On Caldara program, Coulter called John Edwards "the very definition of faggy"

While discussing a National Enquirer article claiming that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has an illegitimate child with "his mistress," a "blonde divorcée," frequent guest and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter told Newsradio 850 KOA host and Independence Institute President Jon Caldara during his July 23 broadcast, "I just think John Edwards is an incredibly creepy individual and the very definition of faggy." Coulter's homophobic remark echoed her reference to Edwards as a "faggot" during a 2007 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Coulter did not directly respond to Caldara's later question, "Can't [Edwards] also make it very clear that you use the adjective 'faggy,' but he's got a wife and a mistress; how much more does he have to prove to you that he's not faggy?"

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Coulter and Caldara have joked on KOA about Coulter's homophobic slurs, and Caldara defended Coulter's previous attack on Edwards, made when she stated during her March 2, 2007, CPAC speech that she "can't really talk about" Edwards because "you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.' " Caldara described the epithet as "a joke that just didn't have a solid point of reference."

From the July 23 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALDARA: At least his mistress is blond. There's something to be said for that. So Ann Coulter, very excited --

COULTER: Yes, I'm sure that's a great comfort to his cancer-ridden wife. Whom he expressed loud loyalty to when he was running for president.

CALDARA: Maybe the wife's OK with this. Possible?

COULTER: So, anyway, back on planet Earth.

CALDARA [laughs]: Back on planet Earth.

CALDARA: All right. Now that this is on Drudge, and it's of course on the National Enquirer --

COULTER: It's all over the Internet. I can't believe you didn't know about this.

CALDARA: I was --

COULTER: It's all over the Internet. You better have been in a coma for the last six months.

CALDARA: That part, yeah. No, that part I've seen. But today's revelation -- I didn't see.

COULTER: All over the Internet. And it's interesting. I mean, it's a weird new world where, gosh, it's so surprising that, you know, The New York Times' profit went down 86 percent the last quarter. You know, newspapers, the old media, is completely losing readers, ad revenue, profits. They're laying off employees like mad, and they're all standing around like Mickey's dunce: "Huh, I wonder why people go to the Internet for news? No, we won't cover the Elizabeth Edwards-John Edwards story."

CALDARA: You think this one's going to get any coverage now that there's more proof? Let me rephrase --

COULTER: I mean, it's --

CALDARA: Will any, quote, mainstream paper pick this up tomorrow?

COULTER: I doubt it. I doubt it; I doubt it. We'll see. And, by the way, beyond the fact that I just think John Edwards is an incredibly creepy individual and the very definition of faggy, with his whole two Americas -- and remember when he was campaigning, one of his big things, oh, how people are so poor and they can't, they're starving at night, and, you know, he met a woman who couldn't buy a winter coat for her children. And then some reporter -- I think it was Byron York -- went down to, like, Wal-Mart and Target and figured out, you know, you could get a winter coat for $7. So you're telling us that people can't afford a seven-dollar -- it's just, you know, living in this, like, Dickensian England that does not exist in America, and acting like you're the only person who cares.

[...]

CALLER: Ann, you know, actually, what if John Edwards is actually clever, and this is all part of his plan so that he'll have a case so that he can sue you for that word you called him.

CALDARA: She just called him faggy again --

CALLER: Ah!

CALDARA: -- it's not like she's backed away from this.

CALLER: Instead of suing you for five million, he can sue you for ten million now.

COULTER: Sorry, wait, I'm getting an ice cream headache. What law does that violate? What law do you imagine that violates?

CALDARA: He's a trial lawyer, does he need to -- do you need to violate a law in order to get a lawsuit?

CALLER: Yeah, when you're a lawyer, you can sue people for free.

COULTER: Well, OK then, he can do it for free.

CALDARA: Can't he also make it very clear that you use the adjective "faggy," but he's got a wife and a mistress; how much more does he have to prove to you that he's not faggy?

CALLER: How did his hair look in those Enquirer pictures?

COULTER: Pardon?

CALLER: How did his hair look in the Enquirer pictures?

[Coulter laughs]

CALDARA: I tell you, I've got it right here; I pulled it up.

COULTER: It was perfect.

CALLER: Oh, that's too bad.

—C.H.