The Bearded One showed up for a top-of-the-bill chat with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday (along with uber-Hillary backer Ed Rendell, Gov. of Pennsylvania) this morning following his bombshell midnight endorsement of Obama at the start of the weekend. About all you need to know about Richardson’s appearance is a.) he got back at James Carville for his suggestion that Richardson was Hillary’s “Judas” for failing to back his longtime benefactors in the fight for their political life, calling Carville’s comments “gutter” politics and b.) he failed to get on the latest Obama campaign bandwagon of comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy. Thank God for that…

But the nuts and bolts of his visit were also interesting.

Richardson toed the Obama line on the Carville mouth-off and on the few issues touched on by Wallace on FNS, but he also seemed much more conciliatory than  anyone else connected to Obama’s camp when discussing his personal relationship with the Clintons and when asked about some of Bill’s recent comments that pro-Barack types have called out of bounds. BR stayed general with his response, but it was clearly something that he was uncomfortable talking about; he wants to keep his support of Obama very broad and nothing that would knock Bill and Hillary too hard.

Richardson said he does not think former President Clinton was implying that Obama is unpatriotic.

Richardson added, “The campaign has gotten too negative — too many personal attacks, too much negativity that is not resounding with the public.”

Rendell responded, “They say the campaign’s too negative, and they go out and turn an innocent remark — Bill Clinton was saying what a lot of us feel … If they want to tone it down, don’t accuse someone of McCarthyism.”

Richardson responded, “There’s been negativity on both sides.”

Trying to inject some needed civility into the race? Let’s hope Richardson’s good enough for that.

As for the Carville/”Judas” snafu, it was a subject that brought the only real fire from Richardson into the conversation.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter like that,” he told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace — and then took his own swipe at supporters of the New York senator.

“And you know, that’s typical of many of the people around Sen. Clinton,” he said. “They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency.”

Is he having it both ways? Can Bill and Hillary be “good” people that he respects and admire, but then the “people” them be whiny attack-mongers who feel that they are an inevitable juggernaut? Odd. After all, where does the line end between the Clintons and their “people.”  Doesn’t that make HRC and Bill guilty of feelings of presidential “entitlement” as well?

Some video of Richardson’s FNS appearance.