Via Greg Pollowitz at Media Blog, who notes Clarence Page chuckling all the way. You’ll have to watch to the end for Tingles’s “explanation” of what he meant; honestly, I think this is as simple as him grasping for a metaphor, in real time on live TV, to channel his impulse for demonizing the right (he actually describes Gingrich as “Mephistophelian”) and coming up with something … weird. It’s not meant to be taken literally; it’s impressionistic, a way of capturing what he perceives to be Gingrich’s maniacally sinister cunning. The inference to take away is that Newt is ruthlessly malevolent, which may be untrue but at least is more colorful than substantive criticisms like the fact that he’s a relic of the last Republican revolution and probably too divisive to lead effectively. Never a dull moment on “Hardball.”

Speaking of which, this wasn’t even the most questionable thing he said today. Exit quotation: “I thought [Huckabee] was a good guy, basically, even though he’s a man of the sort of evangelical right.”