It gets worse for Ann Coulter...

You know, I almost agreed with Ann last night as she tried her best to defend herself and blow off any thoughts or claims that she may have hurt her career. I certainly don't agree with what Ann said this past weekend (or anything else she has ever done in her life except enjoy the Grateful Dead), but I felt myself inclined to agree that she would not be hurt by her actions.

Boy, was I wrong.

Just hours after we find out that her advertisers and those who advertise through her (knowingly or not) have gone fleeing from her very existence, we see that she has been condemned and silenced by a self admitted Republican and Conservative leaning newspaper in Pennsylvania.

At least one newspaper has canceled Ann Coulter's column after she implied that Democratic politician John Edwards is a "faggot."

The daily Lancaster (Pa.) New Era, in a note to readers, said it "halted publication of Ann Coulter's syndicated column following her crude characterization of presidential candidate John Edwards as a homosexual at a public appearance on Friday. Coulter's use of name-calling, sarcasm, and overstatement in her columns too often detracts from the arguments she seeks to make. ...

"Lancaster County residents of whatever political view -- conservative, moderate, or liberal -- deserve intelligent discussion of issues. Ann Coulter no longer provides that."

New Era Editor Ernie Schreiber expanded on those comments when reached early this afternoon. He told E&P that Coulter "was hurting our credibility. Our community is largely conservative and Republican. They expect insightful discussion of issues. Ann Coulter wasn't giving us that. We have lots of conservative columnists who do -- Cal Thomas, Jonah Goldberg, Robert Novak, Michelle Malkin, among others."

Schreiber said of Coulter: "I can't defend her antics, and I don't want the New Era associated with them."

The editor added: "My primary objection to Coulter's antics are that they distract attention from the issues that are important -- the war in Iraq, immigration policy, spending policy, health care. Her schoolyard taunt of John Edwards is just so irrelevant to American life. I resent having to spend a moment dealing with it."

When asked about reader response so far, Schreiber said 16 people who contacted the New Era agree with the paper's decision and 12 oppose it. "One promised to cancel," he reported. "But even those who objected were polite, which makes my point. Readers want rational discussion, not name-calling."

Schreiber doesn't yet know who might replace Coulter in the New Era. "I've told a number of folks who e-mailed me in support of Coulter that I'd welcome their recommendations," he said. "But we're not at a loss for conservative columnists. There are lots of good ones out there."

In other fallout, several advertisers -- including Verizon -- withdrew ads from Coulter's Web site on Monday. "Per our policy, the networked Web site ad purchases are supposed to be stripped of certain kinds of Web sites," said a Verizon spokesperson. "This one could be considered an extreme political Web site, should be off the list, and now it is off the list."

AT&T also pulled ads, announcing: "Many of our ad placements -- particularly on the Internet -- are secured in bulk with placements made by third-party buyers with a goal of trying to reach the broadest audiences possible. We ask our media buyers to avoid sites that might generally be seen as offensive or polarizing to the public, which appears to be the case with this political Web site. Our ads have been withdrawn."

She should not be defended by anyone. Period.