Sweet blog extra: Howard Dean calls on GOP prez candidates--speaking to GOP Jewish group today--to denounce Ann Coulter.

HIGHLAND PARK, ILL.–As I wrote in a Monday column, it’s a hard call to give Ann Coulter more media attention. Here I go again.

The top GOP presidential candiates are addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum on Tuesday in Washington. It’s an influetntial group.

Using that event as a news peg, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on them to denounce Coulter’s “hateful rhetoric” –she said Jews needed to be “perfected”–and to boycott events where Coulter is also on the bill.

from the DNC…

DNC Calls on Republican Candidates to Denounce

Ann Coulter’s Prejudiced Comments at RJC Forum

WASHINGTON – As the four leading Republican presidential candidates prepare to appear at the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum tonight, Democr! atic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on them to denounce Ann Coulter’s hateful rhetoric, and agree to stop attending events where Coulter is featured. Responding to a question from CNBC’s Donny Deutsch about what America would be like if she had her way and her “dreams…came true” last week, Coulter said that it would look like “New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention,” suggested it would be better if everyone in America was Christian and added that Jews needed to be “perfected” by being brought into Christianity. [CNBC, 10/8/07] Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani both spoke on the same stage as Coulter when they attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in March of this year.

Dean issued the following statement:

“Ann Coulter’s brand of hateful, intolerant rhetoric has no place in America’s national discourse. The Republican Party and its presidential candidates ought to denounce Coulter and refuse ! to participate in or support events at which she is a speaker. Coulter ‘s prejudiced rant is only the latest example in a pattern of hate speech that has also targeted Gays, Latinos, African Americans, and Muslims, among others, in the past. Americans may disagree from time to time, but at our core we are a tolerant nation. Anyone seeking to lead our nation should stand up and denounce intolerance and hatred as un-American. As the Republican Presidential candidates prepare to address the RJC, they owe it to the American people to use the opportunity to take a stand on this critical matter.”

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