The former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee went on a rant in Colorado on Tuesday, tightening the race between himself, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for most bats in the belfry.

In a 12-minute harangue at Dora’s Mexican Restaurant in Aurora, Colo. in support of congressional candidate and former Speaker of the Colorado House Andrew Romanoff, Howard Dean blasted Republicans, saying “They are not Americans. They could be more comfortable in the Ukraine or Russia. But stay away from our country, this is based on the right to vote,” the Colorado Statesman reported.

Romanoff is locked in an extremely tight race with three-time incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, with both parties pouring money in for TV advertising. Before an enthusiastic fundraising crowd, the ex-presidential candidate described the GOP as hostage to the Tea Party.

“If you don’t [do something political] then you get people who are willing to take away your right to vote by these voter ID laws…willing to allow corporations to poison your water…willing to undercut your children’s ability to support themselves by taking money out of schools, who tell people who they can and cannot love, then you get authoritarian government. And the Tea Party, which Mike Coffman is a member of, is a desperately dangerous group of people who want to take away our fundamental democracy.”

Realizing that Dean had gone off the deep end, candidate Romanoff quickly injected some sanity back into the room and said, “I’m not asking you to demonize my opponent or question his character or disparage his patriotism. Mike Coffman loves this country; so do I. So do you. Let’s not make that an issue in this race.”

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Taking Dean’s tirade for what it was worth, Coffman’s campaign manager, Tyler Sandberg, told the Statesman, “There’s a reason Howard Dean melted down before our very eyes during his failed 2004 presidential campaign – he’s a few fries short of a happy meal.”

Sandberg pointed out that while Romanoff was pandering for dollars, at the same moment Coffman and his wife were at an Aurora event with the African Leadership Group and 100 members of African immigrant communities.

“It’s a pretty clear contrast – Romanoff raising dollars to fund his sleazy attacks while Mike spends time working hard to find solutions and better represent his district,” he said.

Indeed, a loose cannon like Dean might prove a formidable Republican weapon.

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Richard Berkow

Former political news reporter Richard Berkow lost his idealism in the Kennedy years, and his innocence in Vietnam, Lebanon, and the Soviet Union. He hasn’t mellowed since, and can be harassed at [email protected]

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