Ann Coulter’s CPAC Speech: Where is the Republican Outrage?

As we all know by now, during a speech given on March 2 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Ann Coulter said this:

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions."[1]

Condemnation flooded in from those we’d expect to be outraged—Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, GLAD, and of course Edwards himself—but the reaction from the other side, the side for which Coulter presumes to speak, has been deafening—and I think damning—silence.

The three leading candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination all denounced Coulter’s remarks in statements so generic that they might as well have gotten together and issued a joint press release. Quoting all three would be a waste of time, so here’s what McCain said, through a spokesperson, paraphrasing Reno: 911’s Lt. Jim Dangle: “The comments were wildly inappropriate.”[2]

Where is the outrage from these people? Why are men running for President wagging their fingers and lightly admonishing Coulter when they should be embarrassed and infuriated that this woman is part of the public face of their faction? I am neither a conservative nor a Republican, but if I were, I’d be mortified to share an ideology or a party with this woman. I’m already embarrassed enough sharing a genus with her.

I think part of the problem is that many people on the political right just don’t see what Coulter said as being any big deal. Sure, many conservative Republicans (most of whom, conventional wisdom tells us, are also Christians) pay lip service to being respectful and tolerant toward homosexuals, but that’s mostly out of politeness or political prudence. In their useless condemnations, none of the three Republican candidates referred directly to what Coulter said. Mitt Romney came the closest in his response when he (or rather his spokesman) stated his belief that “all people should be treated with dignity and respect.”[3]

Dignity and respect are all well and good, but Coulter’s latest discharge of bile deserves to be answered more vigorously than an apathetic scolding delivered by a deputy. What Ann Coulter said, and Ann Coulter herself, ought to be denounced in no uncertain terms—and McCain, Giuliani and Romney ought to be the ones doing the loudest denouncing, not Edwards, his fellow Democrats or the numerous offended gay rights organizations. Imagine if one of the Republican contenders had cared enough to respond personally, and had said something like this:

What Ann Coulter said about John Edwards at CPAC was repugnant and wrong, both for the bigoted language she used and for the personal attack on Mr. Edwards that it represented. Ann Coulter is an embarrassment to conservatism and to the Republican party; it is my hope that she will no longer be invited to speak at CPAC or other conservative conferences, and that my fellow conservatives in government and in the media will make clear that she does not speak for them, nor for our party, nor for the conservative movement. I condemn Ann Coulter’s words, and I condemn the ignorant prejudices behind them, and do no intend to accept contributions or other offers of support from her or those of her hateful ilk, now or at any time during my campaign.”

What was so hard about that? Are McCain, Giuliani and Romney worried about offending those who support Ann Coulter, perhaps those few who applauded after she called Edwards a “faggot?” If so, why? If I ran for President, offending those people would be among my top priorities.

The election is still 19 months away, and it would be nice if someone running for President took a stand on something. The Republicans blew their chance with Ann Coulter here, which is frustrating—this was an easy one.

References:

1. “Ann Coulter Under Fire For Anti-Gay Slur,” cbs5.com

(http://cbs5.com/topstories/topstories_story_063205622.html)

2. “G.O.P. Candidates Criticize Slur by Conservative Author,” New York Times

(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/politics/04coulter.html?em&ex=1173157200&en=01c86fe9521cf152&ei=5087%0A)

3. Ibid.