Ann Coulter Vs. Elizabeth Edwards

Ann Coulter, famed author and controversy queen, was the hour long guest on Tuesday's Hardball with Chris Matthews, when Matthews informed her that wife of Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards would be calling in to discuss Coulter's personal attacks.

Since Coulter was on air taking questions from audience members and emailed queries, Elizabeth Edwards decided to schedule a call-in confrontation. Edwards' was specifically interested in a polite and southern asking of Coulter to stop her personal attacks on John Edwards and others. Her argument was that personal attacks are not only hurtful, but they discourage true political discussion and discourse and turn off newcomers to politics who wish to stay out of the mud.

Ann Coulter's defense is that the John Edwards campaign is utilizing media snips from Coulter on various programs as a means for fundraising and provoking visitors to his website. Coulter argues that she doesn't mind the Edwards' campaign making money off her commentary, because she's making much more money.

Despite transcripts and video in Matthews' possession, Coulter initially denied having said anything about Edwards, but that he shouldn't take a high moral ground being a trial lawyer who defends profitable clients and charges poverty centers thousands for speeches. Ann Coulter is not one to shy away from comments, and certainly doesn't apologize frequently.

Elizabeth Edwards also referred to a Coulter column saying, "You wrote a column a couple years ago 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. This is not legitimate political dialogue."

Coulter's responsed saying, "I think we heard all we need to hear. The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking. No."

Ann Coulter apparently viewed the exchange as a free speech debate, whereas Elizabeth Edwards appears to have been referring to smear campaigns and cruel personal references to John Edwards being killed by terrorists- the video played earlier in the Hardball episode, referring to Edwards with a homosexual slur and the reference to the Edwards' son who died in a car accident years ago.

This is likely not to be the last of the Edwards/Coulter spat, and certainly won't be Ann Coulter's last anger provoking commentary. Unfortunately too often Coulter appears to stay away from specific references, asking those who question her to give specific instances, when she herself cannot refer often to specific references.