The Coultergeist strikes again...

The thoroughly despicable Ann Coulter continues to spew her bile. During a recent speech given at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action conference, she was giving her opinion of candidates in the upcoming presidential race and remarked, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions," While it's unsurprising that a degenerate like Coulter would use such a disgusting slur, her remarks were followed by applause. How much lower can the current crop of neo-conservatives sink?

For me, the question remains: when will this repulsive clown's fifteen minutes be over? Her books Slander and Treason showed her to be a sharp-tongued, lying, debased shrew. Her most recent tome, Godless, demonstrated again her utter disregard for truth as well as revealed her to be an anti-science, anti-intellectual dim-bulb. She might well have titled it "Brainless"; at least it would have been a more accurate description of its contents.

But in spite of all of this she continues to have readers and supporters. At the Volokh conspiracy, commentator Orin Kerr notes:

If Ann Coulter were a liberal, conservatives would denounce her as a perfect symbol of how modern liberalism has lost all sense of decency. But Coulter's a conservative, so how does a conservative audience respond when Coulter makes a "faggot" joke about a Democratic Presidential candidate? With laughter and applause. Yes, laughter and applause. Just pathetic.

Indeed, it is pathetic. What in hell is going on? Doesn't common decency demand that we reject such hate-filled and blatantly dishonest rhetoric? Has the modern neo-conservative movement now completely abandoned even the pretense of holding the moral "high-ground"? Also at Volokh, Illya Somin writes,

When Coulter was fired by National Review back in 2001, I hoped that she would be rejected by most other mainstream conservatives, and swiftly fade into oblivion. Unfortunately, I was overly optimistic. While some conservatives - and perhaps more libertarians - have indeed rejected her, too many have not. The very fact that she was invited to address the Conservative Political Action Conference, a major movement conservative event, is a sign of her continued good standing for much of the right. The fact that the previous speaker - prominent Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney - praised her, is another. But perhaps it's not too late for those conservatives who continue to accept her to make up for lost time.

It should be noted that of the current Republican Presidential hopefuls, both John McCain and Mitt Romney's campaigns have issued statements disassociating themselves from her remarks. And Ed Brayton points out that The Malcontent has a list of conservative blogs and prominent Republicans who have rejected Coulter and her filth. While it's certainly a step in the right direction, the right has a long way to go in demonstrating that such bigotry isn't as common as many of us in the middle or left seem to think it might be...

HT: Dispatches from the Culture Wars (for links to the Volokh articles)

Update: Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan has numerous articles and links regarding this story at his blog. Well worth the visit...