On the July 31st edition of The John Carlson Show, the host took the opportunity to speak up for actor Mel Gibson after his hate-filled weekend tirade that followed his arrest for drunken driving. After calling critics of Gibson's The Passion of The Christ "irresponsible", Carlson said that he hopes Gibson will "get a break" and that his apology "appears very genuine".

But the best came when Carlson claimed that Gibson's rant wasn't really anti-semitic to begin with:

CARLSON: It wasn't really anti-semitic. It was just a vulgar obscenity-laced tirade against a lot of people and things in general. And it wasn't even, I mean here he was looking a an arresting officer that I believe was Asian and asking him if he was a Jew. This is Mel unhinged.

Just for the record, let's review one of Mel's statements from police documents, as reported by TMZ.com:

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

I guess according to John Carlson, a tirade isn't really anti-semitic if you throw attacks against gentiles into the mix. Maybe calling a female deputy "Sugar Tits" is like the undo button of drunken verbal attacks - it neutralizes anything that was said before. And evidently the fact that the arresting officer wasn't Jewish was a big factor too - just a big misunderstanding and a simple case of mistaken identity.

But anyone who knows anything about anti-semitism knows that these aren't the simple utterances of an "unhinged" drunk. They're classic anti-semitic conspiracy theories that require a lot of internal rage and a long history of hate towards Jews. They may not come out during his sober moments spent with polite company, but add enough booze and victimization and all of his true feelings then come out.

My burning question is why John Carlson feels the need to defend him and minimize his hate.