EDWARDS MAKES A GOOD POINT

During the Schiavo controversy, I sent Slots Bennett the last guardian ad litem report which I got from Abstract Appeal. I thought that he would read it and correct his mistaken views on the issue but that did not happen. It hard for me to realize that people like Slots deliberately pander to the ignorant and, worse, help them stay ignorant, but that's where the money is. Here's what Edwards had to say on Hardball (6/27/07).

MATTHEWS: What do you make of someone who‘s a person who writes a column, went to Michigan Law School, has a fine education, apparently, from what I can tell, is quite a writer, a good writer, uses comments like, I hope that the terrorists kill this guy, things like that? What do you make of that stuff? Where does it come from?

JOHN EDWARDS: Well, it means a couple things. Number one, she‘s smart enough to know better. She knows exactly what she‘s doing. She‘s not alone. I mean, if you look at what she‘s doing and you look at what‘s happened in the past, for example, the Swift Boating of Senator Kerry, I mean, I think a lot of this is very coordinated, very calculated. They intend to create a result.

[snip]

MATTHEWS: Elizabeth had one—I think Elizabeth may have made one strategic error last night. That‘s assuming that she could get Ann Coulter to express shame.

JOHN EDWARDS: Yes, I don‘t think she has any shame. There‘s no doubt about that. And her response to any effort to raise the dialogue, to talk about things that people care about, is to attack in a mean, hateful, mean-spirited way. I think that‘s just the way she behaves. That‘s who she is. And I think that‘s a lot of what we see from these people who are just—that are crazy. I mean...

MATTHEWS: Yes.

JOHN EDWARDS: ... there‘s nothing remotely mainstream about them.
And normal people are repelled by them.

MATTHEWS: Well, how do you explain the fact that you see people with good educations walking around the streets of New York and Wall Street, people with big business jobs in equity firms—hedge fund people—all buying books by Ann Coulter?
How do you explain the fact that even last night‘s fight involving your wife, Elizabeth, and Ann Coulter probably helped her sell some more books to these kind of guys?

JOHN EDWARDS: Because I think there is a segment of the population that responds to this sort of hateful craziness. It‘s always been true, Chris. It‘s been true my whole lifetime.