Ann Coulter at CPAC

National Center for Public Policy Research ^ | 2-4-07 | Amy Ridenour

[SJackson]

Ann Coulter at CPAC

I'm sorry to see that Ann Coulter once again made certain news coverage of CPAC would be focused upon her instead of upon the conservative movement's goals and principles.

The National Center for Public Policy Research is one of very many co-sponsors of CPAC, and has been for some years. After Ann Coulter's offensive speech last year, we telephoned the organizers and strongly suggested that Ann Coulter's behavior was harmful to, and unrepresentative of, the conservative movement. We said we were considering pulling out our co-sponsorship because of Ann Coulter's "raghead" comment, and asked them to not invite Ann Coulter to speak in CPAC 2007, or, at the very least, only invite her if she was told to can the offensive speech, and explicitly agreed to do so. I had 90 percent decided to stop our co-sponsorship for CPAC 2007, but the sponsor seemed to be taking our concerns about Coulter's 2006 remarks seriously and with what seemed to us to be appropriate sympathy, so the National Center co-sponsored CPAC again this year.

(I am, by the way. under no illusion that CPAC's main sponsors lose sleep over possibly losing the National Center's co-sponsorship. We do pay a fee to co-sponsor, and all the fees paid by all the co-sponsors together do add up to quite a tidy sum, but I'm sure any one co-sponsor is quite expendable.)

As has been widely reported, Ann Coulter not only once again went out of her way to use a nasty epithet, she pushed her offensiveness up a notch, using a word that is even more universally reviled than the derogatory term she hurled last year.

So, CPAC's sponsors either invited Coulter back without first getting her pledge that she would speak without using demeaning epithets, or they obtained her pledge, and she broke her word.

We'll ask.

It would be better, in my opinion, to not have a CPAC at all than to have one that presents conservatism as a hostile, people-hating ideology. We conservatives have enough trouble overcoming the false things that are said about us without paying for a platform upon which we shoot ourselves annually in the foot.

Some of my past commentary on Ann Coulter can be found here and here.

Here's a roundup of other conservative (and moderate) commentary on the Coulter situation:

"With Friends Like These... (re Ann Coulter)," JonQuixote

"CPAC is Shocked--Shocked!--by Ann Coulter's Remarks," Jon Swift

"Coulter Screams for Attention, Again - Losing Whatever Supporters She Still Had," Patterico

"Ann Coulter Doesn't Speak For Me," Wizbang

"Coulter Said What? (Bumped)," Captain's Quarters

"The Shame Of Ann Coulter," The Moderate Voice

"Ann Coulter at CPAC," Betsy's Page

"Ann Coulter calls John Edwards...," Right Thoughts

"Count Me Out," Lone Star Times

"Ann Coulter Calls John Edwards The 'F-word'," Gay Patriot

"Coulter Needs A Rehab," Riehl World View

"Apologizing for Ann Coulter," MyDD

"On Ann Coulter, John Edwards, and Civility," historymike

P.S. A hostile liberal blogger issues a challenge to conservatives:

Reality: [Ann Coulter] is your biggest star. The people you claim to speak for feel she speaks for them much, much more than you do -- and they're right. She is modern conservatism's id -- she's the one who says what the rest of you would say if you didn't feel it would cost you your standing as reasonable, responsible people.

Want to prove me wrong? You cut her off. You boycott the sponsors of TV shows that still invite her on as a guest. You show up at her book signings and campus appearances and hand out flyers quoting her nastiest bon mots. You boycott CPAC next year if she's invited, and demand that others do the same. Or if you have a problem with boycotts as a matter of principle, at the very least urge your fellow conservatives, on college campuses and elsewhere, to stop extending invitations to her, given the profound harm you say she does to your movement.

But you won't do that, will you? In that case, shut the hell up, hypocrites, and acknowledge that while Coulter may be the bad apple in the family, your door is always open to her.

Well?

[SJackson]

Could you please explain to me why there has to be ONE MORE ARTICLE POSTED about Ann's remark?

Seems to me a sponsoring group get's a say.

[SJackson]

They have a RINOVIRUS.

RINOVIRUS, i like that, at least it's creative. Romney has a RINOVIRUS.

[Def Conservative]

She issued a response the same day explaining it.

If Coulter wanted to call John Edwards a faggot she would have...she never bites her tongue.

[Radix]

"Ann Coulter has made a career out of dumbass statements."

You forgot to list them.

I've been reading Ann Coulter's works for years now, and I could not find any.

[Mark was here]

It's Romney's breath she sucked out, though in a small way.

Romney, my former favorite, showed his RINO colors by siding with Dave Bonier and the Rats in attacking Ann. This was his choice, and his choice helped make Ann's joke about rehab the story.

[bvw]

You either stand up for Coulter and CPAC or you fall into the camp of picklebob12, on YouTube. 335K+ views of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx9Bi3C4rs8. Pickbob12 says:

ann coulter deserves to get her legs brocken and hang her on a pole covered in needles and then admit she is a megabitch and be put in exile wih steaks in her face

Which side are you on, which side are you on?

* * *

Still, what's with the steaks on her face? Are they from Ruth's Crisp Steak House?

[migraines]

Ann Coulter for PRESIDENT!

[SJackson]

Your admissions prior to stating "and the worst,..." discredits your observations on a conservative commentator....If you posess all of these abhorent atributes, why does the moderator continue to accept your DU tripe?

I don't know, why don't you ask him. It seems perfectly reasonable to acknowledge the commentary of some of the jerks posting here up front, in the interest of getting them out of the way.

It seems to me it was a foolish comment, which should have been explained immediately. Ann may enjoy being the focus of CPAC, but that's not what it's about. Of course i'm just a peddler of DU tripe.

[org.whodat]

It was a dumb comment, not funny and she shouldn't be invited back to CPAC.

What a funny statement from a cool-aide drinker.

[rusureitflies?]

Ms Coulter is just warming up. Can't wait for the next uproar. In war of words Anne will win every time. I know when I hear the losers yowl..u no who u r....

[SJackson]

Freedom of Speech should be abolished!! Sorry, it is Freedom from All Speech, not just the PC speech. It was probably the only real sentance spoken at that dog & pony....Pray for W and Our Troops

A great many Freepers feel that way, thus the multitude of personal attacks.

[Joan Kerrey]

While it's not a comment I would have suggested I have to laugh that those who have called our President a Nazi, a liar, a murderer, a terrorists, etc. are the ones screaming loudest.

As Obama said, why should I apologize for someone elses remarks.

[Radix]

"Ann called John Edwards a queer."

No she didn't.

She called him a faggot, and he is one.

He is a girly man all the way.

You and millions of others may equate the two terms as synonymous, but I do not.

We used to call the faggy kids faggots all the time when I was younger, and I had no idea about what homosexuality was at all.

John Edwards is a faggot, and queer/homosexuality has got nothing to do with it.

[SJackson]

It would be better, in my opinion, to not have a CPAC at all than to have one that presents conservatism as a hostile, people-hating ideology. We conservatives have enough trouble overcoming the false things that are said about us without paying for a platform upon which we shoot ourselves annually in the foot.

True, but that wasn't the intent. I'm thinking she won't be speaking at the convention.

[SJackson]

ann coulter deserves to get her legs brocken and hang her on a pole covered in needles and then admit she is a megabitch and be put in exile wih steaks in her face

Which side are you on, which side are you on?

I don't thnk Ann's legs should be broken, but thanks for engaging in a Coulterism implying I might.

Not much you can do about a jerk on youtube. But CPAC isn't youtube.

[Mark was here]

John Edwards is a fagot, and queer/homosexuality has got nothing to do with it.

She did not call him a fagot, she merely said she could not talk about him with out using the word fagot.

[Def Conservative]

Exactly if she wante dto call him faggot she would have. She called Al Gore one.

[o_zarkman44]

Ann is not running for any office so who cares what she says when she speaks from the heart.

I am tired of every little comment offending someone. People need to suck it up and get on with business rather than nitpick one journalist's comments.
I for one don't care who gets offended. If the truth is being spoken it is the most basic of rights to point out the obvious. Anyone who attempts to shield people from the obvious by changing the focus from the truth to the messager is part of the repression of the freedom of political speech.

[Gene Eric]

The fact that Ann Coulter was able to overshadow CPAC in 5 seconds tells me that CPAC was a waste of time.

We don't need the high minded motivation of Conservative pep rallies to remind us of our responsibilities. We don't need to see the major Republican candidates running to the camera to denounces Coulter's remarks. We don't care to read comments here at FR by fellow Republicans willing to throw Ann Coulter overboard. And most importantly, we don't need left oriented advisories regarding the effects of 'Coulter Fallout' on the Right.

[SJackson]

Romney, my former favorite, showed his RINO colors by siding with Dave Bonier and the Rats in attacking Ann. This was his choice, and his choice helped make Ann's joke about rehab the story.

In questioning, though not addressing the faggot comment, she endorsed Romney.Romney is the best candidate we have." She said Rudy Giuliani is too liberal -- "when both candidates for president support abortion I think we can hang it up as a country.

He [Romeny] tricked liberals into voting for him. I like a guy who hoodwinks the voters so easily.

I don't see where he had a choice.