[rpellegrini]

I am getting a little tired of Ms. Noonan's "inside-the-beltway" moral preening. We desperately need more conservatives like Ann Coulter who are willing to come out swinging and keep on fighting.

As soon as they get to Washington most so-called "conservatives" seem to start caring more about whether they are going to be liked by the "in-crowd" than about doing what's right.

[Darkwolf377]

I am getting a little tired of Ms. Noonan's "inside-the-beltway" moral preening. We desperately need more conservatives like Ann Coulter who are willing to come out swinging and keep on fighting.

Yes and no. I agree we need more conservatives who come out swinging, but even as someone who defended Coulter on this, I have to admit calling Edwards a fag was childish. I'd have prefered she use her humor (and insults) to get people talking about the Dems attempts to cut off funding in Iraq ala Vietnam, rather than calling names.

[peyton randolph]

As soon as they get to Washington most so-called "conservatives" seem to start caring more about whether they are going to be liked by the "in-crowd" than about doing what's right.

---

George Will is the model for this behavior by 'conservative' pundits.

[saveliberty]

Just think of the opportunities Reagan would have lost had he behaved as destructively as she. There's no question that it's important to uphold principles. It doesn't mean that every effort she takes is productive. This is an instance in which her act was dysfunctional.

People make mistakes. The only ones who don't are those who do no work. But a mature person can say, okay maybe that was inappropriate as it drove down the good speeches that the candidates made.

It doesn't have to be an all or nothing situation. She's competent, she can process opportunities for self improvement.

[LibertarianInExile]

She is someone I think has good points generally, however, she takes this:

"But censorship doesn't make people improve themselves; it makes people want to rebel. It tells them to toe the line or pay a price. People who are urged in the right direction and taught in the right direction will usually try to discipline and improve themselves from within. But they do not enjoy censorship from without. They fight back. They are rude in order to show they are unbroken."

And goes on to say that Ann was still wrong. I think that is incorrect, and certainly, the wrong point to make.

The right point to make was that in supporting Ann's critics, self-styled conservatives are supporting the PC atmosphere. They are supporting the suppression of conservative speech. They are ignoring the double standard and helping the left impose a separate one for conservatives. They are publicly excoriating someone who was pointing that double standard out!

I think Noonan fails to make that point. She may not even agree with it. And I think Ann's comments certainly proved Ann was right. Even formerly 'movement' conservatives are playing the PC card and all for sending her to reeducation camp.

[LibLieSlayer]

mzzzzz noonan is a worn and milquetoast writer whose time has come and gone. Her faulty memory shades the past life that influences what she writes about. She leaves one with the feeling that she has moderated herself right into being a liberal dim in a Conservative journalist's clothing!

LLS

[dforest]

I think it does not really matter what a conservative says or how he says it. The left will always pretend to be offended and throw the accusation of "lack of civility" at us.

Our mistake is over reacting and carrying on about it too long. They really must enjoy the way we tear into our own. A simple hand slap could be just enough punishment.

Day after day of constant prattle over this one incident is abnormal.

If people wish to invoke Reagan, they need to remember that he was savaged by the left for his name calling when he branded the Soviet Union as the "evil empire". That was not considered nice and polite.

Enough is enough Ms. Noonan

[twonie]

I'm glad Ann called him that. He deserves it; it looks good on him. I am sick of cleaning it up for publication. Good for Ann.

[azhenfud]

I will put it this way, President Reagan fought liberals as well or better than anyone and did so with dignity and NO ONE under his authority would EVER have survived uttering a crude comment like Ann made. Liberals were afflicted with their malignancies, but President Reagan would not allow those within his authority stooping to liberals' lowest common denominator. He knew if Conservatives did, liberals had won.

Mistake. Yes. We all make them - so with no salvos hurled at Ann, I think she's smarter and can debate with more intellect than she demonstrated. Some say it was a joke. Maybe she was playing the "joke" on "Conservatives" fixing to embrace a cross-dressing pro-homosexual as "their" front-running candidate and had intended to imply Edwards embodies a better example of what they profess than their "chosen one".

Now, what was the rest of her "speech"?

[napscoordinator]

Ann Coulter who are willing to come out swinging and keep on fighting.



True, but can she please use facts and not advance the agenda of John's running for President....please. There was no evidence that what she said was factual. He of course has been through a death of a child so I am sure all this nonsense from her does not bother him one bit. He has been through hell and back with the unfortunate death of his 18 year old son. Anything else is mute!

[pablo H]

"I am getting a little tired of Ms. Noonan's "inside-the-beltway" moral preening. We desperately need more conservatives like Ann Coulter who are willing to come out swinging and keep on fighting."

Excellent point. Frankly, I disagree with Peggy's column but it doesn't upset me like some of the other conservative attacks on Coulter.

Peggy is always reasonable, moderate, in favor of good manners, etc. She's always used a rapier rather than a battle-ax to make her point. I'm sorry she's wasting her time attacking Coulter when she could have written on of her sober, responsible columns on a more important subject.

As for the other so-called Conservatives:

1) We should not be giving the left the power to dictate what words, we can and can't use.

2) I thought conservatives were against the whole concept of protected groups, "Hate" speech, Speech codes, and the entire totalitarian left-wing attempt to control of by language.

3) I find it annoying that so many so-called conservatives love to bash Coulter and want to drive out of the conservative movement. There is no advantage to the conservative movement to doing this. The liberals would love for this to happen. So, what is their motivation? There are only 2 answers. a) They are not really conservative, but only call themselves that to be noticed b) they've been hired (or hope to be hired) by the Liberal MSM in some capacity, and attacking Coulter wins them brownie points with their liberal bosses.

3) Coulter is one conservative author and speaker. She isn't our "representative" neither is she a politician. She's under no obligation to speak or write like a politician.

4) Reagan told any number of anti-PC jokes. Remember the "we will begin Bombing Russia in 3 minutes" joke? Remember how the liberal MSM went ballistic? Wonder what Captain Ed thought of that? Was he still a liberal Democrat back then?

5) Coulter represents mainstream conservative thought on Gays. We are not ant-gay, we like Gays as individuals and hope they join the movement along as they agree with our positions on taxes, defense, social issues, etc. We are against speech codes, affirmative action, hate speech laws, protected classes, gays in the military and gay marriage.

[juliej]

Peggy Noonan has been very strange of late. Maher's comment was vicious - he was wishing death on Cheney - Ann was calling Edwards a girly boy which he is.