Howard Dean: Tea Party a 'Monster'

(By ANDY BARR, Politico) - Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Wednesday that the GOP has “created a monster” by encouraging the tea party movement.

Dean pointed to Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell as the key example of how the tea party movement has grown beyond the GOP’s control.

“What they’ve done is essentially created a monster,” Dean said during an interview on MSNBC. “Their rhetoric has been so uncompromising, so inaccurate, so ludicrous, that … they’ve given permission for this wing of the Republican Party … this is a tea party group, to say outrageous things.”

“For the mainstream voter, it is frightening to see that,” Dean said.

Pointing to two of O’Donnell’s past statements, Dean asked, “How can you seriously vote for a candidate for the United States Senate who thinks that she has a message from the Chinese that they’re going to attack America at any moment now? Or was a witch or whatever?”