Best-selling right-wing author Ann Coulter, speaking to a conservative audience in Washington Friday, called former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a "faggot."

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Coulter was a featured speaker at the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Following her prepared remarks, televised on C-Span, Coulter was asked to talk about Edwards.

"It turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm kind of at an impasse -- I can't really talk about Edwards," she said.

"Rehab" may have been a reference to "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington's decision to go into rehab during a public relations firestorm after he called one of his co-stars a "faggot."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on Republican presidential candidates, especially those who attended the conference, to denounce Coulter's remark, Fox News reported.

Coulter has previously suggested that other prominent Democrats are gay -- including former Vice President Al Gore, former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton, Editor & Publisher reported. All of them, including Edwards, are married, and Bill Clinton's heterosexual tendencies caused a certain amount of well publicized trouble for him as in the White House.