Open Mouth, Insert Food

The right wing's foremost attention whore has done it again. Apparently miffed that her name hadn't been in the headlines recently enough, Ann Coulter dropped yet another verbal bomb last Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington:

"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."

Apparently, she doesn't have any constructive criticism of John Edwards' viewpoints to offer, as ad hominem attacks are the last resort for desperate people without a cogent argument in reponse to those with whom they disagree.

Indeed, there are conservatives who disagree with her tactics, if not her politics. Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said, "Frankly, I would have loved to have heard Ann expose and dissect the radical agenda of Senator Edwards instead of resorting to cheap name calling."

The three leading Republican candidates also condemned her remarks: "The comments were wildly inappropriate," John McCain's spokesman said. Rudy Guiliani remarked, "The comments were completely inappropriate and there should be no place for such name-calling in political debate." And Coulter's candidate of choice, a spokesman for Mitt Romney said, ""It was an offensive remark. Gov. Romney believes all people should be treated with dignity and respect."

It seems as if Coulter's shoot from the lip style has come back to bite her on the ass this time. A video of Coulter spouting her vitriol has been placed on Edwards' presidential campaign website, as a fund raising tool. Visitors to the website are asked to help raise $100,000 in what the site calls "Coulter Cash" to show Edwards can't be intimidated by such attacks; "We must show that inflaming prejudice to attack progressive leaders will only backfire."

Indeed. John Edwards probably should send Coulter a thank you note for her help to his campaign.

Thoughts?