WASHINGTON, 6 March 2007 — Outspoken US conservative columnist Ann Coulter is drawing fire from Republicans and Democrats alike after publicly using a derogatory gay slur in reference to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards.
Coulter, who addressed GOP activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday, told the group, “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I . . . can’t really talk about Edwards.”
Edwards responded on Sunday. He condemned the slur but remained tight-lipped about his opinion of her. “I think it’s important that we not reward hateful, selfish, childish behavior with attention,” Edwards told reporters in Berkley, California, where he was speaking at an event. “I also believe that is important for all of us to speak out against language of this kind; it is the place where hatred gets its foothold, and we can’t stand silently by and allow this kind of language to be used.”
Criticism of Coulter’s remarks has been bipartisan. Among Republicans: Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said the comments were “offensive;” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Coulter was “completely inappropriate” and John McCain called Coulter “wildly inappropriate,” Fox news reported yesterday.
Among Democrats: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean asked Republicans to denounce Coulter’s remarks saying political discourse had no place for “hate-filled and bigoted comments” and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said, “Coulter’s words of hate have no place in the public sphere much less our political discourse, she should apologize and Republican conference-goers should denounce her shameful and divisive actions,” CNN reported yesterday.
Coulter has made a misguided attempt to mitigate the damage of her remarks by claiming that she was only joking and “would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean,” Coulter told the New York Times. But Edwards, who grew up in the racially segregated South said he found nothing funny about Coulter’s remarks, which he compared to racial slurs. “It’s not about me and it’s not about her; this is about what kind of country we want to live in,” Edwards told Fox News.
Coulter carried the speech on her website with the comment, “I’m so ashamed, I can’t stop laughing.” She then said Edwards’ campaign chairman’s main job was “fronting for Arab terrorists.”
Coulter is no stranger to controversy. At the same conference last year, she used the word “raghead,” in referring to US homeland security policies. In a column published in the National Review after the Sept. 11 attacks she urged an invasion of Muslim countries and forced conversion to Christianity.
Coulter’s attacks on Friday were not solely aimed at Edwards. She also reeled off a series of jokes about everyone from Al Gore to Hillary Clinton. On Barack Obama, she said: “I refer to him as B. Hussein Obama. He’s half white and half black, half Christian and half Muslim and half atheist. Something there for every Democrat.” On Bill Clinton: “He was called the first black president. Obama might be half black and half white. Bill was half white and half trash.”
Howard Dean, the Democratic Party boss, had called on the Republican presidential candidates to denounce Coulter for her “faggot” joke.
“Republicans should denounce her hateful remarks,” he said. Political observers said his statement would no doubt result in a few thousand extra sales of Coulter’s books.
