Ann Coulter -- Elizabeth Edwards Smackdown

Chris Matthews and MSNBC's low-rated Hardball are actually getting some attention.

Democrat hack Matthews allowed the John Edwards campaign to exploit an appearance by Ann Coulter on Tuesday's show.

Was Elizabeth Edwards sitting around the big house, watching Hardball when she decided to try to get through and confront Coulter? Was this a spontaneous bit of political drama?

Hardly.

Things like that don't just happen. They are made to happen.

David Shuster, Hardball correspondent, explains how Elizabeth Edwards managed to call into the show and challenge guest Ann Coulter.

While the campaign was raising money, Elizabeth Edwards decided to confront Coulter herself on Tuesday's "Hardball." Every major blog and Web site that covers politics and covers the news has featured the video of that phone call—from The Drudge Report, Huffingtonpost, TV Newser. And the downloads keep coming on YouTube.

So how did the Ann Coulter-lizabeth Edwards confrontation happen?

Before Tuesday’s Hardball appearance, MSNBC and MSNBC.com promoted that viewer comments and questions would be part of the program.

According to Hardball executive producer Tammy Haddad: “The Edwards campaign called to ask if it was possible that Elizabetth could talk to Ann Coulter live on the air. And we told them yes.”

In turn, Haddad had a conversation with Coulter. “I talked to Ann before the show and told her we had gotten a call from the Edwards campaign and that Elizabeth might call in and she was fine with it,” she says.

In the third block of the show, Elizabeth Edwards was patched in. This morning, the confrontation got more air time on the Today Show. On the show, Chris weighed in, saying “In human terms, Elizabeth Edwards has won this round.”

There was nothing spontaneous about the call.

The Edwards campaign was merely carrying out it's TV Blitzkrieg strategy targeting Coulter.

The week began with John and Elizabeth Edwards appearing together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, all folksy and likable and down to earth.

Tuesday, the Edwards campaign played the victim card, using Ann Coulter's Hardball appearance as a pity ploy.

Transcript excerpts:

MATTHEWS: You know who is on the line? Somebody to respond to what you said about Edwards yesterday morning. Elizabeth Edwards. She wanted to call in today. We said she could. Elizabeth Edwards, go on the line. You‘re on the line with Ann Coulter.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, WIFE OF JOHN EDWARDS: Hello, Chris.

MATTHEWS: Do you want to say something directly to the person who is with me?

EDWARDS: I‘m calling—you know, in the South, we—when someone does something that displeases us, we want to ask them politely to stop doing it.

I would like to ask Ann Coulter to—if she wants to debate on issues, on positions, we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today. But—but it is quite another matter to—for these personal attacks.

That‘s—the things that she has said over the years, not just about John, but about other candidates, is—lowers our—our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it.

So, I—I want to use the opportunity, which I don‘t get much, because Ann and I don‘t hang out with the same people—to ask...

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: ... have enough money.

EDWARDS: .... her politely to stop the personal attacks.

COULTER: OK. So, I made a joke, let‘s see, six months ago. And, as you point out, they have been raising money off of it for six months, since then.

MATTHEWS: But this is yesterday morning, what you said about him.

COULTER: I didn‘t say anything about him, actually, either time.

EDWARDS: Ann knows—you know that‘s not true. And, what‘s more, this has been going on for some time.

COULTER: And I don‘t mind you trying to raise money. I mean, it‘s better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor...

EDWARDS: I‘m asking you—I‘m asking you politely...

COULTER: ... just to use my name on the Web pages. But, as for a debate with me, yes, sure.

EDWARDS: I‘m asking you politely...

COULTER: Yes, we will have a debate.

EDWARDS: ... to stop—to stop personal attacks.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: How about you stop raising money on your Web page, then?

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: No, you don‘t have to, because I don‘t mind.

(CROSSTALK)

EDWARDS: It did not start with that. You had a column a number of years ago...

COULTER: Great. OK.

EDWARDS: ... where you suggested that...

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: The wife of a presidential candidate is calling in, asking me to stop speaking?

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Let her finish the point. Let her finish the point.

COULTER: You‘re asking me to stop speaking? Stop writing your columns. Stop writing your books.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Ann, please.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTER: OK.

EDWARDS: You had a column a couple of years ago which—which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean‘s death, and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said, “Ask me about my dead son.”

COULTER: That‘s now three years ago.

EDWARDS: This is not legitimate political dialogue. It debases political dialogue. It drives people away from the process. We can‘t have a debate about issues if you‘re using this kind of language.

COULTER: Yes, why isn‘t John Edwards making this call?

MATTHEWS: Well, do you want to respond? We will end this conversation.

EDWARDS: I have not talked to John about this call.

COULTER: I think this is just another attempt for...

EDWARDS: I‘m making this call as a mother. I‘m the mother of that boy who died. My children participate. These young people behind you are the age of my children. You‘re asking them to participate in a dialogue that is based on hatefulness and ugliness, instead of on the issues.

And I don‘t—I don‘t think that is serving them or this country very well.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

MATTHEWS: Thank you very much, Elizabeth Edwards.

Do you want to—you have all the time in the world to respond to that.

COULTER: I think we heard all we need to hear. The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking.

No.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: No, she said you should stop being so negative to people individually.

(CROSSTALK)

COULTER: Right, as opposed to bankrupting doctors by giving a shyster Las Vegas routine in front of juries, based on science...

MATTHEWS: OK.

COULTER: Wait. You said I would have as long as I would have.

MATTHEWS: Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

COULTER: And you instantly interrupt me.

MATTHEWS: Go ahead. Go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTER: As I was saying, doing these psychic routines in front of illiterate juries to bankrupt doctors, who now can‘t deliver babies, and to charge a poverty group $50,000 for a speech. Don‘t talk to me about how to use language.

MATTHEWS: Elizabeth.

EDWARDS: ... language of hate. And I am going to ask you again to politely stop using personal attacks as part of your dialogue.

COULTER: OK, I will stop writing books.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Why do you talk about...

(CROSSTALK)

EDWARDS: If you can‘t write them without them, then that is fine.

Surprise, surprise!

Mrs. Edwards' performance just happened to be one of the seeds of a large fundraising effort. Operation Ann Coulter would be a fitting name for it.

It was a clearly calculated move.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to "hateful" comments from conservative author Ann Coulter.

Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter's suggestion that she wished he would be "killed in a terrorist assassination plot." His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails and a telephone text message to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.

...In the e-mails, the campaign asked supporters to send donations to defy her remarks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter. The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC's "Good Morning America," where she made the comments on Monday.

...Mrs. Edwards followed up with an e-mail to supporters Wednesday morning that included a clip of the [Edwards/Coulter] exchange and a donation request. The campaign also sent a text message to supporters' cell phones, asking them to call to hear a recording of the clip and an appeal from Mrs. Edwards to donate. The campaign said it raised more money this week than from any previous e-mail campaign but declined to give a total.

It seems to me that the Edwards campaign did the very thing that they were accusing Ann Coulter of doing.

The Edwards campaign shamelessly chose to exploit the death of Charlie Dean, the Edwards' son, to raise money.

There's something very twisted about John and Elizabeth Edwards' orchestrated outrage over Ann Coulter. I'm sure comments made by Coulter about the death of their son have been hurtful. But this wasn't about that pain. It was about seizing her remarks to rake in cash.

Then, shock of shocks! John Edwards was on Hardball Wednesday to discuss Tuesday's drama.

Democrat hack Matthews sounded like he was a paid worker on the Edwards campaign.

He didn't challenge Edwards when he clearly was misleading about how his wife just happened to call up and do battle with Ann Coulter. He didn't say a word about the set up.

When Matthews asked Edwards why he didn't call into the show to challenge Coulter, Edwards said, "The simple answer to that is Elizabeth I guess heard, and heard her and knew she was on, and called in. So I thought it was appropriate that I come on today.... Elizabeth made this decision on her own to call in."

He certainly makes it sound like it was spontaneous. That, of course, isn't true.

I think it's pretty pathetic that Edwards' campaign must be floundering so badly that it's necessary to resort to playing off of the Left's hate for Coulter as a means to raise money.

What's the deal? Isn't the "two Americas" thing resonating with the public? Do they think that running on an anti-Coulter agenda would be more effective?

Edwards accused Coulter of making comments "calculated to create an emotional response. They're calculated to make people hate."

Flip that around. This whole thing is a coordinated effort on the part of the Edwards campaign. Edwards is counting on an emotional response and trying to benefit by getting people to hate Coulter. He hopes slamming Coulter translates into campaign donations.

Matthews, total Dem mouthpiece that he is, said that Elizabeth may have made a strategic error by assuming she could get Ann Coulter to express shame.

Oh, give me a break!

Edwards responded on cue, "I don't think she has any shame. There's no doubt about that."

He went on, "These people are crazies. There's nothing remotely mainstream about them, and normal people are repelled by them."

GAG!!!

Where does John Edwards get off lecturing about Coulter's lack of shame?

John Edwards is synonymous with no shame.

This was all about raising money, not raising the level of political discourse.

Check out Edwards' website.

The Right Wing Attacks!
Tuesday evening Elizabeth Edwards called Ann Coulter live on Hardball to ask for an end to her personal attacks on John and other candidates. Coulter's response? More personal attacks.

It's up to us to raise the dialogue by taking our message straight to voters. Let's show that Ann Coulter style politics will never carry the day. We have 4 days to reach $9 million. Please donate today:

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Good grief.

No shame. No shame at all.