CNN Crossfire co-host Robert Novak, in a July 26 appearance on CNN's afternoon news program Live From..., let loose a string of invective against two speakers scheduled for the opening night of the Democratic National Convention -- former Vice President Al Gore, whom he accused of “rants where he's screaming and yelling,” and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), whom he called “a mean lady.” Novak also made reference to “flesh-eating” convention delegates.

From the July 26 edition of CNN's Live From...:

NOVAK on Gore (echoing the chorus of right-wing pundits purporting to diagnose Gore as mentally ill): They [Democrats] just pray he doesn't go into one of his rants where he's screaming and yelling and can control himself. They shouldn't feed him too much Coke before the uh-- Coca-Cola before tonight.

NOVAK on convention delegates: Well the whole theme of the campaign, I don't know if Hillary understands it, is to be nice to try to appeal to those poor souls who haven't made up their mind and not to these flesh-eating people out in the audience.

NOVAK on Hillary Clinton: The only important speaker tonight is Hillary Clinton, she may be tomorrow, and they've got her introducing Bill, it should be the other way around. ... It's very hard for Hillary to be nice. She was trained in politics by James Carville and she is a mean lady. It's going to be very hard for her to be nice about it.