The representative says when asked by New York’s WCBS-2 television why Democrats seem afraid of Palin’s popularity, “You got to be kind to the disabled.”

Adds after the reporter repeats the phrase: “Yes. There’s no question about it. Politically it’s a nightmare to think that a person’s foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live.”

Later says he misspoke, meant to say “disadvantaged.”