Coulter's a sacrificial lamb or goat. National Review is going out on a limb with the neo-con warriors. Letting her go obscures this fact. She represents a different kind of crusade than they do -- more Richard the Lionheart than Woodrow Wilson or Norman Podhoretz -- so she's expendable.
The other side of the coin, is, what if Eric Alterman or Molly Ivins or Paul Begala made a comment of this sort?