Elizabeth Edwards phoned into Hardball last night as Chris Matthews hotsed an hour long Love Fest with Ann Coulter.ÂÂ
At CPAC, Coulter basically called Edwards a “Faggot” and on Good Morning America this week, Coulter said when she refers to Edwards in the future, it would be to wish he were killed in a terrorist attack. The worst of it was a Coluter column from three years ago when Coulter “joked” (if I can even say that) that Edwards had a bumper sticker on his car that read “Ask Me About My Son’s Death in a Horrific Car Accident.”
Elizabeth Edwards called in to ask Ann to stop with the personal attacks as it lowers and debases the political dialogue. Ann viewed it as Edwards asking her not to speak, which isn’t what she said.
You can see the YouTube video here:
[ev type=”youtube” data=”6xYcUQiJ3sk”][/ev]
Here’s a Transcript:
MATTHEWS: You know who’s on the line? Someone to respond to what you said about Edwards yesterday morning. Elizabeth Edwards. She wanted to call in today, we said she could. Elizabeth Edwards, go on the line. You’re on the line with Ann Coulter.
E: Hello Chris.
M: Do you want to say something directly to the person who’s with me?
E: I’m calling  you know, in the south, when someone does something that displeases us, we want to ask them politely to stop doing it. I would like to ask Ann Coulter to  if she wants to debate on issues, on positions  we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today  but it is quite another matter for these personal attacks. The things that she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity, which I don’t get much because Ann and I don’t hang out with the same people…
C: I don’t have enough money.
E: …to ask her politely stop the personal attacks.
C: Okay, so I made a joke, let’s see, six months ago, and as you point out, they have been raising money off of it for six months since then.
M: But this is yesterday morning, what you said about him.
C: I didn’t say anything about him, actually, either time.
E: But that  Ann, Ann, you know that’s not true, and once more, this has been going on for some time.
C: And I don’t mind you trying to raise money. It’s better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor just to use my name on the webpages. But as for a debate with me, yeah, sure. Yeah, we’ll have a debate.
E: I’m asking you politely to stop, to stop personal attacks –
C: How about you stop raising money on your web page then? No, you don’t have to because I don’t mind.
E: I did not start with that. You had a column a number of years ago where you suggested  wait till I finish talking please…
C: Okay, the wife of a presidential candidate is calling in asking me to stop speaking.
M: Let her finish the point. Let her finish the point.
C: You’re asking me to stop speaking? “Stop writing your columns. Stop writing your books.â€Â
M: Ann, please.
E: You had a column several years ago which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean’s death and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car saying, “Ask me about my dead son.†This is not legitimate political dialogue.
C: This is now three years ago.
E: It debases political dialogue. It drives people away from the process. We can’t have a debate about the issues.
C: Yeah, why isn’t John Edwards making this call?
M: Well, do you want to respond? We’ll end the conversation.
E: I haven’t talked to John about this call. I’m making the call as a mother. I’m the mother of that boy who died. My children participate  these young people behind you are the age of my children. You’re asking them to participate in a dialogue that is based on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues, and I don’t think that’s serving them or this country very well.
[Applause]
M: Thank you very much Elizabeth. You wanna respond? You have all the time in the world to respond.
C: I think we heard all we need to hear. The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking. No.
M: No, she asked you to stop being so negative to people individually.
C: Right, as opposed to bankrupting doctors by giving a schyster Las Vegas routine in front of juries based on science  wait, you said I’d have as long as I would have, then you instantly interrupt me.
M: Go ahead, go ahead.
C: As I was saying, doing these psychic routines in front of illiterate juries to bankrupt doctors who now can’t deliver babies, and to charge a poverty group $50,000 for a speech. Don’t talk to me about how to use language.
M: Elizabeth?
E: …the language of hate, and I’m going to ask you again to politely stop using personal attacks as part of your dialogue.
C: Okay, I’ll stop writing books.
E: If you can’t write them without them, that is fine.
M: Why do you call out Hillary’s chubby legs in your book? Why do you  this may fall under the category of personal attacks, I don’t know, but why do you do that? Why do you talkabout Monica Lewinsky’s chubbiness? If she were skinny, would it have been okay?
C: Um, I don’t know, read the sentence.
E: I read the whole sentence. I couldn’t feel the context.
C: Well you have to give it to me and I could explain.
E: Why do you make fun of Hillary’s chubby legs?
C: I don’t know, you’re going to have to give me the sentence.
M: It’s in the afterword of your book, I just read it this morning.
C: Then read the sentence.
M: We’ll be back and read the entire sentence. We’ll come right back. I don’t know why we’re reading  the full intellectual context will be coming in just a moment.
From friends who met the Edwards’ in Irvine Monday, they are a classy and principaled couple.ÂÂ
Okay regardless of how we feel about her opinions, can we at least agree that Ann Coulter is an attractive woman?
No; I don’t find her attractive. I can’t get past the pronounced Adam’s Apple.
There is truely no place or justification for that behavior as long as the media considers her a political voice. The comments regarding a parents loss of a child can only be described as disgusting.
Richard Rios
http://www.californiaforthompson.com
-From the Right
I don’t know why anyone gives (M)ann Coulter the time of day. She makes Limbaugh look like a nice guy.
S/he is not a journalist and could use some Imus handling.
Thank you Richard Rios for holding people on your end of the spectrum accountable when they make terrible comments like that. Even though we may not agree on many issues, I do respect you.
Jim Bieber, you sure do have a thing for Ann. If you can get around the Adams Apple, why don’t you try for a hook up. She is single.
“harpy” “Adams Apple”
I’m so glad you are following the advise of Dear Sweet Mrs. Edwards and not engaging in personal attacks that “lowers our political dialogue”
For yucks, google ann+coulter+c@#$ and you’ll find 120,000+ websites from kind thoughtful liberals sharing their hateful comments.
Go on Air America and everyday “hosts” and guests are spewing venom 100 times worst than anything Coulter has ever said or written.
Jim —
please refrain from language like this in your comments. I have edited this out.
While you’re at it, please go to MargaretCho.com and read the comments from conservatives about her performance done for MoveOn.org. Nasty. Hateful and racist.
Adam’s Apple is not a personal attack. Its an observation. And your comment had to do with if we find her attractive or not. And your firm specializes in lowering political dialogue Jim; as for Ann Coulter, she invites attacks on her character. It sells more books. She is an embarrassment to your cause.
I listen to Air America all the time. You’re way off the mark or you don’t think the things Coulter says are that bad.
Beauty is as beauty does, and what Ms. Coulter does is a bizarre, venomous form of entertainment that is an embarassment to her gender as well as her species.
She remains a great spokesperson for the Republican party, which has abandoned principals for politics, and coalesces only around their hatred of liberals. After six years of corruption, mismanagement, lies, contempt for our Constitution, and letting our kids bleed out in the desert to satisfy neocon chickenhawks, that’s all they have left.
And your firm specializes in lowering political dialogue Jim;
Whhhaaaaaa????
Where did that come from? I facilitate democracy. I help candidates express their views, their records and those of their opponents. Don’t attempt to disparage what I do – there’s a whole bunch if samples of my work on my web site including several negative or attack mailers. None of them “lowers’ the political dialogue. What’s so offensive, where do you get off making that charge?
I’ve been very civil in my comments – do I need to post on your site and engage you and your six friends in debate? Nah.
Enjoy talking to yourselves.
Oh no, don’t leave. Who will tell us how wise and beautiful Anne Coulter is?
Sorry, but I find negative ads and attacks ads distasteful. It adds nothing to a race and just means your positives can’t go higher. Did the Swift Boat ads facilitate Democracy even after they were all debunked?
I’m not surprised you’re an Ann Coulter fan.
“And your firm specializes in lowering political dialogue”
Sorry Dan, I don’t have a desire to lower the political dialogue (like my firm does in the real world of politics) on your web site.
“attacks ads distasteful. It adds nothing to a race and just means your positives can’t go higher.”
I have never heard a more sophomoric ignorant comment from someone who follows campaigns and politics. It leaves me speechless.
Enjoy debating yourselves – I am going to stop wasting my time corresponding.
Geez Jim, the last positive Republican campaign I can remember was Ronald Reagan in 1984; since then, it’s all about dragging Democrats down. Gotta be tough for you guys now. All you have to sell is fear.