Uh, no, tommy. Wrong as usual. Check the returns. In every case where the Dems took a seat from the GOP, it was because the Democrats pretended to be center-right candidates. In other words, people like Heath Shuler and Patrick Murphy won because they took pains to sound more like Sister Toldjah than Nancy Pelosi. Problem with that is, you can’t pull off the same trick twice. Not once you have that Pelosi-like voting record haunting you two years later.

Also, notice tommy votes for the ‘party’, not the candidate. He’s admitting he has no thought process and just mindlessly pulls the Dem lever.

So, since you were out of action, tommy, let me bring you up to date on some of the news you might have missed in the past week:

– Hillary and Obama are having a major spitting match. Even a big time liberal donor like David Geffen now admits the Clintons were, and are, shameless liars.

– The global warming hysteria is in full retreat, Al-Gore has been exposed as an energy-wasting hypocrite, and the excuse of ‘carbon offsets’ couldn’t pass the laugh test has been reduced to a punch line.

– American troops involved in the ’surge’ in Iraq are having great success, to the dismay of islamofascists and their liberal allies everywhere.

– The Dems in control of Congress are (like Tommy) incapable of figuring out exactly what they want to do most to help AQ. However, they have agreed that allowing secret ballots in elections is a bad thing.

Every one of these will have much more impact that anything Coulter said last week, but don’t worry about that. Just keep on giggling into the bong.

Perhaps if she had keen insight and a rapier wit, her cutting barbs might be endurable. But Coulter’s “humor” slices like a shard from a Mountain Dew bottle found on a meth lab floor. Her remarks leave jagged gashs that grow infected and fester with pus, infecting all of us in the process.

Conservatism deserves better, deserves more civility and less Coulter. The fact that she is tolerated–much less admired–by conservatives is evidence that we have lost our philosophical moorings. If the Big Tent of conservatism really has room for the likes of Coulter, then it might just be time to close this circus down.

You can read more here.

1. I confess to liking Ann more than ST does. When she’s on her game, there’s no one better at giving the libs fits and getting under their skin. Quotes like this are absolute gold:

Liberals spent the Vietnam War rooting for the enemy and clamoring for America’s defeat, a tradition they have brought back for the Iraq war.

Or this:

The only way to get Democrats to focus on terrorists would be to convince them that the terrorists are interfering with a woman’s right to choose or that commercial jetliners exploding in midair are a threat to America’s wetlands.

You’ve got to admit she’s saying what we all know to be true – but with an edginess that cuts to the core of the issue. And with a good amount of ridicule. Ridicule, once established, is an effective political tool. Ask Dan Quayle.

2. That said, there are times when I want her to Just. Shut. Up. This was one of those times. When she stops talking about overtly political issues and crosses over into into social topics, she has a tendency to go off the deep end.

3. Thinking over similar incidents, the closest analogy is Al Gore’s “extra chromosome” comment. It was a direct assault on people afflicted with a serious disease and showed his lack of compassion and the depth of his bigotry. But here’s the key point: how did this hurt him? Answer: not at all. And we’re talking about their nominee for President, not a mere columnist. Face it – libs will continue to be more intemperate. Hate is their stock in trade (see Bill Maher as their most recent exhibit A). Michael Moore can say worse than Ann Coulter and get VIP seating at their convention.

4. So as much as this comment made me cringe, it’s a tempest in a teacup. A year from now, when the Guiliani, McCain, Romney and other forces are at full steam heading for battle in the Iowa fields and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, no one will care about it. Unless she gives a repeat performance.

Conclusion: we’d have been best served by not playing it up as much – but quietly telling her to cool it, and disinviting her from any role in any gatherings. CPAC 08, for example, should pull the welcome mat now. I’m not arguing that we should ignore, excuse, or, God forbid, encourage such comments. Just handle it behind the scenes and stop flagellating ourselves so much.

Here’s my real concern: as a fallout from dumb comments like this, we develop a fear of saying anything too strong. It’s an old adage that politics ain’t beanbag. If we observe the Marquis of Queensberry rules while the libs are kicking us below the belt, we’re going to lose. You can make a good case that this has already happened in some elections. Eventually, the meek will inherit the earth, but that time isn’t now. As Margaret Thatcher once said in another context, this is no time to go wobbly. I don’t want the reaction to Coulter’s ill-conceived remark to spill over to where we get nervous anytime the libs whine – VP Cheney’s recent comments on the Democrats’ Iraq strategy, for example.

Your Bill Bennet reference was a good choice in that it, too, was not a negative comment about a person or persons. Once again, referring to the clip everone is showing, she did NOT call Edwards a faggot. I can’t imagine her using the term for an actual homosexual, thus, I don’t believe she used the word to infer anything about Edwards. I reviewed the comments from your link regarding past posts about Coulter, and one of your visitors nailed it: Her humor is not for everyone. But the point is that she says these harsh things mostly in jest. Her real issue with her target is something else. But her schtick is much like Don Rickles. Rickles is far more direct and one wonders how his targets can ever really be laughing along. But we KNOW he’s kidding because he’s a comedian. At this point in her career, it should be obvious to everyone the style Coulter employs and lighten up. I think it would be quite obvious if she trashed someone for real. And then I WOULD object.

Just the same, it’s fun to watch the libs get the vapors. As if they really care about the feelings of Edwards or gays. It’s just a chance to slam a conservative.

If we didn’t have our collective butt cheeks in such a clinch, we’d recognize this as a joke. And a finely crafted joke, at that.

Ann can say whatever she pleases. I’ll defend her right to do her shtick, TFM just reserves the right to call her a Knucklehead when appropriate.

This flap is because of Bill Maher’s remarks on wanting the suicide bomber to have killed Cheney in Afghanistan. They are just trying to cover for their wingnuts.

Jeff’s argument seems to be the ’she has a right to say it’ and ‘I should be under no obligation to condemn it.’ But this isn’t really an issue of whether or not someone has the right to say something but whether or not it’s right to say, and it’s also not an issue of the right feeling like they have to condemn something ‘before’ the left takes them to task, but instead being consistent in taking their own to task just like they would the far left.

Jeff Goldstein says it much better than I have.

If I see something I feel is inappropriate, I make no apologies for condemning it whether it’s a liberal or conservative making the comment, no matter who it affects – whether it’s the troops, the gay community, or what have you. If we want to set high standards for civil discourse we have to be willing to abide by them, even when it means taking one of our own to task. If not, we risk looking like hypocrites and not just amongst each other.

I have defended conservatives like Bill Bennett for making remarks the ususal suspects found ‘hateful’ but in actuality were not (remember the abortion and black people comment he made a couple of years ago)? There was so much manufactured hype about those comments that even the administration came out and condemned them, which I thought was wrong. I’ve even defend Ann Coulter herself a couple of times on this blog. But I won’t defend her, nor any other conservative, who uses useless unhelpful rhetoric that I’d take a far lefty to task for. Uncalled for remarks are uncalled for, no matter who is saying them.

Possibly dissing the gay community by equating it with Edwards at a Republican beauty pageant, a year and a half before the election?

I don’t see how it matters.

And on something being “what a person does” and thus not worthy of comment, I guess conservatives should ignore the far left’s (like Michael Moore, Bill Maher, etc) idiocy as well, because ‘that’s what they do’? If so, then probably 50% of my posts at this blog I should not have ever written.

We get rightly outraged when the left goes over the top, and I never see a single complaint when the right calls them to task in several posts, but when the right takes their own to task, all of a sudden it’s wrong and the equivalent of having a tantrum and being too PC?

To quote the most under-read blogger in the history of blogging:

It’s. What. She. Does. Ignore her.

Where do you think the MSM got the story that thy’re running? I posit they got it from the OUTRAGED!!!1!!1! bloggers on the right.