Ann Coulter at CPAC

National Center for Public Policy Research ^ | 2-4-07 | Amy Ridenour

[SJackson]

Ann Coulter at CPAC

I'm sorry to see that Ann Coulter once again made certain news coverage of CPAC would be focused upon her instead of upon the conservative movement's goals and principles.

The National Center for Public Policy Research is one of very many co-sponsors of CPAC, and has been for some years. After Ann Coulter's offensive speech last year, we telephoned the organizers and strongly suggested that Ann Coulter's behavior was harmful to, and unrepresentative of, the conservative movement. We said we were considering pulling out our co-sponsorship because of Ann Coulter's "raghead" comment, and asked them to not invite Ann Coulter to speak in CPAC 2007, or, at the very least, only invite her if she was told to can the offensive speech, and explicitly agreed to do so. I had 90 percent decided to stop our co-sponsorship for CPAC 2007, but the sponsor seemed to be taking our concerns about Coulter's 2006 remarks seriously and with what seemed to us to be appropriate sympathy, so the National Center co-sponsored CPAC again this year.

(I am, by the way. under no illusion that CPAC's main sponsors lose sleep over possibly losing the National Center's co-sponsorship. We do pay a fee to co-sponsor, and all the fees paid by all the co-sponsors together do add up to quite a tidy sum, but I'm sure any one co-sponsor is quite expendable.)

As has been widely reported, Ann Coulter not only once again went out of her way to use a nasty epithet, she pushed her offensiveness up a notch, using a word that is even more universally reviled than the derogatory term she hurled last year.

So, CPAC's sponsors either invited Coulter back without first getting her pledge that she would speak without using demeaning epithets, or they obtained her pledge, and she broke her word.

We'll ask.

It would be better, in my opinion, to not have a CPAC at all than to have one that presents conservatism as a hostile, people-hating ideology. We conservatives have enough trouble overcoming the false things that are said about us without paying for a platform upon which we shoot ourselves annually in the foot.

Some of my past commentary on Ann Coulter can be found here and here.

Here's a roundup of other conservative (and moderate) commentary on the Coulter situation:

"With Friends Like These... (re Ann Coulter)," JonQuixote

"CPAC is Shocked--Shocked!--by Ann Coulter's Remarks," Jon Swift

"Coulter Screams for Attention, Again - Losing Whatever Supporters She Still Had," Patterico

"Ann Coulter Doesn't Speak For Me," Wizbang

"Coulter Said What? (Bumped)," Captain's Quarters

"The Shame Of Ann Coulter," The Moderate Voice

"Ann Coulter at CPAC," Betsy's Page

"Ann Coulter calls John Edwards...," Right Thoughts

"Count Me Out," Lone Star Times

"Ann Coulter Calls John Edwards The 'F-word'," Gay Patriot

"Coulter Needs A Rehab," Riehl World View

"Apologizing for Ann Coulter," MyDD

"On Ann Coulter, John Edwards, and Civility," historymike

P.S. A hostile liberal blogger issues a challenge to conservatives:

Reality: [Ann Coulter] is your biggest star. The people you claim to speak for feel she speaks for them much, much more than you do -- and they're right. She is modern conservatism's id -- she's the one who says what the rest of you would say if you didn't feel it would cost you your standing as reasonable, responsible people.

Want to prove me wrong? You cut her off. You boycott the sponsors of TV shows that still invite her on as a guest. You show up at her book signings and campus appearances and hand out flyers quoting her nastiest bon mots. You boycott CPAC next year if she's invited, and demand that others do the same. Or if you have a problem with boycotts as a matter of principle, at the very least urge your fellow conservatives, on college campuses and elsewhere, to stop extending invitations to her, given the profound harm you say she does to your movement.

But you won't do that, will you? In that case, shut the hell up, hypocrites, and acknowledge that while Coulter may be the bad apple in the family, your door is always open to her.

Well?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Correction: I take it she really *hates* soft metrosexual types

[Lion Den Dan]

I'm a traitor, an abortionist, a Jew who touts the ADL line, a promoter of the homosexual agenda, a draft dodger, and the worst, someone who thinks a lovely blonde, Ann, made a very stupid remark.

Your admissions prior to stating "and the worst,..." discredits your observations on a conservative commentator.

If you posess all of these abhorent atributes, why does the moderator continue to accept your DU tripe?

[bray]

Freedom of Speech should be abolished!! Sorry, it is Freedom from All Speech, not just the PC speech. It was probably the only real sentance spoken at that dog & pony.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Def Conservative]

And might I add, many Democrats have shared the stage with Bill Maher, including one very prominent one on the night he said his ill words of Cheney, yet the RNC didn't demand a rebuke from the DNC or its' candidates.

[SJackson]

400 replies with overwhelming in favor of Ann's right to do and say as she pleases. Anyone who didn't agree was a troll, PC type, RINO, uptight, false conservative, etc.

You're right. It's a damn shame that upright, false conservative RINO won the straw poll.

[Bigg Red]

Why is it that only Dems can slander slash and burn?

**
C'mon, you know the answer to that: Because the media give them a pass and rake conservatives over the coals.

IMO, Coulter sucked all of the air out of the room and probably does not give a hoot that she gave the media a chance to ignore any important messages that came out of CPAC

[hophead]

"I would generally agree that it was a dumb comment"

I somewhat agree. But my big beef with this whole story is this. Since when were the words fagot, nigger, kike, jap, wop, etc. etc. etc. BANNED from use.
Coulter was ABSOLUTLY correct, and I think it was her point, when she said if you say these words you have to go to rehab for the forgiveness of the PC Police. (the press)

[SJackson]

Piss Off Jackson.

Piss off, classy.

Piss off Rudy, piss off McCain, piss off Romney, piss off Michell Maklin, piss off....

Oh well. You get the idea.

[hophead]

"She was making a point not about gay people; but politically correct people."

I see that this went completely over the heads of most!

[SJackson]

I think it is a sad day when we let faggots or the liberals tell us what we can an can't say. How did we get here?

Which faggot? Are you suggesting that Ann seriously was suggesting Edwards is a faggot?

That didn't occur to me.

[Griddlee]

"only two were Republicans"

Amazing he could find two Republicans in New York City.

[stockpirate]

But the same liberal socialist media have no problem with calling Bush and those who voted for him Nazi's, War Criminals and worse.

And some on the left voicing regret that The VP WAS NOT killed last week by the terrorist bomb.

Shut up, Anne say whatever you want, yet again some REPUBLICANS prove to me they are spineless jellyfish willing to eat their own to ganner favor with the media elite. Half of which are in fact homosexuals (faggots).

[Mark was here]

Oh well. You get the idea.

Did you hear about the fly on the toilet seat?

He got Pi**ed off.

[stockpirate]

COME ON ANNE FIRE US UP BABY, DON'T SHOT TILL WE SEE THE WHITES IN THEIR EYES.

[Def Conservative]

They wouldn't have even covered CPAC in the first place lol. It's not like the media would have made CPAC look like a great thing anyway...

[SJackson]

Whats wrong Bunsy Wunsy? Got your panties all in a twist?

That's stupid *rap too, but de rigeur at FR these days.

Don't think this hurt Rudy. Likely hurt Romney the worst. He won the straw poll. There's probably a thread on that somewhere. It's Romney's breath she sucked out, though in a small way.

[SJackson]

Did anyone actually hear Ann. She was making a point not about gay people; but politically correct people.

Yes, that's what she was saying. A shame she didn't explain that to the press. Immediately. Rather than revel in the "controversy".

[Bigg Red]

FYI

[Sunsong]

It would be better, in my opinion, to not have a CPAC at all than to have one that presents conservatism as a hostile, people-hating ideology. We conservatives have enough trouble overcoming the false things that are said about us without paying for a platform upon which we shoot ourselves annually in the foot.

[stockpirate]

They should invite her but not Rudy!