Slander

Never let it be said that one can't profit from lies. Just ask Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards (and his wife). With some sixteen months to go before the election, Edwards is already turning (again) to one of his favorite sources of income, conservative commentator and columnist Ann Coulter.

Ms Edwards called in on Chris Matthews' MSNBC show Hardball while Coulter was being interviewed and confronted her with allegations of "hate speech," citing specifically comments made by Coulter on Good Morning America the day before (we'll get to those comments in a second). I've read several articles about the incident on GMA as well as Ms Edwards' rather ridiculous phone call. Nearly every single one presents it as Ms Coulter saying she wished Edwards would die in a terrorist attack. No context given; just a factual statement that Coulter wants Edwards dead.

So is it true that Coulter really said she wishes John Edwards had been killed in a terrorist attack? Let's hear her comments in their context:



So Coulter's comments were clearly in reference to Bill Maher's comments that if the terrorist attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney's life had been successful "people wouldn't be needlessly dying." In other words, she was exposing the hypocrisy of liberals in their giving other liberals a pass to say almost anything but railing against conservatives when they essentially say the same thing.

Of course, this didn't stop the Edwards campaign from posting the clip on YouTube...without its context...as a campaign ad:



And thus the liberals once again unwittingly proved Coulter's point in a blatant display of hypocrisy. Just as they did with Coulter's comments regarding Edwards and the word "faggot," which were (as she clearly explained) a joke in reference to actor Isaiah Washington "going to rehab" after making disparaging remarks about his homosexual costar on the show Grey's Anatomy. (I agree with Ann about the absurdity of equating an insult to serious problems like drug addiction to the extent that "rehab" is needed, and in that context her jab at Edwards was both funny and effective.)

Ann's formula is tried and true: make a joke (usually involving Edwards...an easy target), using similar comments to those made recently by a tasteless liberal, and it sends everyone in an uproar. Watch them foam at the mouth like lunatics, unleashing the liberal media machine on her. Then let conservatives, one by one, expose the hypocrisy of these liberals to all their liberal friends.