Time to cut Coulter off cold turkey

Well the attention addicted harpie known as Ann Coulter is getting what she wanted. She's made the buzz in day two of the news cycle and succeeded in making the CPAC crowd look like loathsome fools in order to promote her own interests. Andy Sullivan pretty well sums up this blemish on the neo-conservative movement.

That's the base. It's a party that wants nothing to do with someone like me. All I heard and saw was loathing: loathing of Muslims, of "illegals," of gays, of liberals, of McCain. The most painful thing for me was the sight of so many young people growing up believing that this is conservatism. I feel like an old-style Democrat in 1968.

Some prominent rightwing bloggers are ramping up their criticism, including Captain Ed who updates his previous post and makes a good point on free speech but misses the mark on his analogy to Amanda Marcotte.

First, criticizing Coulter's use of the word "faggot" is not a suppression of free speech; it is an exercise of free speech. We're not advocating her arrest for using the word. We're just saying it was stupid, unnecessary, and hateful. This is no different than Melissa McEwan calling Christians "Christofascist Godbags" and Amanda Marcotte's incendiary hate speech about Catholics. We howled about that when John Edwards hired them; why do we defend Coulter's appearance at CPAC?

I've read a dozen or so right wing posts this morning and this analogy to the attack on Marcotte is a common thread emerging among some of the bigger voices, but as I pointed out in a comment at The Moderate Voice, it's not a valid comparison.

Some anonymous nutcase commenters at HuffPo and even Ms. Marcotte are not making millions on speaking engagements, television appearances and hate-mongering books filled with falsehoods. They don’t make the cover of Time magazine. There is no comparison to be made.

It’s ridiculous to contend Coulter doesn’t represent the face and voice of conservatives when they have promoted her “work” for so long. The right elevated her by excusing her hateful schtick as “comedy.” It’s up to them to take her down...

Another commenter suggests the comparison is valid because money doesn't matter and Marcotte was being made a spokesperson for the Edwards campaign but that's just silly. As I replied:

How many people would recognize Amanda Marcotte on the street? How many do you think would recognize Coulter? I'm sorry you simply can't compare their reach and Amanda was hardly being made the spokesperson for Edwards. She was going to run his blog, not hold press briefings and appear on talking head programs. I remind you the great majority of Americans don't get their news or views from blogs yet.

Meanwhile, I’m with Joe. Ignoring her trollish behaviour is the surest way to defang her. From this day forward, The Impolitic is a Coulter-free zone.

Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House also has a good post that expands on what steps conservatives could take to remove this ugly wart from the face of conservatism and cure civil society of her cancerous rhetoric. The short version is stop feeding the beast and starve her of the attention she so craves.

I’m encouraged to see concrete action like this suggested. I hope Rick's compatriots in Rightopia follow through despite the fact they would have to appear to “agree” with the left to do so. If there was ever a time to put personal ideology aside in the interests of civilized debate, this would be it. All of America would benefit if this low class, shock jock styled, stand up "comedian" stops being treated as a serious political commentator.

Update: Captain Fogg takes a different view and suggests we allow the beast to live and let the neo-con movement die on the claws of the monster they created, but I have to agree with Moran. The left is complicit in creating her stature by taking her seriously enough to criticize her at great length. I think it only fair that we join forces in knocking her down.