What is WRONG with Ann Coulter?

She recently made a joke (and a kind of lame joke, at that) referring to John Edwards as a "faggot" at the Conservative Political Action Conference.  Naturally, prominent Republicans John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney have condemned her comments and advertisers Sallie Mae, NetBank, and Verizon have pulled their sponsorships from Coulter's site. (These companies even went as far as pointing out that the ads had been placed by a third party and that they were unaware of them.)

Is Coulter inflicted with a terminal case of foot-in-mouth syndrome or does she make outrageous, mean-spirited comments in order to draw attention to herself?  She seems to have a special skill at sparking controversy, such as when she commented that she had never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much with regard to the 9/11 widows.

Whatever one may say about Coulter, few would say that they are indifferent to her.  She is loved and hated and the fact that we are all talking about her means she must be doing something right.  The woman is amazingly adept at creating press about herself. 

So, is she doing the Republican party any favors?  Or is she actually doing more for the Democrats by creating these stirs? When John Kerry remarked this fall that students who perform badly in school may end up getting stuck in Iraq, many Democrats cringed, but hey, whatever he may say, its never as terrible as what Coulter blathers. 

Or really...should Ann Coulter just go away? (I vote for that last option, although I must admit that I always enjoy seeing what Jon Stewart has to say about her.)