Ann Coulter - What the Hell?

Mounting evidence not withstanding, I'm pretty sure that Ann Coulter is not retarded. Since I know that many intelligent people will (reasonably) challenge this assumption, let me explain how I arrived at that conclusion.
She's not only famous, but she has a following.
Yep, that's it.
Of course, I know that there are many rich, famous people with followings who aren't especially intelligent. Certain pop stars, for instance, whom I choose not to name. You get the point. But each of them has some sort of appeal--a great voice, a certain style, a charismatic sparkle, just flat out drop-dead good looks.
Ann Coulter looks like a transvestite. Yep, I said transvestite. I said looking like one was a negative thing. I meant it. I contend that it's not insulting to transvestites, because transvestites don't aspire to look like transvestites, and the successful ones don't look like transvestites. They look like women, often very beautiful women. Ann Coulter does not.
Second, Ann Coulter sounds like that moronic kid in the seventh grade who brays like a donkey at his own cleverness and fails to notice that everyone around him is laughing at him, not with him. Or, even more often, simply hoping he'll go away quietly and never return.
What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is that Ann Coulter has no appeal. Zip. No apparent talent, certainly no physical charms, no wit...nothing that would explain her rise to "stardom". Thus, I conclude that she must be smarter than she looks. It's the only reasonable explanation for her ability to manipulate such a large sector of the American society without offering them anything in return.
With that assumption in hand, I also assume that Ann Coulter is smart enough to know that using a term commonly associated with a particular group as a "schoolyard taunt" is insulting to the group in question. If one hurled the "n-word", for instance, at a person who was not of African American descent, in a clearly derogatory manner, what would it mean? Obviously, that the speaker thought that being associated with, or being accused of being, one of those nasty n-folks was an insult.
I had a related experience during the Gulf War. I happened to live in a University town during the war, and took part in a number of non-violent protests. During one of those protests, a march populated largely by University students and faculty, a carful of hecklers drove along the streets shouting "Arab lovers!" at the protesters.
It was a revelation to me about their mindset, that "Arab lover" was considered an insult. Did they think that we'd be insulted? I'm a Christian. I try to love everyone. Arab, European, Chinese...I'm not picky. We're all children of God. We're all imperfect, and we're all worthy of human respect and dignity. I didn't mind being called an Arab lover, but I minded very much that there was apparently a sector of society that thought it could cut me to the quick by accusing me of loving other humans. They must, I think, have been lacking in any but the most basic intelligence and insight. I suspect, although Ann Coulter certainly speaks as if she is similarly lacking, that she is not. And so I am quite certain that when she used a term commonly associated with gay people as an insult, she was insulting gay people. I think, however, that her protestations of innocence may be sincere. I think it's entirely possible that it's so obvious and instinctive to Ann Coulter that "gay" (or any of its colloquial synonyms) is an insult that it never crossed her mind to think about exactly what it meant or how it would be received.