BARGER'S BOUTIQUE

I've started to notice that Ann Coulter brews some exceptionally irresistable pinko rat poison.  She gets awesomely focused publicity in which liberals - and on a good day conservatives - fall all over themselves trying to out-denounce Coulter for her latest horrible, heartless transgression against all that is good and right and decent. 

Thing is, the supposedly horrible and objectionable statements they memorize and repeat with such studiously feigned indignation are strapped full of truth.  Her opponents spread her arguments, which are generally stronger and carry the day.  Her weaker arguments don't generally hit the outrage meters.  It's when she's really got 'em that they get cheesed and spread the word for her.

The classic example of this was a few months ago with Coulter's controversial comments about the New Jersey widows "enjoying" their husbands deaths.  Ann Coulter knew but didn't care that she would be portrayed even arguably justifiably as a mean, catty bitch.  That may be true - but she was absolutely right, and drew particular attention to the tactical abuse of public sympathies by lefty groups and politicians constantly wheeling out pitiful widows and orphans to front their political arguments.  Yeah fine, Coulter's a bitch, but since she called them out, they've had to cut way back on that crap.

The new classic example of Coulter getting the rats to help her spread her poison is the CPAC John Edwards incident.  Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Committee right after Mitt Romney, Coulter said "I was going to have a few comments about John Edwards but you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.'"  This has left the left sputtering in their righteous tremors of hatred against the evil homophobic bitch Ann Coulter. 

This leads us to a little etymology to understand the supposed offense.  Per Wikipedia, faggot is "a generally pejorative term for a gay or effeminate man."  Coulter was clearly not accusing Edwards of being homosexual, so there's no real insult to homosexuals.  She was picking out the most inflammatory way possible of saying that this presidential candidate is not manly or commanding enough to be commander in chief.

The response from the left and some rightwing fags has been to insist that the point of this comment from Coulter is hatred for homosexuals.  Notwithstanding wide usage of the term with little criticism by good liberals, the term is now declared patently offensive in any usage.  The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Human Rights Watch - two of the biggest gay-advocacy organizations - issued official denunciations of Coulter's "vile" comments.

Here's a particularly righteous denunciation of Coulter's supposed gay-bashing from Pam's House Blend:

Again, this is less about Coulter than it is about the fact that she is a proponent of homophobia (and clearly schoolyard bullying) if she is going to spew it's a harmless word without a specific and well-known meaning.

People die, lose their jobs, are beaten and harassed because of homophobia. Is this what the GOP and the conservative movement stand for? That's fine with me, just don't try to pretend that's not what Coulter is saying.

Right there is the boiled-down essence of modern linguistic Stalinism.  Some jerks decide to snatch a word and declare a special curse on it like this.  It's cheap moral intimidation, threat of being ruthlessly vilified, charged with complicity against every gay person who's ever been hated on.  It turns out to be the new "f word," danced around in news reports, and bowdlerized at f____t and such.  If you use the word, then you hate gay people and want to hurt them - unless you're gay or liberal and thus eligible for an exception or dispensation.

On top of which, they'll organize to smear you to anyone who advertises on your website or does any business with you.  You know - the politics of personal destruction.  Lefties didn't like such tactics when waged against the Dixie Chicks, but of course this is totally different.  "Coulter needs to go" say the Stalinists at Ohio State University student paper The Lantern.

That's just nonsense.  The word is in common usage mostly not meaning anything especially bad.  There's Fred Phelps' hateful declaration that God supposedly hates fags, and then there's kids using the term on the playground in South Park  It just doesn't mean the same thing at all when they use it.  And their usage is much the more common.  In her own defense, Coulter said, "C'mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."

In fact, I've seen nothing to indicate that Ann Coulter is anti-gay.  I can understand how a gay dude might be a bit skeptical of her.  As a conservative, she's against legal gay marriage.  But that doesn't mean that she's hating on them.  Not necessarily based on facts, but my intuition would be to about half expect her to be a bit of a rightwing fag hag, enjoying witty repartee as den mother to some Log Cabin Republicans.  Sounds like a heller party.

For her part, here's a bit of what Coulter said on Hannity and Colmes shortly after this CPAC incident:

I'm not anti-gay.  We're against gay marriage. I don't want gays to be discriminated against...  I don't know why all gays aren't Republicans. I think we have the pro-gay position, which is anti-crime, and for tax cuts.

Now, I can understand how a homosexual or a staunch liberal might be skeptical of Coulter, or a bit standoffish.  She's not jumping through hoops to pass a pro-gay litmus test.  But I don't see where you could legitimately accuse her of hating on gays.  She's just not.  She's hating on John Edwards, but he deserves the criticism.  That's not bigotry or prejudice, but a judgment of a specific person based on their specific behavior.

The thing that she's specifically done that might be theoretically offensive is use of a term that implies a relationship between being homosexual and being a wimp.  If you want to parse it carefully, you might say that Coulter accused John Edwards of being wimpy like a gay dude.  Then you take THAT as your slur.

Problem there is that, no hating intended, there tends to be some truth behind that point.  I'm sure that we have some fine discreetly gay gentleman serving our country in the military.  But overall, if you've got bad guys behind you in an alley, do you call Clint Eastwood, or the cast of Will and Grace?  Of course, that buff weight lifter down at the gym with the Freddie Mercury moustache might beg to differ, but no one's saying that one size fits all.  Is truth a legitimate defense against charges of slander? 

Which recognition STILL is not anything de-humanizing or hateful.  I still love ya, but I'm not calling the cast of Queer Eye to fix my car.  But I bet you could make a lovely souffle to die for next time we visit.  Mmm, souffle...[insert Homer Simpson drooling noise here].

But general faggotry (by either homo or heterosexuals) does seem like it would a major disqualifying trait for someone seeking the office of president.  However you express it, you don't want a [pick one: wimp, wuss, pussy (sorry, ladies), candy ass, pansy] as commander in chief of the US military.  Your neighborhood hairdresser might cop to being a wimp, but that's not good for someone running for president of the United States, such as John Edwards.

Which is unfortunate for him, because John Edwards sure looks like a faggot.  He seems to be basically a blow dried pretty boy ambulance chaser who made a mint and bought a senate seat by pouting real pretty and pathetic for the ladies of the jury.  I'm sure he's right clever.  Least ways, he's got a clever (and pretty) mouth. 

But the relevant and perfectly serious point that the word "faggot" applied to John Edwards has might be expressed thusly:  What exactly is President John Edwards going to do when Iran gets a nuclear weapon - file a class action lawsuit?  Ewww, see the mullahs quaking in their boots!

It would be an understandable accusation if Pam's House Blend wanted to accuse me of gay-bashing, like Ms Coulter.  I don't suppose there's any hope of the PC Police locking us up in the same re-education camp.  Ha!  But I'm not particularly intending to beat up on anybody, except the richly deserving demagogue trial lawyer politician John Edwards.

Coulter herself characterized the remarks as "schoolyard taunting."  Now, that's not particularly the whole or primary substance of political debate - but then this was just one little punch line out of a speech.  George Will is certainly a more erudite conservative intellectual to whom you might look for policy analysis and historical insight.  But he'd get his ass kicked on the playground.  And make no mistake about it, electoral politics is certainly a schoolyard game, with schoolyard rules.

Whereas, despite her diminutive size, Ann Coulter would be the lead tackle in a good game of Smear the Queer - in this case, the richly deserving John Edwards.  I could readily imagine her sitting on top of  him next to the jungle gym, twisting his arm behind his back and making him say "uncle." 

As if to prove her right, within a couple of days of Coulter's remarks, John Edwards engaged in one of the biggest acts of faggotry so far this pre-campaign season.  He officially and publicly sent a five months in advance refusal to attend a Nevada presidential debate that was to be co-sponsored by the state Democratic Party and the Fox News Channel- by far the most watched cable news channel. 

Fox News has already proven they have no intention of providing "fair and balanced" coverage of any Democrat in this election.
 
In recent weeks they have run blatant lies about Senator Obama's background. And Fox was only too happy to give Ann Coulter a platform to spew more hate a few days after her bigoted attack on Senator Edwards and the gay community.
 
Now it's time for Democrats to stand together and send a clear message to Roger Ailes, Fox News and all the rest of them: bias isn't balance, but turning tables is fair.

For a serious response, let's quote the Dennis Kucinich 2008 campaign site, in which he says

“Whatever their excuses, some candidates are clearly trying to avoid any head-to-head public debate where they will have to answer tough questions -- questions about their votes in favor of the Iraq war, their votes in favor of trade policies that have wiped out millions of American jobs, their votes in favor of abridging Constitutional rights by approving the Patriot Act, and their collaboration with insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations to deny Americans adequate health care protection.”

Kucinich said “it’s an insult to the voters, and the height of cynicism, for candidates to refuse to take the public stage and subject themselves to public scrutiny.”

That right there is an unmanly, fag move.  If John Edwards is too big a pussy to face some questions from Chris Wallace or Brit Hume, then how's he going to be president?  He doesn't get to handpick his juries in the big leagues.  He's GOT to deal with Iran, and North Korea and a bunch of other ugly customers.  These stupid trial lawyer tactics won't cut much ice in the real world.

If John Edwards doesn't appreciate being called a "faggot," he should stop acting like one.

ANN COULTER PICTURES   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24

(Anti-Coulter pictures on pages 20-24)

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