Is anything too far for Coulter?
At this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney introduced Coulter as a speaker. Here's what she said shortly afterward:
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.
At the last CPAC conference, Coulter referred to Middle Easterners as "ragheads." Apparently, she was still invited to speak this year. So I find myself speculating, what would Coulter have to do that would be so outrageous that she would not be invited back?
Howard Dean put out a press release denouncing Coulter:
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. The American people want a serious, thoughtful debate of the issues…
Republicans — including the Republican presidential candidates who shared the podium with Ann Coulter today — should denounce her hateful remarks.
There has been no response from Republicans about Coulter's remarks.
Sources:
- Coulter: I Would Talk About Edwards But "You Have To Go Into Rehab If You Use The Word '"Faggot.'" ThinkProgress.org.
- Edwards Campaign Responds to Coulter Calling Him 'Faggot.' EditorAndPublisher.com.
- Coulter reference to Edwards as "faggot" gives rise to questions for media. Media Matters for America
UPDATE: (4 March 2007) Her comment has now been denounced by McCain, Giuliani, and Romney. It has had another effect, namely that everyone is talking about Coulter again, on the right and the left. Again, by cheapening our political discourse, Coulter has gained publicity.
Glenn Greenwald writes that the problem with Coulter's comments is not just that she made them, but that they were very nearly predictable:
But the single most prestigious political event for conservatives of the year is a place where conservatives go to hear Democrats called faggots, Arabs called ragheads, and Supreme Court justices labeled as deserving of murder — not by anonymous, unidentifiable blog commenters, but by one of their most popular featured speakers…
The more delicate ones will claim to repudiate her comments in the most limited terms, but their actions speak far louder than their cursory and reluctant words. Anyone who went to this event — and that includes Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Dick Cheney — knew exactly what they would be getting. Coulter's face was prominently plastered on the promotional material. The right-wing political candidates who accepted the invitations to speak there knew exactly the type of people would be there - namely, the type who continously cheer on Ann Coulter's bigoted and nakedly hateful screeds. Anyone who makes themselves a part of that event is purposely associating themselves with those sentiments. That is what this Conference is for…
This is not about a single comment or isolated remark. The more Ann Coulter says these things, the more popular she becomes in this movement. What this is about is that she reflects exactly what sort of political movement this is. She reflects its true impulses and core beliefs. If that were not the case, why would she continue to receive top billing at their most prestigious events, and why would she continue to be lavished with rock star-adoration by the party faithful?
David Niewert, the author of Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community, makes a disturbing prediction:
The reason Coulter is worth watching is that she serves as a kind of advance bellwether — watch how she forms her argument, because it will become a template for the rest of the right in the coming months and years. She made her bones promoting the Myth of the Clenis in the '90s, and her "treasonous liberals" meme is now a ceaseless favorite of her fellow movement ideologues. The underlying tenets of last year's "raghead" remark — that Muslims themselves are not merely "the problem" but The Enemy, and that they deserve not just our everlasting contempt but persecution — are now being eagerly bandied about on cable TV by the likes of Glenn Beck.
Watch what comes out of Coulter's mouth now, because you'll be hearing variations on it for the next several years. All slightly less noxiously, of course, but the underlying logic (or rather, the lack thereof) is the same.