Ask Ann about her dead soul

A rarity in the daily slander and agitprop that passes for journalism in this country, Elizabeth Edwards actually got the opportunity to confront one of the most loathsome practitioners of the black arts [transcript and video here].

Elizabeth Edwards confronted right-wing pundit Ann Coulter during a live interview on MSNBC this afternoon, charging that Coulter’s “personal attacks” on former senator John Edwards and others were based on “the language of hate.”

Yesterday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Coulter said, “[I]f I’m gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” She has previously called Edwards a “faggot.”

In 2003, she wrote a column claiming that John Edwards drove around with a bumper sticker saying Ask me about my son’s death in a horrific car accident.”

Over at Hairy Fish Nuts, Salvage asks the only question that can be asked regarding Coulter's hour-long "interview" on Chris Matthews "Hardball."

Who the fuck thinks that she's worth putting on TV? This isn't politics, she is truly a vile human being.

I don't know about the who the fuck but I do know about the why the fuck.

Oh, come on. Coulter is the best cheap (in all senses) programming around. The people who love her will watch; the people who hate her will watch. The ratings go up. The buzz goes really buzzy.

The point is to make it a level playing field. Having Elizabeth Edwards phone in is a start, but even better would be in-studio face-offs with the people Coulter so egregiously insults and slanders.

If the Today show is going to have Coulter on, humping a book in which she calls women who lost their husbands in the Twin Towers the "merry 9/11 widows," then one or two of those widows should be sitting right next to her, able to respond in real time.

If Coulter's going to be on these shows, she should at least always be paired up with one of her victims.

It's not much but it's a start.