Posted on 03/03/2007 2:05:46 PM PST by pissant
There’s some big fallout from the meeting in Washington of the Conservative Political Action Conference, three days of conferencing, caucusing, presidential addressing and book-hawking. These conferences have historically been known for displaying what its own organizers would describe as over-the-top behavior, and one of the regular speakers – Ann Coulter – offered an example of it when she used an anti-gay epithet on Friday to describe John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina and Democratic presidential contender. “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards,” she said, speaking to an overflow room of activists. That rehab remark was apparently a reference to Isaiah Washington, one of the stars on Grey’s Anatomy, a television series, who called a co-star T.R. Knight anti-gay names and went to rehabilitation over it. Mr. Edwards’s campaign quickly responded. “John was singled out for a personal attack because the Republican establishment knows he poses the greatest threat to their power,” said his campaign manager, David Bonior. “Since they have nothing real to use against him, Coulter’s resorting to the classic right-wing strategy of riling up hate to smear a progressive champion.”
Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said: “There is no place in political discourse for this kind of hate-filled and bigoted comments. While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the issues, we should all be able to agree that this kind of vile rhetoric is out of bounds.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I believe what you actually mean is "no."
I agree but you and I will be flamed for not bowing down to this woman who I believe has a mental disorder.
It reveals what ball-less wonders Giuliani, Romney, and McCain are as well as ferreting out the RINOs in our midst.
>> Fallout Over Coulter’s Anti-Gay Remark,
It's a good case to test the tenacity of the party. Ann provided a prelude to the bitter conflict that lies ahead. Wherever one stands regarding Ann's remarks, it should be obvious to everyone how disjointed Republicans get over words vs the Democrats who more aptly handle 'creative' speak amongst themselves.
You wish. From Coulter's own website quoting a John Edwards press release:
Coulter's attack was no accident. It happened on national television at one of the year's biggest conservative conferences. Dick Cheney and most of the Republican candidates were in the audience. She was even introduced by Mitt Romney.
>> Coulter's remark was politically very stupid...
Why is it that Democrats show more grit when it involves colorful discourse among themselves and Republicans fall apart when Ann Coulter speaks? Coulter would be a hero among Democrats if she shared their values. But as a firebrand on the Right, she's taboo. This is clearly one aspect of the Republican party that is simply too uptight. We shouldn't fault the Democrats and MSM for taking advantage.
In my post, I wrote 'just' because I wasn't quoting anything or anyone in doing so, and I didn't want to imply that I was quoting you.
You sarcastically implied that I was stating CPAC didn't have private citizens as featured speakers. I never wrote that. I believe you know that what I meant was that speaking at CPAC is not for the general public; only those who have distinguished themselves as important to the movement address the conference. Coulter knew she was under scrutiny, and that left-wing critics would be ready to jump on anything she said, no matter how tame. It was the height of selfishness for her to invite scorn upon the whole movement for the sake of maintaining her reputation as a bomb-thrower.
Coulter's remark was politically very stupidTrue, but as she's not running for any political office, she suffers nothing for it.
I love seeing someone eviscerate a bad argument by agreeing with it . . .And IMHO the "Big Three" contenders for the Republican nomination in '08 betrayed weakness by apologizing for - thus taking responsibility for - what Ann said. That was "politically stupid."
definition of faggot: a small bundle of firewood.
the thing I find weird here is that they are the party of the minorities, gays and lesbian, yet take insult to a candidate being called a faggot?
Not much sense here.
Another poster made reference to a purse fight; that would be cruel, but a very effective reference to John Edwards; John Kerry would use spitballs in the War on Terror, while John Edwards would challenge Osama Bin Laden to a pursefight.
And if the Democrat debates turn into a purse fight, my money is on Hillary, although Barack has the height and arm-span advantage.
The fallout is as she intended.Yeah. The doo-doo that fell out of her mouth for OTHER conservatives to have to clean up
Ann's just playing by the liberals' own rules. If the "other conservatives" who are leading in the polls for 'publican nomination took responsibility for someone else's sharp statement, I'm sure they are to blame for that.We all know that McCain, Guliani, and Romney each have a rap sheet from a conservative POV - and that Ann has said as much about two of them, on one issue alone. What do you call someone who takes responsibility for what someone who's not even your supporter says? I'd say they put themselves in a pretty weak position.
Somehow I doubt that Newt will put himself there. Recall that on the day of his installation as Speaker of the House, Connie Chung used some footage in which she had entrapped Newt's mother into a candid statement to damage Newt. Chung sprung that on Newt and Newt ran right down Chung's throat with it - just ignored the substance and condemned Chung for manipulating an old lady - using gotcha tactics against a man using his own mother.
Who came away from that confrontation standing?? Ann's whole thing is that you can't run away from those people, any more than you can run away from a fast linebacker in a football game. You have to run at them.
Somebody please remind me, were we looking to get the faggot vote or did the anti-faggot marriage thing kind of put that out of reach anyway?
It's not about words, it's about rude, classless behaviour at a venue that was to showcase the various candidates at CPAC.
If Ann wants to write a column using inflammatory commentary, she is free to do so.
She didn't have to rain on CPAC's parade.
"Global Warming" - an excuse to critize the American Middle Class (aka, the base of the Republican Party)."An Inconvenient Truth" - a convenient lie.
"Swiftboating" - a convenient lie about the inconvenient truth about John Kerry's war record.
I wonder why she is getting into this type of controversy when everyone thinks she is a lesbian??? I don't get it.
Maybe her and Laura Ingraham can make a video together. ;o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.