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Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com’s Managing Editor tries desperately to spin Ann Coulter’s self-targeting verbal IED at this year’s CPAC by employing the weakest defense on Earth: “But they did it too…” .

In his post today, Of Hate-Speech and Hypocrisy, Goodenough (ironic, huh?) literally s t r e t c h e s as far as he can to try and draw similarities between sardonic, biting satire posted on left-wing blogs that, gasp, include the word “faggot”, versus Coulter’s “botched joke” that she’s been saving since high-school when she did the same routine for the jocks about the goth drama student they all made fun of.

Goodenough whines:

Daily Kos postings have included the word “faggot” at least three times in recent years, as have other liberal blogs — without apology, and without generating a furor.

Then he drops this remarkable example of conservative fact-checking:

(Last January, Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington used the derogatory word at the Golden Globe awards. Amid an ensuing fuss, he released a statement saying he was seeking counseling.)

Isaiah Washington’s well publicized freak out happened ON SET. But why build an accurate strawman anyway.

And because, apparently Goodenough is down with fiddy, he points a limp wrist toward GLAAD’s wholly appropriate response to a remarkably unsurprising and irrelevant comment Fifty-Cent made three years ago in Playboy magazine.

The “They did it too” defense is so lame, and so predictable. It is the last words hurled before retreating off the cliff.

Nice try, though. It’s really very simple. Coulter delivered a line she knew would be explosive, but Ann didn’t realize that calling 9-11 widows “Harpies” in pursuit of book sales really pissed a lot of people off, very quietly. And when she expected them to be willing to clean up yet another shitstorm she leaves behind in pursuit of controversy, people balked.

Conservatives do not have the energy or the inclination to defend Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a faggot this time. Mostly, because even the people who strongly oppose gay marriage don’t necessarily support such callous, cruel behavior towards others - or such craven “look at me” cries for attention.