Chafee: Palin a 'cocky wacko'

So much for a respite from personal attacks in the presidential race.

Former Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who is backing Democrat Barack Obama, today stood by his remarks calling Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin a "cocky wacko."

Chafee, who turned from Republican to independent last year, told an audience Tuesday at the New America Foundation in Washington that Palin has revived a "lackluster McCain candidacy," calling her surprise selection "this firestorm, this tornado, into the whole presidential election."

Responding to an audience member's question, he said her speech at the Republican National Convention had also energized Obama supporters. "People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, 'I just sent money to Obama, I couldn't sleep last night' -- from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there," Chafee said, according to the Associated Press account.

Chafee told the AP today that he objected to much of Palin's convention speech, particularly her mocking assertion that Obama was too worried with al Qaeda terrorists getting read their legal rights.

That comment "got to the core of everything wrong with the last eight years," he said. "I consider that wacky, and certainly her tone was very, very cocky. So I thought they were appropriate words."