Elizabeth Edwards Asks Ann Coulter to be More Civil; Ann Interprets Request as Equivalent to Demand that She Stop Speaking.

posted by Damozel | COULTER UPDATE! The advocate of protecting little babies had a brief interchange on Hardball with Elizabeth Edwards which included, among other things, a suggestion by Edwards that Coulter refrain from uncivil cracks such as the joke about the Edwards' dead son. 

If you wish to enjoy Coulter's response, the video is here.  Subsequently,  Coulter tried to reframe the plea that she be a bit less nasty to Edwards and perhaps to raise the tone of her discourse as a request that she stop speaking at all.  But Edwards stolidly continued with her argument, which was about the quality of Coulter's brand of discourse and not its content.

Coulter looked a bit uncomfortable and awkward at moments, even---I thought---a bit abashed..   She was squirming a bit and made a couple of  pretty awkward missteps, even pointing out that the joke about the Edwards' dead son was "three years ago."  Oh good, I'm sure it was less painful for them then, three years closer to the date of the actual event.   

"Why isn't John Edwards making the call?" yelled one of Coulter's supporters, a point which she picked up on and which got her in deeper, since Edwards pointed out that she is the mother of that dead boy. 

The timing of this was fortuitous since I've been thinking today about civility and that was the general theme of Edwards' argument.  She ended by saying---if I understood her correctly---that Coulter was setting a poor example for the young children behind her of what political discourse should be.  The audience applauded this; Coulter probably didn't expect to get called out over a joke about a parent's worst nightmare in front of an audience of parents and young children.

"You have all the time in the world to answer," said Chris Mathews when the call ended. Didn't seem as if Coulter had much to say...  She looked very pretty, let it be said:  very much like the Barbie Doll I had back in the Seventies (who was also pretty right wing, I recall, despite the black minidresses and stiletto heels).  Perhaps this is why I never can hate Coulter, however hateful she is being.  I did love that Barbie Doll, even though I'm pretty sure her boyfriend Ken worked for the Nixon Administration and that she once accepted a date with Henry Kissinger when she and Ken had a falling out.   

"I think we've heard all we need to hear," said Coulter, "The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking.  No!" she said, eyes flashing.  But Mathews mildly corrected her, pointing out that Edwards in fact was addressing the tone and quality of Coulter's discourse. 

But in the end, I do think Coulter had it right.  A civil Ann Coulter?  What could she say?  She would have to stop speaking.

PS.  In the interest of fairness, not to mention balance, let me just say that some of the comments on the video at The HuffPost are exactly as distasteful to me as some of Coulter's remarks.   But she is certainly partly to blame for lowering the standard so that people think these are acceptable responses.

PS. AGAIN (July 3, 2007):  Don't miss Jon Swift's June 27 posting:    Elizabeth Edwards Viciously Attacks Ann Coulter .

 

POSTINGS.

• Signs of the Times:  Ann Coulter Calls Bush an Unkind Name; Shows Disturbing Pro-[Right Wing] French Sympathies (BNP).
• PETA's attack on Michael Moore:  Civility Rant.

Comments

[jennifer hagstrom]

I construe Coulter's interpretation of the request as a demand to stop speaking as Coulter's admission that her speech is, in fact, uncivil. But that's just me.