THE COMPASSION OF THE COULTERITES

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' campaign headquarters in North Carolina was evacuated after a staff member opened a letter containing white powder, a campaign official said.

"The health and safety of our staff and volunteers is obviously our paramount concern, so we contacted the authorities," Jonathan Prince, deputy campaign manager said after the evacuation Wednesday. "The authorities have asked us to evacuate while they run tests on the substance, and we have done so." ...

--AP via Fox News

Compassionate reactions at Free Republic:

Has the Silky Pony's make-up kit been checked for spillage?

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If it was in the Edwards HQ, it was probably talcum powder for the "silky pony" himself.

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On second look it turned out to be the Senator's blush.

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So that's what the Breck boy has been sniffing.

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Just the breck girl's hair care. Back to work all.

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Did Johnny drop his compact and spill some powder?

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From the girlie-man's compact!!

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ROTF! Revlon sending the Breck Girl free samples....

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Residue from Aqua Net!

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Maybe it was silk pony pixie dust.

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Before the authorities arrived they were probably trying to hide the Breck Girls tampax.

A lot of imagery in the thread -- Edwards in a tutu, and also this:



(Most of the other reactions reference cocaine -- e.g., "Nah, it's Barack Hussein's blow" -- or suggest the Clinton campaign is responsible, or Edwards planted the powder himself.)

I guess everybody's got the Coulter meme memorized -- although Bob Somerby argues that it's really the Maureen Dowd meme:

... why should pundits criticize Coulter when she describes Dem males as big "f*ggots?" It's very similar to the gender-based "analysis" their dauphine, the Comptesse Maureen Dowd, has long offered. In Dowd's work, John Edwards is routinely "the Breck Girl" (five times so far -- and counting), and Gore is "so feminized that he's practically lactating." Indeed, two days before we voted in November 2000, Dowd devoted her entire column, for the sixth time, to an imaginary conversation between Gore and his bald spot. "I feel pretty," her headline said (pretending to quote Gore’s inner thoughts)....

Coulter teaches contempt for gays, and tries to extend that contempt to Dem pols. But that’s what Dowd has done all these years! ...

And now Obama's repeating it, fer crissakes:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) slipped in a compliment -- of sorts -- about a fellow 2008 hopeful during his appearances on the Iowa stump last weekend.

"I want to wait and hear what John Edwards has to say, he's kind of good-looking," Obama envisioned Iowa caucus-goers from the small town of Clinton telling themselves. During an appearance in West Burlington, Iowa, the phrase appeared again, this time with Edwards as "kind of cute."

One Edwards supporter was nonplussed by the reference, coming as Obama stresses rising above petty politics and chafes at press attention to his own good looks....

And you wonder why I think the Republicans have a really good shot at holding the White House in '08, no matter how much Bush screws up? This is why. The Coulters and Dowds have spread this stuff so effectively they've got the Democratic candidates using it on one another, spreading just the impressions the GOP wants spread.