Howard Dean: The tea party’s pretty racist but I like what they’re doing

(By GLENN THRUSH, POLITICO) - Howard Dean, whose 2004 presidential bid tapped the anger of a disaffected Democratic base, expressed a surprising admiration for the mad-as-hell tea party movement — but thinks it will be ultimately hobbled by a “racist fringe” encouraged by a “race-baiting” Fox News network.

The former Democratic National Committee chairman and Vermont governor, speaking at a forum on the 2010 midterms sponsored by Hofstra University on Thursday, expressed admiration for vanquished Delaware GOP Senate hopeful Mike Castle — saying the moderate Republican congressman would have made a “great” senator.

“I think the tea party has a big race problem,” said Dean appearing alongside Republican strategist Ed Rollins at the event, which was arranged by the school’s National Center for Suburban Studies and the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.