On the July 7 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) for commenting on the Connecticut Democratic primary “in the middle of a North Korean crisis.” Hannity's remark came just two days after he condemned media coverage of a North Korean missile test for suggesting that “we were in the middle of what is going to be a huge crisis with North Korea.” In addition, Hannity asserted that the Connecticut primary revealed both Democrats' “rigid lack of openness to any new idea” and inability “to unify and take a solid position on Iraq.”

Hannity attacked Clinton for her July 4 statement that “I will support the nominee chosen by Connecticut Democrats in their primary,” stating: “here we are in the middle of a North Korean crisis, [and] Hillary has nothing better to talk about in the media [than] saying that if [Sen.] Joe Lieberman [D-CT] loses, I'm not going to support him.” But, just two days earlier, Hannity himself downplayed the significance of the North Korean threat. On the July 5 edition of The Sean Hannity Show, Hannity stated that he considered the recent North Korean tests to be “humorous,” adding that the media's coverage of the launch was so “absurd, bordering on frenetic” that "[y]ou would think by the coverage and the hysteria, the panic, the fear, the angst, and the anxiety out there, you would think that we were in the middle of what is going to be a huge crisis with North Korea." As Media Matters for America has noted, Hannity also claimed “the world is overreacting” to the North Korean situation on the July 5 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes.

Additionally, Hannity offered the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary -- in which Ned Lamont is challenging Lieberman for the nomination -- as evidence that Democrats do not tolerate dissent on the Iraq war even though, according to Hannity, the Democrats lack a unified position in the first place, as evidenced by the debate still going on within the party. Hannity first decried the “rigid lack of any openness to any new idea” in the Democratic Party, and claimed that “in this party, you've gotta be lockstep or you're going to be rejected,” and then repeated the charge: “This is a party that has lost its heart, lost its soul, lost its ability to have any internal debate or discussion or disagreement on the most important issue of the day.” But moments later, Hannity rebutted his own argument that Democrats squelch debate within the party, claiming that “as a party, they can't even unify and take a solid position on Iraq to this point,” and criticizing Democrats for “still debating whether or not we ought to be fighting a war in Iraq.”

From the July 7 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: I mean, you talk about a rigid lack of any openness to any new idea in this party -- you've got to be lockstep or you're going to be rejected. You couple that with the timing of Hillary's comments -- remember Hillary -- here we are in the middle of a North Korean crisis, and Hillary has nothing better to talk about in the media, saying that “Well, if Joe Lieberman loses, I'm not going to support him.”

[...]

HANNITY: This is a party that has lost its heart and has lost its soul, lost its ability to have any internal debate or discussion or disagreement on the most important issue of the day. Look, Democrats can't even believe -- agree on what their campaign slogan is going to be for '06, and what are we -- we're 123 days out of the election. As a party, they can't even unify and take a solid position on Iraq to this point. We're nearly five years since the 9-11 attacks, and they're still debating whether or not we ought to be fighting a war in Iraq, which has been going on for three and a half years.

From the July 5 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: Now, I first want to -- I want to calm the nation's worries. I want to calm your fears. I frankly couldn't stand it anymore. If -- the coverage has been absurd, bordering on frenetic. Absurd, obscene. You would think that there was -- we were about to have a nuclear weapon launched by North Korea that was gonna land in the middle of Los Angeles sometime tomorrow, within the next 24 hours. You would think by the coverage and the hysteria and the panic, and the fear and the angst and the anxiety out there, you would think that we are in the middle of what is going to be a huge crisis with North Korea. I -- they fired a missile.

First of all, the long-range missile stayed in the air 35 seconds. It's actually humorous. It's funny. And yes, they did it on the Fourth of July; sure, that probably had significance. Yes, they did it right after our shuttle launch; yeah, that probably has significance. The good news is it didn't go anywhere. And you get this same instantaneous, knee-jerk reaction by so many in this country.