Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Not Buying It   [Jonah Goldberg]

I have no problem with Elizabeth Edwards criticizing Ann Coulter or asking her to stop picking on her husband. What I don't buy is that this was an unscripted, unplanned, unpolitical gesture. Come on.:

Elizabeth Edwards said she did not consult her husband before confronting Coulter on the air, adding that she felt the pundit's remarks were "a dialogue on hatefulness and ugliness."

Riiiiight. She may not have talked to her husband, but the suggestion that this wasn't greenlighted or calculated by the campaign is laughable. Campaign spouses don't freelance like this. More to the point, John Edwards is imploding. And his last really good moment in the press was when Coulter called him a "faggot." It was dumb and distasteful, but it was also money in the bank for Edwards, who used it to further endear himself to the netroots base and to raise money on it. Elizabeth Edwards is — smartly — trying to change the subject back to Edwards as a victim of those mean rightwingers. It strikes me as a little desperate.

Update: It's not clear, but I think Jason Zengerle might actually believe the righteous citizen-wife spin.

Update II: From a reader:

Jonah,

When you quoted Elizabeth Edwards saying, "...she felt the pundit's remarks
were a dialogue on hatefulness and ugliness"  I thought she was talking
about John Edwards' official (though short lived) campaign blogress, Amanda
Marcotte.  I guess hatefullness and ugliness is in the ear of the beholder.
 

06/27 09:58 AMShare