Don't leave your buckets of water at home quite as yet, but it looks as if Ann Coulter has finally taken that final, fateful step too far and is being abandoned by the right. This probably because the f-word scandal continues to dominate the blog and online discussion.
On Technorati, the two most-linked videos show the Coulter Edwards outburst. "Ann Coulter" is Technorati's second most popular search term, beating out perennial favorites Britney Spears (#6) and Paris Hilton (#12); she even beats Myspace (#4) and YouTube (#5).
The top Technorati news story is Adam Nagourney's piece on Coulter's CPAC meltdown, with 324 links.
On AOL TopSearch, Coulter/Edwards is #3, moving up, and beating out Jesus (#5).
On Yahoo!, searches for 'Coulter' are up 337%, John Edwards, 437%.
And now, reactions on the right. Read on.
On GOPUSA – no slouches they; you may recall them as Jeff Gannon's/James Guckert's former employers – wingnut extraordinaire Cliff Kincaid writes:
The political equivalent of Britney Spears shaving the hair off her head, Ann Coulter made headlines at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by calling Democrat John Edwards a faggot. Wearing a leather dress and a Christian cross around her neck, Coulter must be a liberal infiltrator whose purpose is to give conservatism a bad name...
Yah, because liberals are given to the kind of politics Coulter embraces. Right. There's more.
As a former staffer and contributing editor of Human Events, I can't understand why this conservative weekly publication continues to feature her on the masthead as a "legal affairs correspondent" and puts her columns on page one. Jed Babbin, the new editor, must be sick to his stomach. Coulter's columns are anything but legal analysis...
Coulter had assumed "rock star" status on the right, but her latest performance may mean that the rock is sinking fast. AIM ["Accuracy in Media", a right-wing news-distortion outlet] has announced that it will be discontinuing sales of books by or merchandise promoting Ann Coulter. We hope that other conservative groups follow our lead.
Coulter's main publisher, Human Events, has a pleasing rundown of further attempts to scramble away from the now-radioactive VRWC mouthpiece:
The Directors at Red State opined, "Ann Coulter doesn't speak for us. And we hope and expect that this is the last time a candidate for public office willingly accepts her endorsement or appears on the same stage with her."...
Townhall.com's Dean Barnett is proud to report of the reaction by CPAC attendees: "When Ann made her offending comment on Friday, it wasn’t greeted by boisterous laughter as many of you have suggested in your emails and comments. It was greeted by uncomfortable silence. [Sic; in fact, the audience applauded wildly.] That spoke well of the attendees. The audience at CPAC knew that Ann had transgressed."...
Captain's Quarters' Ed Morrissey, in an open letter to CPAC organizers, gives credit to Coulter for being a fearless defender of conservatism, but is disappointed in her use of inappropriate language: "such offensive language--and the cavalier attitude that lies behind it--is intolerable to us. It may be tolerated on liberal websites but not at the nation's premier conservative gathering.[Sic. Cough, yes, that must be it.]"...
Newsbusters' Warner Todd Huston opines, "Of course, I am sympathetic to her core message of conservative values, but in my opinion she is no longer an effective conservative columnist having long ago diluted her message by a career that has advanced to the stage of "personality" instead of pundit. She is the H.L. Mencken of our times... minus the intellect."...
If the nutters at RedState now consider Coulter unacceptable (apparently, prior calls for assassinations of President Clinton, half the Supreme Court and the New York Times editorial staff weren't offensive to them), it's over. When she's being portrayed as a 'liberal infiltrator', and top conservative voices take pains to distinguish other conservatives from her - witness the fabrication that her audience was silent, which is untrue, as the video clearly shows - then her adoring cohorts finally have gotten the message. Which means it's pretty much over for Ann.
Congratulations, Ann. You've finally managed to stoop so low that even the right is offended. Goodbye.