Behar, M.D.: Rush, Beck and Bush Conservatism a Product of Being Ex-Addicts; Says Palin is 'Dumb'

Once again, the nightly train wreck known as CNN Headline News "The Joy Behar Show" took another jab at conservatism, particularly Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Only this time, Behar threw in a couple of old standbys for whom lefties are fixated upon assaulting - former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Behar, on her Oct. 17 CNN HLN program, suggested to radio show talk host and former child-star actor Danny Bonaduce there was a trend - that people who have had struggles with chemical addictions are now outspoken, particularly those on the right that Behar disagrees with.

"Do you see a trend? Rush Limbaugh, Oxycontin. Glenn Beck, alcoholic, Danny Bonaduce, alcoholic ... and George Bush, ex-alcoholic," Behar said.

And Behar elaborated on her diagnosis - that the reason these guys are so outspoken is they need a substitute for their addictions.

"But don't you think that when you're an alcoholic or a drug addict and then you quit, you really still have that addictive personality," she continued. "You have to put it someplace else."

"And Glenn Beck's addiction might be getting more publicity," Behar lamented. "More and more publicity."

Behar's panel that evening consisted of liberal bomb-thrower Judy Gold, a former writer and producer of the long-defunct "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," Sarah Bernard, a contributing editor for New York magazine and Bonaduce.

Gold was perplexed as to why Republicans could possibly "align themselves" with the likes of Beck and Limbaugh.

"Why don't the Republicans - why do they align themselves with people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh," Gold said. "These zealots - they don't say anything."

That's where Behar somehow contorted a response, by suggesting former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was "dumb."

"Because they know they have a base," Behar replied. "Just like Sarah Palin, they know she's dumb, but she has a tremendous base in the Republican Party."

Bernard added that if the White House were playing their cards right, they wouldn't be going head-to-head with Fox News - as veteran Fox News personality Brit Hume suggested earlier this week. Instead, they should handle Fox News like they handled Palin during the 2008 campaign, she suggested.

"I was going to bring that but I think that is exactly the right analogy," Bernard said. "They handled [Palin] so well because they didn't attack her as much as they could because they knew it was just going to add fuel to the fire. If they keep attacking him and pointing this out over and over, if the communications director keeps doing that, he's just going to gain and they're going to lose."