Bashing Elizabeth Edwards

[kskiska]

Joan Walsh

A day after Elizabeth Edwards' riveting "Hardball" confrontation with Hate Lady Ann Coulter, the right is crying foul. Just as Coulter did, her defenders are whining that Edwards is trying to censor the conservative queen of mean. Plus, she has the audacity to use Coulter to raise money for her husband's presidential campaign! And she's using her cancer, too! It's so unfair! (Jon Swift has perfect pitch about it.)

But seriously, where to begin?

First of all, Coulter has to get her stories straight. One minute she was bragging to MSNBC's Chris Matthews about how the Edwards controversy -- if you didn't hear about it, she called the Democratic candidate a "faggot" earlier this year -- is helping to sell her awful books; minutes later she was braying about how Elizabeth Edwards was trying to keep her from selling, or even writing, her awful books. Which is it, Ann?

Then there's the great irony of my favorite blowhard, Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, complaining that Edwards' attack "is part of the liberals' plan to squash free speech by conservatives. They want to silence Coulter, as well as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, and many others. Hugo Chavez does this type of censoring in Venezuela -- but in America, we don't." The frothing Bozell continues: "Liberals don't believe in free exchange, tolerance, or the marketplace of ideas. They believe in the iron boot of liberalism stamping out any view that upsets the liberal apple cart." This from the man who bought an extra 15 minutes of fame bragging about his inflated role in ending CBS anchor Dan Rather's career for Rather's alleged liberalism.

Jealous Jules Crittenden, who'd like to be a male Ann Coulter, is trying to get some me-too attention by being vicious about Edwards' cancer. Here's how he describes Edwards' reaction to her diagnosis of Stage 4 breast cancer: "Gets cancer, says screw it and that family thing, takes the cancer and the kids on the road, stays out there for John, who apparently we need running our country that bad." Nice to know Edwards is screwing "that family thing" by supporting her husband's desire to be president. Women can't win with these right-wingers. Somebody needs to write a "What to expect when you have cancer" so that we'll know what rules we're breaking if we decide to back our husbands rather than take to our beds when illness strikes.

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http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/

[tuvor]

1. "Using" coulter to raise campaign funds is just...

...making lemons into lemonade.

[aquart]

2. And would be her only useful moment on earth.

[dweller]

3. you disservice

sweet lemons, by comparison, everywhere.

dp

[Wildewolfe]

4. More like...

...turning a mongrel bitch into an AKC registered poodle...;p

[CTD]

5. Everyone need to quit giving Coulter attention.

Her career is based on getting attention by being inflammatory. If no one pays her any attention, that's the only hope we have of her finally going away.

No one should ever comment (or especially express outrage) at her antics. Not here, not anywhere. It's that attention that sells her books. The fact that she pisses us off so much is most of her appeal to right-wingers. On a another message board I frequent (not explicitly politically-related) where discussion turns to politics, the righties outright claim that, while she says some ridiculous and incorrect things, they love her for how she pisses us off.

STOP BEING PISSED OFF AT COULTER. Deny her the power. Just ignore her.

[jsamuel]

6. Ignoring the rw can only be done to a point.

At some point you have to fight back. If Edwards had not called in, Ann would have been on Hardball for a full hour, unchallenged. Edwards not only dismantled Ann, but brought 95% of the audience with her. Remember that ignoring the rw is only a tactic and not a goal.

[spooky3]

7. As EE Q&A'd on dkos yesterday, Coulter KNOWS that EE isn't censoring

her and that there's a difference between asking someone to stop making personal attacks versus demanding that they say nothing. Coulter just hopes you and I won't understand the difference.

Good article--thanks for posting.

[Miss_Underestimated]

8. Here's an unconventional remedy for Coulter that might work

Put out a casting call for a male- Coulter look & sound alike

Everytime the rethugs pull Coulter out to distract from the real mayhem of the day, put the look alike transvestite on the news and have him act like he's her twin while obfuscating what she says-- he turns around what she says-- Coulter causes people to get confused the way they did with Iraq and WMD. The transvestite twin sets the truth straight. The trick is to get the transvestite twin onto all of the talking head programs...

just a thought, anyway