COMPLETE MADNESS – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  Former Democratic presidential contender and national party chairman Howard Dean went off his meds today in a bizarre appearance on Fox News.  And to think, the man was a physician.  Any satisfied patients?  From The Politico:

The Fox News Channel’s handling of the Shirley Sherrod controversy “was absolutely racist,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean charged on Sunday.

He was appearing with Newt.

“I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don’t think you’re a racist,” Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace, “but Fox News did something that was absolutely racist. They took a – they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff.”

Real class.

And Dean mildly rebuked the Obama administration, as well, saying, “We’ve got to stop being afraid of Glenn Beck (a Fox News host) and the racist fringe of the Republican Party.

Nothing like whipping up the base, which is what this is about.

“The tea party called out their racist fringe and I think the Republican Party’s got to stop appealing to its racist fringe. And Fox News is what did that. You put that on,” Dean said. “Continuing to cater to this theme of minority racism and stressing comments like this – some of which are taken out of context – does not help the country knit itself together.”

COMMENT:  Well, at least he didn't get to be president.  But this is just craziness, a throwback to the worst of the 1960s, a period for which Dean and his crowd are deeply nostalgic. 

I hope a lot of people watched.  And I hope Fox runs Dean's comments all week.  I don't normally quote Dan Rather, but he once described someone as running through a fire in a gasoline suit.  Howard Dean seems to envy that act.

July 25, 2010