Rosie vs Elisabeth: Beyond nasty.

The brawls between Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s on The View have made for juicy watching. Hasselbeck is so pro-Bush it’s unbelievable, while Rosie couldn’t be more anti-Iraq. The two have had regular, fiery debates across the table that have spilled over into the media and driven ratings up.

Yesterday, co-host Joy Behar decided to make a case against Bush, citing a string of presidential failures. What followed was stunning. Her argument was upstaged by an on-air argument that resulted in O’Donnell and Hasselbeck calling each other ‘cowards’ and all manner of shouting, vindictive looks and accusations.

Hasselbeck clumsily refers to “our enemies in Iraq” a statement that infuriates O’Donnell’s view that there are innocent victims in the war.

At one stage the screen even splits in two, as the two women shouted across one another. Behar, left to wonder what she had started is seen to call out for a commercial break, wondering “who is directing this show?”

It airs today on the W Channel at 1:30pm and can be seen on the timeshift channel or in Sunday’s marathon round-up.