Three Leading GOP Campaigns Condemn Coulter's Remarks
Less than a day after Ann Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot" at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the three leading Presidential candidates denounced Coulter for her insult:
Three of the leading Republican presidential candidates on Saturday denounced one of their party’s best-known conservative commentators for using an antigay epithet when discussing a Democratic presidential contender at a gathering of conservatives here.The remarks by Ann Coulter, an author who regularly speaks at conservative events, were sharply denounced by the candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Their statements came after Democrats, gay rights groups and bloggers raised a storm of protest over the remarks. ...
Of the major Republican candidates, only Mr. McCain did not attend, but he denounced her remarks on Saturday morning. “The comments were wildly inappropriate,” said his spokesman, Brian Jones.
Mr. Giuliani said, “The comments were completely inappropriate and there should be no place for such name-calling in political debate.”
Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. Romney, said: “It was an offensive remark. Governor Romney believes all people should be treated with dignity and respect.”
Coulter sent an e-mail to the Times claiming that "it was a joke," and that she wouldn't think of insulting gays by comparing them to John Edwards. It's a non-sequitur. We know she wanted to tell a joke, because that's what she does -- insult people through comedic name-calling. She probably meant "ragheads" as a joke last year, too. That's not the point -- and she knows it.
I had heard at CPAC from a couple of the campaigns to expect announcements about Coulter's remarks. Frankly, a failure to condemn this remark would have been problematic for any candidate who attended the conference, but it would have been the worst for Romney. He introduced her rather enthusiastically [see below], and she mentioned her inclination to support him during the same speech.
John Edwards has started using the video clip as a fundraising tool, and Howard Dean used the incident to bash Republicans more, but the real winner of this incident is ... John McCain. McCain didn't attend the conference and got excoriated by conservatives for this decision. He can point to the Coulter remark as an excuse for bypassing CPAC by calling it an extremist venue that he was correct to avoid. It's not true -- most of the CPAC attendees abhorred Coulter's remark when informed of it -- but he won't win their support now anyway, and it makes for a good ex post facto excuse.
UPDATE: Marcus in the comments questions whether Romney introduced Coulter enthusiastically, and Kathryn Jean Lopez questioned earlier today whether Romney introduced her at all. Good points both. Kathryn states, rather convincingly, that it's just proper manners to mention the following speaker, and that it's not an introduction in any formal sense. "A good thing" isn't all that enthusiastic, either, although it's certainly polite.
It's probably a better idea to focus more on Coulter's invitation from CPAC to speak there in the first place, rather than associate Coulter to a particular candidate because of CPAC's scheduling.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on March 3, 2007 5:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (5)
