Thu Jan 27, 2:03 PM ET

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WASHINGTON - Shock-pundit Ann Coulter dismayed her right-wing fans today when she admitted to being a cross-dressing man in Thursday's press conference. "This started as a joke, as satire, and I think that it has just gone to far." he said to a startled press.

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Ann Coulter was born Fredrick Guebermann, of Des Moines, IA. Fredrick moved to San Fransisco on the 1980's to start a career in drag shows. There, he worked under several stage names, including "Crystal Dawn" and "Rosie the Rocket".

"The point of drag shows is to take things over the top, to really push the boundaries of what we think about. Normally, this is done in a very physical way, with lots of glam and glitter. I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to look normal, but act over the top." Ann said to the press.

In 1993, Fredrick received breast implants and started taking hormones. He has not yet had a sex-change operation, and still uses the masculine pronoun.

Upset about the conservative backlash against gay culture, and inspired by satire and parody shows in local theaters, Fred decided to try an experiment. "I dressed up like a suburban housewife and went to a Republican rally. I chatted with my table mates about how evil gays are, and how liberals are destroying America. They ate it up. I had seven guys' phone numbers by the time I left, and some of them were married."

Fredrick then started creating the persona of Ann Coulter, fabricating a background and moving to the East Coast to start moving in conservative circles. "I wanted to see how far I could take it. I wanted to see how extreme I could make the rhetoric before somebody realized it was a joke."

"I'm amazed that nobody ever saw through it. I kept reaching for more outrageous things to say, more hateful, horrible accusations to throw around, and I couldn't beat these guys. No matter what came out of my mouth, the conservatives would buy it."

Ann Coulter's bestselling books "started as character notes. I needed more material to talk about, so I started brainstorming. It actually became much easier to do speaking engagements after publishing a book, because then everyone expects you to quote yourself. After years of improv, suddenly I had a script!"

When asked why he decided to stop now, Fredrick replied, "I ran out of material."

Fredrick went on to explain that the reason is two-fold: after years of slowly increasing the extremity of his rhetoric, he reached a plateau. "I just couldn't take it any further without quoting Hitler. And everyone knows, that's the end of the game."

The second reason is the response to Ann's books and speeches: "This has really gone too far. I never expected that people would actually believe this nonsense. I'm offended that America has become the sort of place where Ann Coulter can be this powerful and popular."

Police escorted Fredrick out of the press conference. Investigators are beginning to look into Ann's law practice and background documents to see if fraud has been committed. No court dates are set as of yet.

"I never wanted to hurt anyone." Fredrick told the press, "I just think this joke has gone too far."

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