to explaining how it was all a joke taken out of context. In other words, she's a coward.
7) As for silencing her; I don't think anyone wants to silence her. They just want her to bring up her level of debate (and when speaking of Coulter I use that term extremely loosely). She does not debate on the issues. All of her attacks are personal and intended simply to mariginalize the speaker. There is not a single idea she has ever debated on. It's a tactic which quite simply plays to the lizard brain because, let's face it, there isn't much there there.
7 - Lumpy
If she's such a lying fool why would democrats want to bring up her level of debate? Wouldn't that make her more effective and less of an easy target for them?
8 - Clavos
Bingo, Lumpy!
9 - Alec
RE: Ann Coulter is taken out of context a lot...
Actually, no. She has been a frequent guest on Al Rentel's Los Angeles area talk radio show. She is allowed ample opportunity to speak, and she continually puts her foot in her mouth insisting that her comments are a)true; b)funny; c) not as bad as anything that some Democrat or liberal has ever said; or d) all of the above.
RE; There is a video on Drudge right now where she explains her "fag" comment.
She claimed it was a joke. A joke ain't funny if you have to explain it. Coulter should leave humor to the professionals. But unlike professional commedians she has no real sense of humor or sense of an audience, and so she falls back on self-serving blather when her feet are held to the fire.
RE: On a similar note... didn't Edwards have some anti-religion bigot running a blog on his campaign site not too long ago?
Well, no. Amanda Marcotte made what were supposedly anti-Catholic comments on her personal web site on her personal time. It had nothing to do with Edwards or his campaign site. Odd how lies, distortions and mis-statements take on a life of their own in the Age of the Internet.
Ironically, some of Marcotte's remarks were taken out of context or deliberately "mashed up" by her detractors. Details here: Amanda Marcotte
Now, making anti-Catholic remarks may be bad, but this is not quite the same thing as being an anti-religious bigot (not that there's anything wrong with that).
RE: Let's face it, both sides are filled with classless people who say horrible things. The difference is the left cries when ann coulter talks. the right doesn't cry when bill Maher wishes that Dick Cheney was assassinated.
As others have pointed out, Maher never said it. Also, Maher is more libertarian than anything else, so he is not really of the left. Worst of all, the impulse that seeks to reduce all politics to "my side" vs "your side," is the saddest legacy of crass ideologues like Coulter, Limbaugh, Mark Levin and a host of others.
10 - Chub
Well its getting hot and heavy in the old town tonight. Seems like every time a conservative/aka right wing person has somehting to say and write about all the left wing cry babies start crying, instead of putting their aims and accomplishments on the line so we can approve or disapprove. Hillary wants to take everyone elses profits(oil profits) Remember you drove to work . (Not Bills from his 10,000,000.00 book.) Hillary Spend your own money first before taking other peoples money to show how powerful you are. Represent the people not just your party............
11 - Baronius
I saw the full episode on YouTube. I thought Coulter handled herself well, and made Edwards look foolish. (And I'm no fan of Coulter.)
The left whines about Coulter, and the right whines about Maher. Sorry, MediaTycoon, but we do. And Alec, sorry, but Maher is a liberal. The most annoying kind of liberal: a bully who thinks he's a moderate fighting right-wing bullies. Kind of like Jon Stewart. Quick to point out that the right and left are out of control, then giving examples of the mistakes of the right.
Coulter's a bully as well, but she'll present her arguments both fairly and unfairly.
12 - sr
Life never changes with liberals. Set in their ways they never see the other side. Reason being is when facts are presented to them they always find the truth confuseing. Just reading the comments we can see the libs have been tweaked by my hero Ann. My bumper sticker on the back of my car reads: HAVE YOU TWEAKED A LIBERAL TODAY. Dont you just love it.
13 - Dave Nalle
Baronius, you're no longer allowed to have those unauthorized thoughts.
Amusingly, I got a call today from Ann Coulter's website, which was apparently conducting a poll to see who was a true, loyal republican. I think it got upset when I told it I didn't hate immigrants.
Dave
14 - sr
Too bad Dave. I got the same call and had a few drinks with Ann and a great dinner. She is one fine beautiful lady. You lose dude. Just remember Glock's Rock and so does Ann.
15 - Dave Nalle
While dining with her did you notice her prominent adam's apple?
Dave
16 - sr
No Dave however I did notice other prominent features that you would lust for which I shall not disclose because she is a lady. Ann is like Rush. She has to tie half her brain behind her back just to make it fair talking with liberals. For me that is sexey.
17 - Media Tycoon
Ann Coulter = Satan
Anyone who disagrees = misinformed
It sounds like dangerous absolutism is corrupting the liberal minds on this Blog Critics.
I have read good parts of some of Al Franken’s, Michael Moore’s, and Ann Coulter’s books.
They are the same people just on different sides. I truly believe that. If you DON'T believe that, I believe it is probably due to either a lack of full exposure to these people or because you are too biased to see the similarities.
Not to mention…what about Rosie O’Donnell…just looking at her is as offensive as listening to Ann Coulter. HAHAHHAHAHHAHA
18 - Media Tycoon
oh yea...and belive it or not...rush limbaugh isnt the one who started "you vs me" politics.
I know its hard to believe that history didnt start in the 80s, but it didnt.
19 - sr
Media Tycoon. Would you like to see fat Rosie hanging like a frecking bat upside down like she did on the view naked. Will send you pictures for the cost of a postage stamp. Many men get horney looking at big fat women like Rosie.
20 - Alec
Baronius - re: The left whines about Coulter, and the right whines about Maher.
Actually, Coulter has been taken to task by conservatives and (gasp) even by Republicans.
RE: And Alec, sorry, but Maher is a liberal. The most annoying kind of liberal: a bully who thinks he's a moderate fighting right-wing bullies.
Odd that Maher does not reductively declare himself to be a "liberal," and that others want to claim to know his mind better than he himself does. This again, to me, is another example of the madness that Coulter and others of her ilk feed into, the insistence that we must be only liberal or conservative, and that these labels mean something good or sinister. Apart from the (so far) lack of violence, this kind of thing is not much different between insisting to know whether a person is Catholic or Protestant, or Sunni or Shiite.
RE: Kind of like Jon Stewart.
I thought that Stewart was just a comedian. And funny, again, unlike Coulter.
Coulter's a bully as well, but she'll present her arguments both fairly and unfairly.
I hate bullies, period. And unfair arguments are a waste of time.
RE: Many men get horney looking at big fat women like Rosie.
At least Rosie is human. I get the impression sometimes that Coulter is a lizard creature who unzips her humanoid skin at night and sips venom through a hole in her forked tongue.
This last, of course, is a joke. See how it's done?
21 - RJ
What the mainstream media won't tell you:
I doubled the ratings of the lowest-rated cable news show on Tuesday by agreeing to go on for a full hour to promote my new paperback version of "Godless" -- a mistake I won't make again. As I was walking to the set, minutes before airtime, it was casually mentioned to me that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, might call in.
For the first time in recorded history, the show's host did not interrupt a guest, but let Elizabeth Edwards ramble on and on, allowing her to browbeat me for being mean to her husband. (This delicate flower is very sensitive to rough words, having hired the Edwards' campaign staffer who wrote this: "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit"?)
Say, did any TV host ever surprise Al Franken, Bill Maher or Arianna Huffington with a call by the wife of someone they've made nasty remarks about? How about a call to John Edwards from the wife of a doctor he bankrupted with his junk-science lawsuits?
I think I may have tuned out at some point, so I can only speak to the first 45 minutes of Elizabeth Edwards' harangue, but it mostly consisted of utterly dishonest renditions of things I had said on my "Good Morning America" interview this week and a column I wrote four years ago. (You can't rush Edwards' "rapid response team"!) She claimed I had launched unprovoked attacks on the Edwards' dead son and called for a terrorist attack on her husband.
These are bald-faced lies, and the mainstream media knows they are lies. Yet they were repeated ad nauseam on Wednesday by The Associated Press, the AOL pop-up window, CNN, NBC and -- stunningly -- the host of the lowest-rated cable show himself, who personally told me he knew the truth.
Here is my full sentence on "Good Morning America," which the media deceptively truncated, referring to a joke I told about Edwards six months ago that made liberals cry: "But about the same time, you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack -- so I've learned my lesson: If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."
The usual nut Web sites posted a zillion denunciations of my appearance on "Good Morning America" immediately after I appeared Monday morning. But it didn't occur to any of them to simply lie about what I had said. No, it took them nearly 36 hours to concoct a version of that quote that included the Edwards part, but not the Maher part, or what English language speakers call: "the point."
By tomorrow it will be: "Ann Coulter tried to kill John Edwards on 'Good Morning America'!"
Judging by his fundraising efforts so far, I gather most of you don't know who John Edwards is -- unless you're an overpriced hair dresser. He's the trial lawyer who pretended in court to channel the spirit of a handicapped fetus in front of illiterate jurors to scam tens of millions of dollars off of innocent doctors. According to The New York Times, Edwards told one jury: "She speaks to you through me ... And I have to tell you right now -- I didn't plan to talk about this -- right now I feel her. I feel her presence. She's inside me, and she's talking to you."
Let me also quote from campaign consultant Bob Shrum's book "No Excuses":
"(Kerry) was even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else -- that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before -- and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again."
Apparently every time Edwards began a story about his dead son with "I've never told anyone this before," everyone on the campaign could lip-sync the story with him.
As a commentator, I bring facts like these to the attention of the American people in a lively way. Thus, for example, in a column about the Democratic candidates for president written in 2003, I pointed out that the Democrats refused to discuss the economy or the war, but had recently "discovered a surprise campaign issue: It turns out that several of them have had a death in the family."
(The full column is available at Jewish World Review, Human Events and Townhall.com.)
Among several examples of Democrats talking about a death in the family on the campaign trail was this one:
John Edwards injects his son's fatal car accident into his campaign by demanding that everyone notice how he refuses to inject his son's fatal car accident into his campaign.
Edwards has talked about his son's death in a 1996 car accident on "Good Morning America," in dozens of profiles and in his new book. ("It was and is the most important fact of my life.") His 1998 Senate campaign ads featured film footage of Edwards at a learning lab he founded in honor of his son, titled "The Wade Edwards Learning Lab." He wears his son's Outward Bound pin on his suit lapel. He was going to wear it on his sleeve, until someone suggested that might be a little too "on the nose."
If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those "Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident" bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent's criminal record for partisan political advantage.
Manifestly, I was not making fun of their son's death; I was making fun of John Edwards' incredibly creepy habit of invoking his son's tragic death to advance his political career -- a practice so repellant, it even made John Kerry queasy.
[emphasis mine]
Rather explains a lot, doesn't it?
22 - RJ
I don't expect most of you to like Ann personally, or to like her politics, or even to appreciate the way in which she makes her political points.
But what Chris Matthews did to her, by inviting her on his show to talk about her book, and then sandbagging her with a "surprise" call from Elizabeth Edwards, was simply unprofessional and blatantly unfair.
I saw the video. Matthews (who is notorious for constantly interrupting guests) allowed Mrs. Edwards to speak without interruption. And then he finally allowed Ms. Coulter to respond, promising her "you have all the time in the world to respond" ... and the 15 seconds later, he cut her off.
Meanwhile, the rest of the mainstream media only reportsed on the bogus "Ann Coulter wants John Edwards to die in a terrorist attack" meme, while ignoring the context (and ignoring the "Bill Maher thinks Dick Cheney dying in a terrorist attack would be a positive outcome" meme).
Ann had a point when she called the MSM slanderous. And the MSM simply helps prove her point in this case.
23 - Clavos
RJ #s 21, 22:
Well argued and backed up.
Once again, props to you, sir.
I too, think Coulter is pretty rough around the edges, but in this particular controversy, the Edwards campaign is sandbagging her.
As both Obama and Clinton continue to eclipse him, Edwards is becoming increasingly desperate.
24 - troll
I agree...and the thing about her being a transvestite should have nothing to do with it
25 - Clavos
...prominent Adam's apple and all...