To get into an argument with an insane person is an exercise in futility – you cannot win because they function on a different plane of rationality than the rest of existence. Their entire sense of reason is different, they frequently have no shame and can’t be humiliated, and they will always resort to going one step lower than you are prepared to go. An insane person has no scruples and isn’t governed by sense. This is why Ann Coulter is likely crazy.

Antagonists who do decide to fight it out with the insane are often bested by their own sense of frustration. The argument will disintegrate into moralisms, condescension, or shouting. It can easily turn to weird violence. It often, though, disappointingly turns into awkward silence. The sane person is frustrated to the point of silence and the crazy person grins because they think your silence is a concession.

I watched the Hardball Ann Coulter exclusive on Tuesday when Elizabeth Edwards called in to give old Ann a piece of her mind. Was it a big deal? No. It was a cheap argument. Coulter is a first rate, calculating, media personality, who if she believes a fourth of what she is says, I think can be classed as legally insane in most states. She is a trained lawyer, who though completely void of analytical clarity and rational line of thought, loves the way sound bites form in her mouth and spits them out with venom, much like a TV lawyer and not like an actual one.

Elizabeth Edwards, a successful lawyer in her own right, has a functioning lawyers mind. She was rational when she called into Hardball as well as exceedingly moral. She asked Ann to please stop the personal attacks against her husband. Coulter laughed in her face and acted as smug as the other delusional blond media darling Paris, as she flipped her hair about, the venom falling from her fangs, and the flash of crazy in her eyes disguised behind her Hiltonesque sunglasses.

There was no climax to this “debate”. Coulter’s crazy snake failed to gnaw at the phone lines, Edwards repeated herself repeatedly, and Matthews smiled at the cameraman as if to say, “this is great for the show.” It ended apathetically with all the potential of a Junior High after school fight and just as much of a letdown as someone yelling “the cops are coming” when they went to the commercial break.

Absolutely nothing was accomplished by this “confrontation” except that the Edwards camp may have gotten a few more donations for Elizabeth’s “courage” to confront the insane Coulter who will likely sell a few more of her trite books. To put money in crazy’s pocket wasn’t the aim of the Edwards camp, for sure, but this is the unfortunate reality of the world we live in now.

If the mainstream media had any sincerity when it came to the hatemongering Coulter, they wouldn’t ask her to come on TV. She has become a bestseller not because of her writing but because of her television appearances where she says terrible things in order to sell books. This is hardly a brilliant media strategy, but somehow, the media seems to be duped enough by her charmlessness and they keep her around as a professional provocateur, lining her pockets with money.

Matthews seems to want to take her on as well for being a big meany. So do many of his colleagues in the media. However by making their discontent public, they are only giving her free airtime, thereby encouraging crazy with a television camera and a load of publicity for opinions that are no more insightful than the rantings of an elderly small town republican committeeman after a couple of scotches at the annual Lincoln Day dinner. Hardly the stuff for TV. She’s an easy target and by taking swings at her, you’re just validating her insane ramblings and giving her a forum. Then again, by blogging on her, I am doing it too. Sometimes crazy gets the best of all of us.