Coulter politics 101

Washington (CNN) - Conservative syndicated columnist Ann Coulter came to the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday with her customary soapbox and her lecturer's cap.

"Here's a lesson of history: Do not allow Democrats anywhere near foreign policy. Not even to keep them away from domestic policy. It's a mistake to ask those who don't even like democracy to defend it," she said.

Coulter delivered a litany of conservative one-liners at CPAC during a speech that, at times, felt much like a classroom lecture, complete with a question and answer session.

CPAC is the largest annual gathering of conservative-minded activists, which this year is extra-important because it's the first cattle-call of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates.

"The big news this week is liberals favor democracy in the Middle East," she began, "Liberals could not have been less interested in democracy when we were taking out the guy who gassed his neighbors…when we went to take out Saddam Hussein."

"But now liberals are shocked and appalled to discover there's a dictator in the Middle East."

And for Coulter, lessons on how to operate in Egypt should be taken from the examples of Iraq and Iran. "It's not as clear what the outcome is in Egypt," she said, "It was clear in Iraq and we had American servicemen there to ensure it went accurately…"

"Iraq and Iran are very similar because their people are sane, their leaders are insane, in the latter case you don't want to take out sane leaders and allow democracy in," she said. "In Iran there had been an election, the moderates won and Ahmadinejad stole the election, there hasn't been an election in Egypt."

"Why do we want to be stirring up trouble in that country? We can't do that in every country… you don't go around disturbing countries where you have a loyal ally."

Criticizing President Barack Obama for turning over "our entire health care system to the DMV," she slammed both foreign and domestic policy under "liberal" leadership.

And when asked why the U.S. should support Israel knowing that there are jailed dissidents and journalists, she joked, "What do you mean? I think there should be more jailed journalists."

But federal spending was a serious matter, and Coulter lectured, "We have this problem in our democracy that we keep voting people in who give grants…unless you vote for people who will cut spending, spending will not get cut."

Coulter offered up a prediction for 2012 when prompted, saying "If you don't run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee," an answer that was met with boos from the audience.

She offered up a stinging critique of Democrats when asked to speak about CPAC's controversial inclusion of the conservative, gay and lesbian group GOProud, saying "Liberals want to use gays as a cat's paw to attack the family because liberals want families destroyed… because then you have loyalty directly to the state."

Initially balking at the request to name her least favorite Democrat by responding that it was "like naming my least favorite disease," Coulter revealed "I can't hate Jim Webb, he served our country… he's such an honorable man… Bobby Rush, former black panther. John Lewis, a terrible, terrible liberal now, but a hero for freedom rights, he's one that's hard to hate because of his proud history."

And on inclusion, Coulter had this to say, "I am as born-again evangelical Christian as they come… the gay argument is why do conservatives act like our sins are worse then their sins…and no, of course not… I would like gays to be part of conservatism just the way women are without there being a special designation for it, that's what I'd prefer."

"The left is trying to co-opt gays and I don't think we should let them, they should be on our side."

This may be due in no small part to Coulter's affinity for gays with whom she shares "a lot in common." "We like the same music, we like the same cocktails, and we like a lot of the same men."