Posted on 03/04/2007 8:28:45 AM PST by ajolympian2004
Enter Ann Coulter.
Her "faggot" joke was not just a distraction from all the good that was highlighted and represented at the conference. It was the equivalent of a rhetorical fragging--an intentionally-tossed verbal grenade that exploded in her own fellow ideological soldiers' tent.
There are countless conservatives who bring their children to CPAC. It's a family-friendly event. I brought mine last year and the year before. I met several parents with their kids there this year. We expect CPAC to be a place where conservative role models speak with clarity, passion, and integrity. There are enough spewers of mindless filth, vulgarity, and hatred on TV, at the movies, and in the public schools. We don't expect our children to be exposed to that garbage at the nation's preeminent conservative gathering.
I was in the back of the ballroom and did not see any children in the audience during Coulter's speech. But what if there had been?
Would you want your children hearing the word "faggot" spoken in such a casual and senseless manner? Would you like your first-grader or three-year-old running around the halls of CPAC singing "faggot, faggot, faggot?" Not me. Not anymore than I'd like my toddler singing "gook, gook, gook" or "sambo, sambo, sambo"--favored epithets hurled at conservative minorities by leftist haters groping around in their empty intellectual quivers. There were hundreds of young conservative college students in the ballroom. Would you be proud of your college-age daughter spewing such epithets in her campus debates with leftists?
With a single word, Coulter sullied the hard work of hundreds of CPAC participants and exhibitors and tarred the collective reputation of thousands of CPAC attendees. At a reception for college students held by the Young America's Foundation, I lambasted the substitution of stupid slurs for persuasion-- be it "faggot" from a conservative or "gook" from a liberal--and urged the young people there to conduct themselves at all times with dignity in their ideological battles on and off campus.
I made something else explicitly clear: Not all of us treat the communication of conservative ideals and ideas as 24/7 performance art. You can and should use humor to convey your message. You can enlighten and entertain--without becoming a tired old schtick. You can joke without becoming the joke.
---
The rest of her coverage, great pics from the event and photo album link here -
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006981.htm
Michelle, quit being a drama queen. She gave you something to pontificate about, be thankful.
I think this was a calculated move on Coulter's part. Now, she will draw a distinction between Edwards's support of his Catholic-hating bloggers and his condemnation of a single word by Coulter.
Michelle, get over it: these kids know more than you think.
I agree completely. Why stoop down to the level of leftists? Especially when Mr. Edwards is a married man with children. C'mon Ann, you may disagree with the man's positions and ideaology, but keep away from such childish personal attacks.
Especially when you know that the media gives a free pass to hateful speech given by leftists, but that anything vile said like this by conservatives gets magnified by a factor of 10,000x. It just amplifies the message that conservatives are 'bigots', while liberals are caring. Even if in reality it is the other way around usually.
BTTT!
all of this righteous indignation plays right into the hands of the "gay mafia"
Malkin is consistent. I think all the hand wringing is dumb, though. SHE'S ANN COULTER, for God's sake. That's why people go to hear her speak.
The kind of parent that drags kids to a 'family friendly' event like CPAC is what keeps a lot of therapists at work for decades! Sheesh! "Hey kids, we're going to CPAC and see Duncan Hunter and Mitt Romney! And if you're really good we will stay for the panel on government finance!"
I am getting a bit tired of Ann's over the top rhetoric. Was it really necessary for her to refer to the 911 widows as harpies and say for all we knew their husbands were about to divorce them. She seems to have lost her ability to make points without going over the top. It is a shame because I generally enjoy her shtick.
Michelle, take a day off. Go for a hike. Swim, ski, hop in the sack, you chose, but get a life.
Now can we please get back to trashing Gulliani, Mc Cain & Romney? ....tongue firmly planted in cheek :0)
My apologies to fellow horse lovers.
You're very ignorant of the American public.
99.99999% of the American public has NO IDEA about the little-twinkie-girl bloggers (whom know one ever heard of)...and has NO IDEA that Edwards fired them.
I would also guess that 75% of the American public has NO IDEA what a blogger even is.
Annie wanted attention for Annie...and Annie gets what she wants...even if it trashes CPAC....
If you enjoy her schtick, and I do, nobody does it better ...
Have to agree with Michelle here. Whatever cheap thrill Ann or her fans got from that was not worth it.
If you ask me, Ann has lost use of her stiletto wit and replaced it with a greasy hacksaw. It's a shame.
Ann said that she couldn't talk about Edwards without using the word "faggot." Imagine if she had talked about him.
I agree that she has every right to say it and I don't even mind that she did, but she should have said it somewhere else
LOL. The one time I went to CPAC was in the early 80's.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick(RIP) spoke. Brilliant, but man was it boring. Can't imagine making a kid sit through that.
LOL! We would have to borrow your blowtorch!
John Kerry's "joke" was funnier.
LOL!! KNOW = NO
I think it's Michelle Malkin that makes the mistake here. Vietnamese, vietnamese, vietnames or black, black, black; etc., are specific identies. Homosexuality is not a specific racial like identity, but, rather, a sexual addiction with disgusting and dangerous actions.
It is Michelle Malkin that is displaying ignorance here. And I speak as an admirer of Michelle Malkin (not that she would appreciate what I say now).
People are ignoring one thing about all this, and that is what impact it might have had on Edwards, who is running a stealthy campaign designed to benefit from the damage Obama and Clinton are doing to each other.
With that single word, Coulter has indelibly marked Edwards. Formerly, only the hard-right was keyed to his trilling, metrosexual primping-fop act (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE847UXu3Q for a hilarious example). Ann did the nation a favor by tagging him in headlines. Her comment had nothing to do with his sexual orientation and everything to do with his credibility as a world leader as Silky Pony in Chief.
As usual, Ann has used controversy and ridicule to score a valuable point. It's fine that Michelle Malkin and all the candidates now make a show of taking Ann to the woodshed: tha damage is done-- to Edwards.
Thank you, Ann Coulter.
I recorded it on my Tivo and will be making a DVD of the best speeches, but man oh man, I wouldn't call this an event for families. Maybe it is for the Malkin family?
Or maybe The Addams Family? Hahaha!
"...in the early 80's."
Make that early 90's.
Faggot is a perfectly good, time tested descriptive. The fact the language police are offended is just too bad.
She would have gotten into no trouble saying swishy little fart. Anne, you need to work on your lexicon.
Who knows, maybe the "Breck girl" has other things going on?
Ann Coulter has an audience, just like Michael Savage has an audience. I just don't listen to either one, but there are people who will listen to them, no matter what.
You should click into Hugh Hewitt's blog to see the 'oh the humanity' of the bloggers there over Ann's inane comments. CPAC is more about good ideas and yet they should know that Ann is a bomb thrower. Oh well, this too will pass as conservatives keep devouring their own. If we do not stop, we will get Her Highness or BO and that would be the true social obliteration!
#* YUP!
We eat our own when it offends the LEFT.
Funny but the conservatives who praise Malkin for slamming the left for cheap tactics are so very quick to turn on her for calling out the high priestess of biatch, Anorexic Coulter. If we won't police ourselves, who will?
Really? So you are saying that it okay to use such language at conservative family friendly events?
By the way, doesn't Edwards brother host those paranormal shows on cable?
Maybe Ann looked around too and noticed that she was in an adult setting and then spoke her mind. Give me a break!
"As usual, Ann has used controversy and ridicule to score a valuable point. It's fine that Michelle Malkin and all the candidates now make a show of taking Ann to the woodshed: tha damage is done-- to Edwards.
Thank you, Ann Coulter."
THANK YOU!
It is all about the children, don't you see? Where have we heard that one before?
I had to watch Coulter on one of the closed circuit TVs located around the hotel. Only a relatively few could get into the Regency room, which was SRO packed. There were over 3,000 college kids at the conference. Ann was clearly the rock star of the conference, even more than the political candidates. I think Malkin suffers from Coulter-envy.
As I have previosuly stated on another thread. This was the wrong palce and poor choice of words. Now knowing that children were present, that just reinforces it for me. We should be better as conservatives, especially when around children.
Do a google search on every nasty word you can think of, and include "coulter" and see how many hits there are.
So aren't terms like sambo, chink, slant, slope, spic and any other term that is used to describe someone else that we want to demean.
I mean, they are only words, no?
Welcome troll.
With her comment Coulter raised one of the critical issues of our time--the hysteria and hypocrisy of political correctness--in a venue perfectly adapted to that purpose.
Will Malkin and other outraged commentators on the right come to their senses and acknowledge the point Coulter was making? Once can hope. If they do not, it is because they have become too cowed and coopted by the left to be of any effective use any more. The left's victory is nearly complete at Malkin's level. Sad.
I re-read the post. Children were not present in the audience at the time, so I withdraw that part of my psot. Sorry. It was still the wrong place and poor choice of owrds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.