It’s nearing the midterm elections and competitive tension is high. When patience fails, even the biggest American media players can lose their cool. In a big year for bigotry, here’s our list of the top 5 worst racial offenders of the year.

Glenn Beck

Beck wants America to rise like a brilliantly offensive phoenix; isn’t that what the founding fathers had intended? The Fox News master contortionist of reason has spewed enough awesomely ridiculous commentary to fill a book. And how about this little gem, delivered just prior to his “Restoring Honor” rally in DC: “Blacks Don’t Own Martin Luther King.”

Is it actually too blatant to be racist? Is Glenn Beck pulling a Morrissey?

Newt Gingrich

He’s been riding in hard on the coattails of Islamophobia, but that can only get a potential 2012 presidential candidate so far. And he’s really been milking it, even making a movie about the threat of Islam in America. He’s a complete spook. And earlier last month he accused President Obama of possessing “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview. Um, not that we think Kenyan’s worldview is “Kenyan,” but wouldn’t opposing imperialism and colonialism in general be a good thing?

Rick Sanchez

It’s never a sound publicity move to let loose with the old Jews-in-the-media conspiracy. Now the man is out of a job and that beautiful newscaster face, hair, and movie-phone voice will all go to waste. What a pity.

Republican State Senator Jake Knotts

The South Carolina man is famous for the worst reasons. He’s like the Unabomber. And back at the beginning of the summer when the weather was heating up, Knotts was speaking on a radio talk show about a particular Candidate for governor in the state, Nikki Haley. Knotts said: “We already got one raghead in the White House…we don’t need another in the governor’s mansion.” Note that Haley is not Muslim and is from a predominantly Hindu region of India. And also note that Knotts looks like one of the minor southern characters in “Deliverance.”

Dr. Laura

Saying the N-word 11 times is 11 times too many for a TV talk show host. Especially when you’re addressing a black caller. (Remember when Don Imus dropped that “Nappy-headed ho” comment on his radio show? What a passive racist he was.) And when she was fired, Sarah Palin tossed the good doctor some supportive words, tweeting “Dr. Laura, don’t repeat, reload.” Whatever that means.