Elizabeth Edwards asks Coulter to stop personal attacks

Elizabeth Edwards pleaded Tuesday with Ann Coulter to ''stop the personal attacks,'' a day after the conservative commentator said she wished Edwards's husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, had been killed by terrorists.

''The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, lowers the political dialogue at precisely the time we need to raise it,'' Edwards said by phone on MSNBC's Hardball program, where Coulter was a guest.

Elizabeth Edwards said she did not consult her husband before confronting Coulter on the air, adding that she felt the pundit's remarks were ''a dialogue on hatefulness and ugliness.''

''It debases political dialogue,'' Edwards said. ''It drives people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language.''

Coulter responded with a laugh and charged that Edwards was calling on her to stop speaking altogether. She questioned why Elizabeth Edwards was making a phone call on behalf of her husband, and she criticized John Edwards for ''stealing doctors' money'' during his successful career as a trial lawyer.

''I don't think I need to be told to stop writing by Elizabeth Edwards, thank you,'' Coulter said.

On ABC's Good Morning America on Monday, Coulter was asked about a March speech in which she used a gay slur to refer to Edwards.

''If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot,'' Coulter said Monday, picking up on remarks made by HBO's Bill Maher. Maher suggested in March that ''people wouldn't be dying needlessly'' if Vice President Dick Cheney had been killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan. (Mike Baker, AP)

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