It's enough to make you scream . . . On Morning Joe today, Howard Dean rapped Mitt Romney for calling on the Libyan rebels to turn Gaddafi over to the US for trial. According to Dean, Romney's suggestion made "no sense" and exposed his lack of foreign policy experience.
There was just one little problem with Howie's hypothesis. Romney never called for the rebels to turn Gaddafi over to the US. As was clear from both Romney's words in the clip Morning Joe aired of his Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto, and in the graphics at the bottom of the FNC screen, Romney wants the rebels to turn the Lockerbie bomber, Megrahi, over to the US for trial, not Gaddafi. Hat tip readers Gil S. and BondPlainBond. View video after the jump.
Listen to Cavuto and Romney, and check the graphic at the bottom of the Fox News screen in the screengrab below. Then watch Howie manage to put his foot in his mouth while simultaneously shooting it. Note also that there was not a peep from the Morning Joe panel to correct Dean's whopper. Watch in particular as the BBC's Katty Kay nods her head in sage agreement with the Deanster.
NEIL CAVUTO: If indeed Gaddafi goes down, you think the new government should hand over Megrahi to whom?
MITT ROMNEY: Well the United States of America would be my first choice. We would try him here and see that justice is done. It's unacceptable in my view that this person has not faced justice. So I'd like to see him face justice as one of the first acts of a new government, hopefully a more democratic, representative form of government, a modern government. Let's get al-Megrahi back to a court and seek that he had the real justice he deserves.
HOWARD DEAN: I always favor governors for presidential candidates because they have executive experience. What you just saw with Mitt Romney was the one pitfall governors have: lack of foreign policy experience. He says we should turn over Gaddafi to the United States for prosecution. First of all that makes no sense. Second of all there's an international criminal court warrant out for Gaddafi, so if Gaddafi gets captured he goes to The Hague, period, and he just didn't know the answer. It's not a big deal, he can learn the answer, but that is the one pitfall that governors have.
WILLIE GEIST [facetiously]: Unlike President Obama, who had vast foreign policy experience when he came into office.
DEAN: He didn't. It's not a big mistake. Romney makes almost no mistakes, and that is an interesting one.
