This is getting old. Ann Coulter is out on our public airwaves using a defense any 5 year old would use (and she is suppose to be a lawyer?). That defense is simple – “Well Bill Maher did it”. Wow Ann – if Bill Maher jumped off a bridge, would you?

So let’s look at Anne’s defense. What she is under fire for is the following statement:

“I’ve learned my lesson. If I’m gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” (emphasis added)

Now she is saying that Bill Maher said the same thing about Dick Cheney. During episode 503 of Real Time with Bill Maher, the round table turned to the hot topic of the week of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, in which Dick Cheney was the target. Bill was discussing with his panel the decision of the Huffington Post to close the comments on the news thread about the attempt, because people were commenting that they were upset Cheney survived. I dug through my archives and here is the video of the segment:

 Now here is what Maher said:

MAHER: Yeah, I decide the topics. They don’t go there. [laughter] And I-

FRANK: [overlapping] But you – you exercise control over the show-

MAHER: [overlapping] But, listen-

FRANK: [overlapping]-the way she does with her blog.

MAHER: [overlapping] But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow. [applause]

RIDLEY: Okay, but-[voices overlap under applause]

SCARBOROUGH: But, let’s talk – let’s talk about your show for a second, very quickly. If somebody on this panel said they wished that Dick Cheney had been blown up, and you didn’t say- 

FRANK: I think he did. [laughter]

SCARBOROUGH: Okay, did you say–?

MAHER: No. No, I quoted that.

FRANK: You don’t? Oh, you don’t believe that?

MAHER: No, I’m just saying that if he did die-

SCARBOROUGH: [laughter] Okay, but if – oh, let’s just say-

MAHER: [overlapping]-other people – more people would live. That’s a fact.

 Now there is a serious difference between saying “what if” someone died and “i wish” they would die. A BIG DIFFERENCE ANN!

But this isn’t the only problem. This morning on “Morning Joe”, Joe Scarborough had Ann Coulter on. She was using this defense yet again and Joe was backing her up on it. This wouldn’t be so bad, except one reason. Look who is sitting on Bill’s panel there. Yup – Joe was 5 feet from Bill Maher when he didn’t say what Coulter is claiming. Even Worse – John Ridley is there, who is also on “Morning Joe” with Scarborough. It’s one thing to get facts wrong, its another to ignore them.