Well I don't see how it is worse in this context than Breck Girl or girly-man. It was clearly chosen because of the Grey's Anatomy story. No one seriously thinks she was actually slurring our beloved and elevated homosexual class in that no one seriously thinks Edwards is a homosexual.
I have to disagree that it's all that clear. It may very well be as you say, but it's not new. She's used the term before.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256860,00.html
"'Faggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays," Coulter said on "Hannity and Colmes" Monday night. "It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss,' and unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200607280001
Summary: Chris Matthews asked pundit Ann Coulter, "How do you know that Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But Al Gore -- total fag." In concluding the interview, Matthews said of Coulter, "We'd love to have her back."