Coulter Explains Further

On Hannity and Colmes last night, Ann Coulter explained her "joke" with this:

Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays.

And:

It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."

Really? "Faggot" having nothing to do with gays? I am assuming at least a few members of Pittsburgh's gay community read this blog. Can I get a ruling from the judges? Is it true that "faggot" is not an anti-gay slur?

Anyway since language expert Ann is claiming that "faggot=wuss", what does "wuss" mean? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "wuss" is probably a combination of "wimp" and "pussy" and it means:

A person regarded as weak or timid and especially as unmanly

The term itself is a sexist insult. A man is a wuss if he's acting like a weak woman. Not sure if Ann's gained any ground on that one. Especially if she's saying that that's also the definition of "faggot."

Ann also tried to dance around the issue by saying that it was a joke about rehab - and how in Hollywood people go to rehab for alot of stupid reasons. But let's analyse the joke:

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.

If you look closely, she's saying that she can't talk about Edwards, because in her comments she wants to use a particular term - but if she used that word, she'd have to go into rehab.

See? The joke is about the word faggot.

Crooks and Liars has the clip.