Then came last weekend. I was invited to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, an annual convention of the right attended by more than 5,000 people, to accept the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. It was recognition for what I'd said in print and on-air about anti-military attitudes on campus. During CPAC, I had my picture taken with the controversial conservative pundit and author Ann Coulter.

Coulter's comments about John Edwards drew unprecedented attention to this year's CPAC. Then, after a while, some of that attention was turned on me.

It was cold on Tuesday morning in Manhattan, and I was late for classes. I was a bit groggy from studying for my midterms and working full time at a marketing firm where I'd just made partner. I don't drink coffee, and in my morning haze, I didn't notice the messages piling up on my BlackBerry. Once I looked, I realized there was a lot of hate mail mixed in with the spam.

Several bloggers were posting pictures of me and Coulter together and noting, gleefully, that the guy with his arm around the waist of the woman who called Edwards a faggot had, once upon a time, acted in adult films.

You know, I can't really blame the lefties for this one--its stuff you just can't make up.

In any event, it struck me that the left don't seem to appreciate the differences between being gay and being a faggot. Sanchez is gay, but there simply are no Marine faggots, gay or not. Edwards is straight, but definitely faggoty in the colloquial sense of the word. They don't call him the Breck girl for nothing you know.

Meanwhile, back at the controversy corral, Ann Coulter appears to be enjoying herself. Unchastened, she apparently used the "F word" in church last Sunday.

On the heels of her well publicized John Edwards quip—that both seem to be taking advantage of, there’s more Ann Coulter shock-and-awe. At a conference in Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend at the Center for Reclaiming America, which is connected to TV preacher James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries, Coulter reiterated her John Edwards description, and, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the following:

Earlier in her remarks, Coulter noted that seven doctors and clinic personnel had been killed, saying, "Those few abortionists were shot, or, depending on your point of view, had a procedure with a rifle performed on them. I'm not justifying it, but I do understand how it happened....The number of deaths attributed to Roe v. Wade - about 40 million aborted babies and seven abortion clinic workers; 40 million to seven is also a pretty good measure of how the political debate is going."

A birdie on the scene told us that after the f-word remark about Johnny Boy, the hundreds of conservatives who filled the church to the brim, gasped in shock. Moments later, she bid her adieu.

This is why we love Ann Coulter. Her comments on abortion are like a snake crawling up your leg, but having said it, a moment's reflection creates the realization that she has gifted you a moment of clarity--the outrage over seven deaths compared with 40 million abortions.

Let's face it--the woman has a gift for cutting through the liberal distortion field and making you see an issue with new clarity. Notably, I came to appreciate Ann Coulter the same way I came to appreciate Rush Limbaugh--by wondering what all the fuss was about.

In both cases, it was lefty outrage that drew my attention. One only has to listen to Rush for a few minutes to realize that he's immensely entertaining and uncommonly insightful on political issues. The same is true for Coulter. Her books--some better than others--reveal an surprising intellectual rigor. Coulter is sure of her facts, which is why the left is so afraid of her.

Add to that a skin as thick as rhinoceros hide and a wicked sense of humor and conservatives have a very valuable asset.

Some conservative bloggers, including Captain Ed, are trying to get her shunned.

That's a big mistake.