By now you’ve all doubtlessly heard that Ann Coulter indirectly called John Edwards a faggot during the CPAC conference this week.
I’ve always found Ann Coulter amusing and entertaining — I enjoy her schtick, and I enjoy watching the Left fume and writhe in anger everytime she opens her mouth. The Left would almost rather repeal the First Amendment than to let Coulter practice it.
But frankly, her act has grown tiresome and it’s not so funny anymore. Her “faggot” remark wasn’t funny; it wasn’t appropriate; it’s probably not even accurate.
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I’m glad to see that the right-o-sphere is uniformly and roundly criticizing and denouncing her remarks. Jules Crittenden has a good round up.
In fact, after reading through 20-30 righ-leaning blogs, I can’t find a single one supporting her.
What I find interesting though — and I think it’s one the biggest difference between the right-o-sphere and the left-o-sphere — is how quickly and immediatley the right condemened “one of their own” who soundly needed to be rebuked.
Many leftwing bloggers have hurled much more vile and inflamatory rhetoric at the right than Ann’s “faggot” or “raghead” remarks (hello, Amanda Marcotte and Shake’s Sister and Prof. Ward Churchill — I’m looking at you). But instead of denouncing them, the Left’s approach is to circle-the-wagons and defend “one of their own” to the teeth.
It’s a mirror of conservative and liberal politics: when a bigtime conservative is idicted for unethical behavior (Tom Delay) he is forced to resign. When a prominent Democrat is found with $90K of bribe money in his freezer (William Jefferson) he is given a coveted seat on the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Or when a Republican sends inappropriate emails and IMs to teenage pages, the Republican leadership drop-kicks his ass out of office (Rep. Mark Foley). But when Rep. Gerry Studds admitted to having sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page — Studds was not just communicating with the boy, but involved in a sexual affair — his own party merely “censored” him, and then he was voted back into office his following term.
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So, the right will push Ann Coulter further to the fringes of relevancy and acceptance. The left will continue to promote and praise the likes of Amanda Marcotte. There’s really not that much difference between these two ladies — but there’s a world of difference in how they’re accepted by the mainstream of their respective parties.
Wasn’t Mitt Romney just praising her, despite her history of absurd utterances?
Left by Dan on March 3rd, 2007 at 6:47 pm