I agree. Ann is very smart and very glib. Tough? She's tough enough, but I've seen tougher and I don't think that she's quite as tough as she'd like us to think. I've seen her seem to be genuinely hurt by the reactions of some.
perhaps I/your are confusing tough with mean?
Oh, I think she wants to sound mean when she says some of the outrageous things she says about others. That stuff has to be calculated to sound mean. I don't know, maybe it's her sense of humor that gets in the way for me, but I don't find the apparent nastiness to be all that genuine. Doesn't she just seem to be too happy to be all that nasty?
What with the castration comment? When did ann get the anti male reputation?
I saw that comment, too, and I'm not sure exactly where that part of her image is coming from, but I suspect that there are some folks who tend to think that strength/power in a woman must necessarily come at the expense of men. I don't see her as being anti-male at all and I don't think that she wants to be seen that way.
Here's a good one, though - can you imagine a woman like Ann really believing that women shouldn't be allowed to vote? ;-)