Sullivan on Coulter Part II

Andrew Sullivan at his best.

I watched Ann Coulter last night in the gayest way I could. I was on a stairmaster at a gym, slack-jawed at her proud defense of calling someone a "faggot" on the same stage as presidential candidates and as an icon of today's conservative movement. The way in which Fox News and Sean Hannity and, even more repulsively, Pat Cadell, shilled for her was a new low for Fox, I think - and for what remains of decent conservatism. "We're all friends here," Hannity chuckled at the end. Yes, they were. And no faggots were on the show to defend themselves. That's fair and balanced.

On Andrew Sullivan

Look, Ann Coulter is a vicious bigot, or at least she plays one on TV. So it is no surprise to see the attacks coming toward her, even from the right.

But this Andrew Sullivan comment on the matter is rather troubling.

I'm not being an hysteric about Coulter. Republicans, if they are serious about reaching the people they lost in 2006, need to start distancing themselves from her. She's their Michael Moore.

Now, there are certainly plenty of valid critiques of Michael Moore's style, and reasonable people can disagree about his politics. But to say that there is anything close to a moral equivalence between Moore and Coulter -- a racist, homophobic, simpleton -- is beyond absurd.

Sullivan discredits himself when he engages in this kind of McCarthyite nonsense.