While he makes a surprisingly good point, in his thesis that Coulter and Maureen Dowd are cut from the same cloth, Daily Howler does go on a bit about it. He could have made the same point in two or three cogent paragraphs, instead of banging on for pages and pages, chewing the same cud.
I used to like Dowd, but I began to tire of her during the Gore/Bush presidential campaign. Her brand of ad hominem writing begins to cloy after a while, especially when she starts filling column after column with whimsy, like the dialogues between Gore and his bald spot. That said, I would not go so far as DH, by painting her into the same odious corner as Coulter. Dowd has become captive to her celebrity status, you get the feeling that she is playing to her adoring audience. Coulter, on the other hand, is stuffed to the gunwales with hatred and contempt for anyone who doesn’t agree with her neo-con rantings, so she lashes out with the most hurtful and sleazy words that come to mind. She’s like the kid in the playground who, mad as hell, blurts out “and you’re an old poopy-head!”
Unfortunately, the Republican propaganda machine, as re-tooled by Karl Rove, has perfected the art of slinging baseless insults at opponents and then moving on swiftly (’scuse the pun), confident that sufficient numbers of the base are dumb enough to believe anything and will vote accordingly. So, should Edwards make it to the final cut, some blue-state Republican stalwart will look at the ballot, see his name and think, “Didn’t I hear somewhere that he’s a faggot? I’m not putting one o’ them in the White House, no sirree.” Which moves Coulter’s playground-style slagging onto another plane of harm altogether.
So you’re tiring of Dowd. Who cares?
Obviously you do, or you wouldn’t bother to respond.