Chris Matthews Sandbags Ann Coulter With Live Call-In From Elizabeth Edwards

Chris Matthews Sandbags Ann Coulter With Live Call-In From Elizabeth Edwards Posted by Geoffrey Dickens on June 26, 2007 - 19:26.

On tonight's Hardball, MSNBC's Chris Matthews blind-sided his guest, conservative columnist Ann Coulter, with a live call from Elizabeth Edwards. The wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, proceeded to demand Coulter to stop her "personal attacks" on her husband, but Coulter shot back that at least she wasn't "bankrupting doctors by giving a shyster, Las Vegas routine."

The following is the full transcript of the exchange as it occurred on the June 26th edition of Hardball:

Chris Matthews: "You know who's on the line? Somebody to respond to what you said about Edwards, yesterday morning, Elizabeth Edwards. She wanted to call in today, we said she could. Elizabeth Edwards go on the line, you're on the line with Ann Coulter."

Edwards: "I was calling, you know, in the South when we, when someone does something that displeases us we want to ask them, politely, to stop doing it. I'd like to ask Ann Coulter to, if she wants to debate on issues, on positions, we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today. But, but it's quite another matter, to, for these personal attacks. The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates is, lowers our, our political dialogue, precisely at the time we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity, which I don't get much, because Ann and I don't hang out with the same people."

Coulter: "Okay so I made a joke, let's see, six months ago, and as you point out, they've been raising money off of it, for six months, since then."

Edwards: "Ann, Ann you know that's not true. And, and once more, this has been going on for some time."

Coulter: "I don't mind you trying to raise money. I mean it's better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor-"

Coulter: "-my name on the Web pages. But as for a debate with me, yeah sure. Yeah we'll have a debate."

Coulter: "How about you stop raising money on your Web page then? No, you don't have to because, I don't mind."

Edwards: "It didn't start, it did not, it didn't start, it did not start with that. You had a column a number of years ago where you suggested-"

Coulter: "You're asking me to stop speaking. ‘Stop writing your columns. Stop writing your books.'"

Edwards: "Which made, which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean's death and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said, ‘Ask me about my dead son.'"

Edwards: "This is not legitimate political dialogue. It debases political dialogue. It draws people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language."

Coulter responding to audience member: "Yeah why isn't John Edwards making this call?"

Edwards: "I am making this call as a mother. I am, I'm the mother of that boy who died. I, my children participate. These young people behind you are the age of my children, particularly, you're asking them to participate in a dialogue that's based on, on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues and I don't, I don't think that's serving them or this country very well."

Matthews: "Thank you very much, Elizabeth Edwards. Well do you, you have all the time in the world to respond to that."

Coulter: "I think, I think we heard all we need to hear. The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking. No."

Matthews: "No, she said you should stop being so negative to people, individually."

Coulter: "Right, as opposed to bankrupting doctors by giving a shyster, Las Vegas routine-"

Coulter: "-in front of juries based on science. Wait, you said I'd have as long I would have-"

Coulter: "-and you instantly interrupted me. As I was saying, doing these psychic routines in front of illiterate juries to bankrupt doctors, who now can't deliver babies. And to charge a, a poverty group $50,000 for a speech. Don't talk to me about, about how to use language."

Coulter: "That language of hate. And I'm, I, I'm gonna ask you, again, to politely stop using personal attacks as part of your dialogue."

Matthews: "Why do you, I mean, that, that might fall under the category of personal attacks, I don't know, but why do you do that? Why do you talk about Monica Lewinsky's chubbiness? If she were skinny would it had been okay?"

Matthews: "Why do you bring up the word, ‘chubby?' Why do you make fun of Hillary's chubby legs?"

Coulter: "I, I don't know, you're going to have to give me the sentence. And I think-"

Matthews: "We'll, we'll be back and read the entire sentence. We're gonna come right back, I don't know why we're reading, the full intellectual context will be coming in a moment."

Matthews, a Philadelphia native, is a Roman Catholic of Irish descent who graduated from La Salle College High School and The College of the Holy Cross (presumably majoring in Gen Ed). He did graduate work (read: dropped out) in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served in the Peace Corps in Swaziland(snort) from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development advisor.

Matthews is married to Kathleen R. Matthews, who anchored News 7 on WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C before accepting a position as an Executive Vice President with J.W. Marriott. The couple has 3 children: Michael, Thomas and Caroline. He was the commencement speaker at the University of South Carolina on May 5, 2006, where his wife was awarded an Honorary Doctorate; the next day his wife was the commencement speaker, and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (OMG!). On May 20, 2006, Chris Matthews delivered the commencement address at Fordham University in The Bronx where he was also awarded an honorary degree. On May 20, 2007, he gave the commencement address at Villanova University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate(TWO?!). Matthews was also the commencement speaker at Loyola College in Maryland during their 2001 graduation ceremony.[citation needed]

Oh thats funny.

Edwards: "You had a column, you wrote a column several years ago-"
Matthews: "Ann, please."
Coulter: "Okay."
Edwards: "Which made, which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean's death and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said, ‘Ask me about my dead son.'"
Coulter: "That's now three years ago."
Edwards: "This is not legitimate political dialogue. It debases political dialogue. It draws people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language..."
That would be THIS column, from www.jewishworldreview.com:

Jewish World Review Nov. 20, 2003/ 25 Mar-Cheshvan, 5764
Ann Coulter

The party of ideas
With economic growth and name recognition of the average Democratic presidential candidate both running at about 7 percent, the Democrats are in trouble. Unable to rouse more than the Saddam-supporting left with their kooky foreign policy ideas, the Democrats had been counting on a lousy economy. It turns out that, given a choice between "shock and awe" and "run and hide," the American people prefer the former. Now that the Bush tax cuts have already started to kick in and boost the economy, it was beginning to look as if the Treason Lobby would have nothing to run on.

But the Democrats have discovered a surprise campaign issue: It turns out that several of them have had a death in the family. Not only that, but many Democrats have cracker-barrel humble origins stories (BEGIN ITALS)and(END ITALS) a Jew or lesbian in the family. Dick Gephardt's campaign platform is that his father was a milkman, his son almost died, and his daughter is a lesbian. Vote for me!

So don't say the Democrats aren't the party of ideas. As they keep reminding us, their ideas are just too darn complex to fit on a bumper sticker. Consequently, the Democrats can't tell us their ideas until after the election. Instead, their version of a political campaign is to stage a "Queen for a Day" extravaganza — which has special resonance in the case of the Democrats.

Al Gore famously inaugurated the family tragedy routine at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, where his idea of an inspiring political speech was to recount the story of his son being hit by a car. At the 1996 convention, Gore told a tear-jerker about his sister's long, painful death from lung cancer. It got to the point that Gore's family members had to fear any more runs for higher office.

In the current campaign, Gephardt has taken to spinning out a long, pitiful tale of his son's near-death three decades ago...

-- snip --

...At least when Gephardt exploits a family tragedy, he doesn't expect praise for not exploiting a family tragedy. John Edwards injects his son's fatal car accident into his campaign by demanding that everyone notice how he refuses to inject his son's fatal car accident into his campaign.

Edwards has talked about his son's death in a 1996 car accident on "Good Morning America," in dozens of profiles and in his new book. ("It was and is the most important fact of my life.") His 1998 Senate campaign ads featured film footage of Edwards at a learning lab he founded in honor of his son, titled "The Wade Edwards Learning Lab." He wears his son's Outward Bound pin on his suit lapel. He was going to wear it on his sleeve, until someone suggested that might be a little too "on the nose."

If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those "Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident" bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent's criminal record for partisan political advantage. (I absolutely refuse to mention the name of my dearly beloved and recently departed son killed horribly in a car accident, which affected me deeply, to score cheap political points.

I wouldn't want John Edwards to be president, but I think even Karl Rove would be willing to stipulate that the death of a son is a terrible thing.

Howard Dean talks about his brother Charlie's murder at the hands of North Vietnamese communists. Bizarrely, after working on the failed George McGovern campaign, Charlie Dean went to Indochina in 1974 to witness the ravages of the war he had opposed. Not long after he arrived, the apparently ungrateful communists captured and killed him.
Hey fellas! I'm on your s — CLUNK!...

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.