ANN COULTER RESPONDS TO EDWARDS "KERFLUFFLE"
Not flinching an inch, Ann Coulter responded to her critics in her latest column, titled "That Was No Lady -- That Was My Husband." Ms. Coulter is not everyone's "cup of tea," to say the least. However, in this "kerfluffle," she is not in the wrong. She correctly points out that Elizabeth Edwards' "call-in" when she was promoting her book on Hardball was an obvious "sandbag" job. Even if it wasn't "planned," (as if!) Chris Matthews didn't have to let her stay on, uninterrupted, for so long. Here's an excerpt from Coulter:
I can only speak to the first 45 minutes of Elizabeth Edwards' harangue, but it mostly consisted of utterly dishonest renditions of things I had said on my "Good Morning America" interview this week and a column I wrote four years ago. (You can't rush Edwards' "rapid response team"!) She claimed I had launched unprovoked attacks on the Edwards' dead son and called for a terrorist attack on her husband.
These are bald-faced lies, and the mainstream media knows they are lies. Yet they were repeated ad nauseam on Wednesday by The Associated Press, the AOL pop-up window, CNN, NBC and -- stunningly -- the host of the lowest-rated cable show himself, who personally told me he knew the truth.
She then cites the full sentence that she said on GMA, which referred to a joke she told about Edwards six months ago: "But about the same time, you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack -- so I've learned my lesson: If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." That is SARCASM, people!
Ann Coulter is a political commentator/satirist. She uses sarcasm and an acerbic wit to get her points across. She can make some people laugh, while angering others. Edwards' taking "offense" at her is feigned political posturing. Coulter did not attack Edwards' late son, she attacked Edwards' repeated use of his late son as a political prop. She quotes Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who ran the Kerry campaign, from his book"No Excuses":
"(Kerry) was even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else -- that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before -- and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again."
She then cites several instances, dating back to his '98 senate campaign, where Edwards mentions his late son. She also explains how the whole thing got started:
"...in a column about the Democratic candidates for president written in 2003, I pointed out that the Democrats refused to discuss the economy or the war, but had recently 'discovered a surprise campaign issue: It turns out that several of them have had a death in the family.'
Among several examples of Democrats talking about a death in the family on the campaign trail was this one:
John Edwards injects his son's fatal car accident into his campaign by demanding that everyone notice how he refuses to inject his son's fatal car accident into his campaign."
Ms. Coulter occasionally says things that make me wince, but they also provoke me to look deeper into an issue. She is correct about Edwards, but he has the liberal MSM on his side. Coulter is hated by liberals, and considered offensive by many moderates and conservatives. It's probably the NY'er in me, but I'm not ashamed to say I'm a fan of hers, which doesn't mean I don't criticize her when I feel like it.
Here are links to three Gather.com posts, from the right, center, and left, respetively:
Rob Port has an excerpt I didn't post here.
Melinda W. has an independent's perspective, and was maliciously flagged!
Rebecca L. responds to an email she got from Elizabeth Edwards about Coulter.
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