I've been pretty tough on Ann Coulter; I've signed onto an
open letter arguing against having her back at
CPAC, and I've written a piece saying the same thing more harshly. But somehow
Andrew Sullivan has put me in the position of half-defending her:
Her use of that word, as appallingly inappropriate as it
was, was not quite the thoughtcrime that Andrew elevates it to -- and there was a time when
Andrew might well have been the first person who'd say so. Compare
what he says now to this post of his from 2001. He was a lot more
easy-going back then, wasn't he?