This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen since the last time I saw Howard Dean on television. In this segment from yesterday’s “Meet the Press,” Howard Dean denounces Republican dishonesty while lying out of the other side of his mouth — literally:

HOWARD DEAN: I think Democrats always have to stand up and tell the truth and that’s what we’re doing. The truth is that the president misled America when he sent us to war. They did–he even didn’t tell the truth in the speech he gave. First of all, think there were a lot of veterans were kind of upset that the president chose their day to make a partisan speech. Secondly, the president didn’t even tell the truth in his speech. He said that the Senate had the same intelligence that everybody else did. That was not true. He withheld some intelligence. Then he said the commissions all said that what he had done in the lead-up up to the war was fine.
TIM RUSSERT: What did he withhold?
DEAN: He withheld–he knew, he knew that there was no connection between Saddam and 9/11 and he insisted on trying to make that case to the American people. RUSSERT: But he never said Saddam was involved in September 11. DEAN: He never actually came out and said just that. But in every speech he gave during the campaign and afterwards, he left the impression. He left the impression with 65 percent of the American people, who agreed that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. It made that–it was dishonest, what he did.

No wonder he’s scared to debate Mehlman.

Video here.