The Ann Coulter Repulsive Remark Resource Center -- UPDATED
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sun Mar 04, 2007 at 02:42:31 AM EST
Acid-tongued Ann Coulter has smartly navigated the conservative movement for years, even positioning herself within the Religious right. But her now notorious repulsive remark about John Edwards has become quite a to do, promising to be something of a Rorschach Test of political life -- for at least a few news cycles. As far as I can tell, the religious right is maintaining a remarkable silence on the matter.

In the spirit of staying on the zeitgeist, here is a Coulter's Repulsive Remark Resource Center for those who want to keep up with the potential downfall of a major figure (or at least observe a turning point in the culture war.)  I am updating this post as interesting items come my way.

Crooks & Liars has the original video of Coulter calling Edwards a "faggot."

MissLaura at Daily Kos has compiled the official reactions of GOP candidates for president(so far):

McCain: "Wildly inappropriate"
Guiliani: "completely inappropriate"
Romney: "offensive"

pioneer111 at Daily Kos has the reactions of John and Mrs. Edwards.  

Glenn Greenwald had an incisive, early analysis contrasting the venomous real world rhetoric of a major public figure with the tempest in a teapot invective of anonymous blog commenters on the left.

Last year at the same event, she warned Arab "ragheads" about violence that would be done to them and called for Supreme Court justices to be murdered -- and received standing ovations. Everyone knows what a rancid hate-monger she is, yet (or rather: "therefore") she continues to be invited to the highest-level "conservative" events, be drooled on with admiration by presidential candidates like Mitt Romney, and have little right-wing warriors wait in line around the corner to get her signature on their copies of the books she wrote.

But that's all fine. There are much more important topics to discuss -- like the anonymous commenters at Huffington Post and the bad words said by the bloggers hired for low-level positions by the Edwards campaign. Those are matters of the gravest importance meriting the most solemn condemnation and righteous outrage from all decent people.

Digby has a typically astute analysis that includes this fond reminiscence of Coulterisms of yore:  

I recall how my stomach turned when when I read what Coulter had to say at CPAC last year: On Democrats: "Someday they will find a way to abort all future Boy Scouts." College professors: "sissified, pussified." Harvard: "the Soviet Union." John Kerry: the other "dominant woman in Democratic politics." Her post-9/11 motto: "Rag head talks tough, rag head faces consequences." For good measure, she threw in a joke about having Muslims burn down the Supreme Court -- with the liberal justices inside.

Then came questions. A young woman asked Coulter to describe the most difficult ethical decision she ever made. "There was one time I had a shot at Bill Clinton," Coulter said.

Ann Coulter claims to be a Christian, of the Religious right sort.  But Pastordan at Street Prophets questions whether she is really the "good Christian" she claims to be.

Coulter likes to think of herself as a "good Christian". Based on her inability to give a coherent account of her faith and her consistent engagement in eliminationist rhetoric, though, I think it's time to state the obvious: she is not, if she ever was...

We are all children of God, all heirs to the promise of Christ. Anyone who would place a entire group of persons beyond that all-inclusive promise of redemption is not a Christian. Anyone who would endorse hate of such a group is not a Christian. Anyone who would play on hate and violence with a smirk for the sake of cheap laughs and fleeting political points is not a Christian - and should look for her common decency in the rear-view mirror. For the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was once and for all, and the confession of Christians is that He is Lord of All and generous to all who call on him <http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=39894051>. Last I checked, there was no exception written into that statement for "faggots".  

Ann Coulter is not funny. Ann Coulter is not a Christian. Ann Coulter is hanging on to her quickly-withering humanity by her fingertips. It is long past time for politicians, the media, Christian leaders, - anyone with even a scrap of self-respect - to reject her easily-given hatred and her glib verbal violence and finally lock her out of public discourse. She has no place in it, and it's far past time for our leaders to say so.

Lydia Cornell writes:    

Just a few hours ago, my friend Dan Borchers -- a conservative Christian who is writing a book about Ann Coulter's "extermination speak" -- was bodily wrestled out of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) by four of Ann Coulter's bodyguards.

Pastordan continues in a further posting:  

Once again, Coulter is not a Christian. She (or her goons) don't even like real Christians So why should be allowed to represent us in the mainstream media? For that matter, why should Christians allow her to undermine any notion of civility, let alone Christian love, in the media? We say all the time that we're concerned about the message the media is sending our children.... If an effort to push hate out of the mainstream is correctly organized, and targeted at specific repeat offenders, it could be very successful. There's no reason to put up with this crap.

I have reported that the conservative Presbyterian Church of which she claims to be a member, does not claim her.

Where is the religious right, when a high-profile bigotted, foul-mouth who claims to be one of them -- lies about her church membership?

Bill Berkowitz recently reported that she  manages to appear as an expert in a documentary film "Darwin's Deadly Legacy," produced by televangelist D. James Kennedy (a leader in the rightist Presbyterian sect in which Coulter falsely claims membership).  

Darwin's deadly legacy? The Holocaust!   According to Coulter, Hitler took Darwinism and applied it: "He thought the Aryans were the fittest and he was just hurrying natural selection along."

Google News search (Ann Coulter, faggot) has hundreds of news stories.

Media Matters for America is keeping on top of the media distortions of the flap.

Update [2007-3-4 11:52:8 by Frederick Clarkson]: VolvoDrivingLiberal at Daily Kos has a list of advertisers on Coulter's web site, anncoulter.com, and is encouraging people to contact them. And boy are they ever!

Update [2007-3-4 16:30:16 by Frederick Clarkson]: Conservatives are chiming in: the Evangelical Outpost finds the Coulter episode putrid and writes:

Conservatism deserves better, deserves more civility and less Coulter. The fact that she is tolerated--much less admired--by conservatives is evidence that we have lost our philosophical moorings. If the Big Tent of conservatism really has room for the likes of Coulter, then it might just be time to close this circus down. Other conservatives on Coulter: Mary Katharine Ham: "You shouldn't have to go to psych eval for using it, but it's a nasty word. Just don't." Dean Barnett: "It’s not a lack of intelligence. It’s an indifference to self-control and a preening sort of narcissism that compels her to need the spotlight, even if it’s unflattering." Rod Dreher: "How, exactly, do we conservatives protest against the kind of bigoted garbage that Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan were upchucking against Catholics and other Christians if we accept Coulter's offensive shtick?" Hugh Hewitt: "When Coulter employed the f-word to abuse a candidate, she made herself radioactive because the word is a simply invitation to hate. It was repulsive." 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."



Display:
... all of the Coulter Repulsive Remark News of Note.

by Frederick Clarkson on Sun Mar 04, 2007 at 02:46:23 AM EST
For a satirical response to Coulter, check out this week's issue of "The Washington Pox" (if you haven't already subscribed to this intelligently funny, biweekly e-commentary by Alec Dubro, a Tom Paine editor).

Under the headline ANNE COULTER POISONS SELF, BEGINS DISINTEGRATING, the Pox reports:

<<Right-wing death-metal chanteuse, Ann Coulter, apparently received a near-fatal dose of the venom she keeps for public appearances. The self-poisoning has produced a hideous disfiguring of her face and formerly sunflower-bright hair.>>

The accompanying picture is worth a thousand words.  http://www.dcpox.com/


by forthwrite on Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 01:21:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]



This juvenile punk is treated as if she had something worthwhile to say. What happened to conservatives who used to speak with dignity?

by Frank Cocozzelli on Sun Mar 04, 2007 at 10:16:50 AM EST
Gerald and Betty Ford could hardly find  a platform among the theocrats and fanatic free-marketers of today.
Ann Coulter's blithe advocacy of deadly violence against anyone who disagrees with her is disgusting, and her appreciative audiences are frightening.

by nogodsnomasters on Sun Mar 04, 2007 at 11:54:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]



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