At the very least Ann Coulter has demonstrated that she is capable of having a John Kerry moment.
The right-wing commentator's use of the word "faggot" in connection with Sen. John Edwards during Friday's American Conservative Union's Political Action Conference were at the bare minimum, a joke gone horribly awry. Miss Coulter defended her comments Monday on Fox News channel's Hannity and Colmes, saying that the word was simply "a schoolyard taunt."
But just because a word can be heard on the schoolyard does not make it inoffensive. In fact, the word's roots come from a derogatory term used to describe women or children. Unless, of course, she was trying to refer to the 2004 Vice-Presidential candidate as a bundle of sticks. In which case, the statement would not be derogatory, but simply incomprehensible.
Miss Coulter claims on Hannity and Colmes that her remarks were an allusion to the recent dust-up revolving around Isaiah Washington. Listening to her comments, however, one can find no clear preamble that would allow listeners to immediately make that connection.
Instead, Coulter's remarks drew nervous laughter and sparse applause. The audience response may be more rooted in shock than appreciation for her wit.
Miss Coulter's comments cannot be separated from context. This is not the first time the blond GOP water carrier has tried to besmirch prominent liberals by questioning their sexuality. Previous Coulter targets include former President Bill Clinton and former Vice-President Al Gore. Indeed, it appears from Coulter's comments that the worst term that can be used against someone (apart from liberal, of course) is "faggot."
Trying further to distance herself from a plain reading of her comments, Miss Coulter struggled without success to claim that the GOP is gay-friendly.
"We are the party that is gay-friendly. We are against crime and for lower taxes," said Ann Coulter. Her comments are, to say the least, puzzling. The GOP has routinely opposed hate-crime legislation that would impose special penalties for attacks against gays that were conducted with the goal of frightening the larger gay community. And the lower taxes Miss Coulter talks about would benefit only those gays in a higher income bracket.
The notion that all gays live lifestyles like those shown on The L Word or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is just as much a stereotype as the notion that all African-Americans share a special aptitude for playing basketball.
Republicans still have major problems with the way gay people relate to one another on a personal level. That's why gay marriage is a wedge issue and Mary Cheney's baby is a source of conservative consternation.
So essentially, Miss Coulter is attempting to take the sting out of her words by switching to another stereotype that some may find no less offensive.
And Coulter's words also fall into the category of "fighting words" as described by the Supreme Court. In a 1942 decision Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, the court defined fighting words as "those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace." Miss Coulter's words clearly come under this definition. Even though subsequent Justices have narrowed the definition somewhat Miss Coulter's words still seem to fall under that category.
Back in the good old days Ann Coulter could be relied upon to provide loony ideas like bombing the New York Times building or suggesting that the Jersey Girls were somehow placing their sudden rise to fame above the memory of their dead spouses.
If this latest example of Coulter's recurring foot-in-mouth disease is any indication of her comedy stylings, Miss Coulter needs to clutch to her day job and never let go.
Update: What I was trying to point out is the hypocrisy of right-wingers who jumped all over John Kerry's badly-told joke and yet continue to defend Ann Coulter. Sorry but it was not meant to be a diary in support of Ann Coulter nor one to put down John Kerry.