Ann Coulter's 'Faggot' Remark Smears Mitt Romney Too

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted March 3, 2007.

The right-wing "slime bowl," the attacks by conservative media and surrogates to attempt to bang up Democratic politicians, had another big event Friday, at the meeting in Washington of the Conservative Political Action Conference. And this time the smell of Ann Coulter's hate speech is all over 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, an emerging darling of the Republican party.

Coulter, who spoke after Romney and was warmly acknowledged by him, essentially endorsed the former Governor of Massachusetts for president in her speech. But that's something he's probably already regretting because of her bigotry that concluded her talk:

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I -- so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards," Coulter said.

Shortly after the faggot remark, when responding to questions, Coulter said said that "Romney is the best candidate we have." She said Rudy Giuliani is too liberal -- "when both candidates for president support abortion I think we can hang it up as a country." After dumping on McCain, and saluting Gingrich as a brilliant guy who's time has passed she embraced Romney: "He tricked liberals into voting for him. I like a guy who hoodwinks the voters so easily."

McCain and others attacked Coulter's hate speech, and thus far, according to the New York Times, Romney has distanced himself from the remark, but not the hate spewer herself. Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told the press, "It was an offensive remark. Governor Romney believes all people should be treated with dignity and respect." One might expect that Romney would go further and help put the venemous Coulter out to pasture.

But in reality, this is all part of a dance and charade in which conservatives gleefully participate. As Glen Greenwald wrote on his blog on Salon:

... [T]he single most prestigious political event for conservatives of the year is a place where conservatives go to hear Democrats called faggots, Arabs called ragheads, and Supreme Court justices labeled as deserving of murder -- not by anonymous, unidentifiable blog commenters, but by one of their most popular featured speakers.

Greenwald was talking about Coulter, of course, and also wrote:

Everyone knows what a rancid hate-monger she is, yet (or rather: "therefore") she continues to be invited to the highest-level "conservative" events, be drooled on with admiration by presidential candidates like Mitt Romney, and have little right-wing warriors wait in line around the corner to get her signature on their copies of the books she wrote.

... The more delicate ones will claim to repudiate her comments in the most limited terms, but their actions speak far louder than their cursory and reluctant words. Anyone who went to this event -- and that includes Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Dick Cheney -- knew exactly what they would be getting. Coulter's face was prominently plastered on the promotional material. The right-wing political candidates who accepted the invitations to speak there knew exactly the type of people would be there -- namely, the type who continously cheer on Ann Coulter's bigoted and nakedly hateful screeds. Anyone who makes themselves a part of that event is purposely associating themselves with those sentiments. That is what this Conference is for.

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Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

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