Ann Coulter: Hot Or Not?

Yesterday I was perusing Crooks and Liars and I saw a clip from Ann Coulter's appearance on the Today show. Reading comments on the clip, I wasn't surprised to see complaints about Matt Lauer basically treating her with kids gloves. What was surprising was the number of people (including those who disagreed with her) who commented on how "hot" she is.

My question: why is Ann Coulter considered hot? Are women who look like strips of beef jerky wearing blonde wigs considered the new barometer of beauty in this country? Is being blonde and tanorexic the only explanation of how Ann can get away with saying tripe like:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." (National Review Online, September 13, 2001)

"I think [women] should be armed but should not vote...women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it...it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care." (Politically Incorrect, February 26, 2001)

"Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment." (University of Florida speech, October 20, 2005)

If being blonde and skinny is all it takes for people to lap up your polical views, no matter how outrageous, then maybe the Democrats should kidnap and brainwash Paris Hilton a la the Symbionese Liberation Army, put her on the Today show and make her say things like "Bush is the Anti-Christ." That, as Paris would say, would be hot.