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CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli, who is credited with helping to launch the tea party movement, flew into a rage and stomped off camera on Friday because a supporter of President Obama plans to pay shareholders a dividend before taxes are scheduled to go up at the end of the year.

During a discussion on CNBC's Squawk Box, senior economic reporter Steve Liesman observed that the government could "extract more from the wealthy and even from business" as a part a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Santelli interrupted by pointing to a Wall Street Journal op-ed that criticized former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal because the company he founded intends to pay out dividends before before the Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year.

"He spoke at the Democratic National Convention!" Santelli shouted. "You know, doesn't that bug you a little bit? It's very depressing that people that claim the president's fairness, those wealthy people that he wants to go after? They escape it. They escape it."

Liesman replied by calling attention to a separate Wall Street Journal op-ed that "has a list of GDP by year and completely leaves out the eight years of the Bush administration."

"You know what? Don't give me the switcheroo!" Santelli yelled. "I'm not talking about that one. I'm talking about the one below it, Steve."

"I'm talking about the one above it," Liesman taunted. "I'm rising above it."

"Of course you are because it's so reprehensible!" Santelli exclaimed. "It's reprehensible that people go to Charlotte and say, 'fairness' and then they run to try to beat the tax man!"

"He's doing his job," Liesman noted.

"Shame on them!" Santelli howled as he threw his copy of The Wall Street Journal at the camera. "I can't even talk about it anymore!"

With that, the on-air editor turned and stormed off the air.

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CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli, who is credited with helping to launch the tea party movement, flew into a rage on Tuesday after he was asked to defend his apparent suggestion that the most recent jobs report had been doctored to help President Barack Obama get re-elected.

Former GE CEO Jack Welch on Friday spawned a "jobs truthers" front after he tweeted that an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent was "unbelievable," and added that the "Chicago guys" in Obama's campaign headquarters "will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers."

"I would never send a tweet like Jack Welch and I respect Jack," Santelli said on Friday. "That's why last month, I said that it would be below 8 percent right before the election. That's why I said it. I don't say things I can't prove, that was my prediction. I will leave it at that."

"I can't prove that it was fudged," the CNBC on-air editor insisted, refusing to distance himself from conservative skepticism about the jobs report. "I do find that that's the common question on the trading floor. It is what it is."

During a Monday panel on CNBC's Squawk Box, senior economics reporter Steve Liesman noted that no economists "are saying this number was cooked or otherwise the subject of a conspiracy. They say it happens and it's not out of line with what's been going on, for example, in the payroll numbers."

"All I can tell you is, there was no doubt in my mind a month ago that it would be under 8 percent!" Santelli shouted. "There was no doubt in my mind five minutes before the number that it would be under 8 percent! Take it any way you want!"

"Rick, what you're implying with your comment...," Steve Liesman said before being interrupted by a raging Santelli.

"I'm not implying anything!" he continued shouting from the trading floor. "And it turned out that way! I'm a market whisperer!"

"Why say it?" Liesman asked.

"Because it was true!" Santelli yelled at the camera. "And I like people to get the benefit of my 32 years in the market! There was no doubt it would be under 8, it is under 8! ... Draw your own conclusions, Steve! Connect the dots!"

"I am connecting the dots," Liesman replied. "I'm asking you to be honest about the dot connecting that you're implying."

"I'm honest!" Santelli screamed, even louder this time. "[I said,] under 8, it was under 8! What else do you want? What else do you need? A fact is a fact is a fact! ... If you are looking for a conspiracy -- and I'm not -- you would only need to change certain numbers!"

"There's been the last three Septembers, they've had this number surge," Liesman calmly explained. "If this is a conspiracy, Rick, it goes back three years."

(h/t: Mediaite)

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Ouch. What can I say except the truth hurts. Of course there was just enough time for David Gregory to get a shot in at Democrats right before being saved by the bell and ending the conversation. Heaven forbid the panel is allowed to spend too much time talking about how Republicans are devoid of ideas. The difference David Gregory is who Democrats want to cut taxes for and it is not their only idea. I think the American public figured out over the last eight years, not just the last four months that most of the ideas the Republicans do have about how to run the country are bad ones.

MR. GREGORY: I want to talk some Republican politics here in our remaining moments. Michael Steele, head of the RNC, he got in more hot water this week. Gave an interview with GQ and talked about abortion, and his is how the conversation went. He was asked, "Are you saying you think women have the right to choose an abortion?" Steele says, "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice." "You do?" Steele, "Yeah. Absolutely."

David Frum, does that represent the Republican Party?

MR. FRUM: It should represent a view within the Republican Party. It should be permissible to say such a thing. Look, we need--I, I speak as a Republican. We need Michael Steele. He is exciting, he is warm, he has a marvelous TV presence. It--that's, that's the face that our party should be presenting to the country, and we need to support him. And the very fact that he is opening up the debate, talking with the constituencies that need to, need to be reached, these are valuable and fresh things. And I, I am just sick about the kind of level of, of attack he has taken, because we need him.

MR. SMILEY: I'm glad--I'm, I'm glad, David, that Michael Steele is there. I could never imagine 10 years ago that we'd have two parties, both headed by black men. But it's important to understand two things, very quickly. Number one, it's about the policy, not the personality. You can't put a colored face out and think that black people and brown people and women are coming just because you got a colored face out front. Number one, it's about the policy. And number two, all this infighting I think still underscores this party doesn't know who they are, where they're going or how they're going to get there.

MR. FRUM: Well, but both of those are positive things. He's not a black face, he's just a different face. We need different kinds of people. And it isn't that you think you put a black face on the party and you'll get black voters. You put a different face on the party and you'll get different voters.

MR. SMILEY: But the policy, but the policies have to change, too. That's my point.

MS. KAY: But...

MR. FRUM: And--but the first step to making the policies change is saying it's possible, there's room. And his kind of knocking down the walls is saying we can have a wider discussion in the Republican Party than we've allowed ourselves.

MS. KAY: Isn't...

MR. GREGORY: Katty:

MS. KAY: Isn't it even a bigger problem, the question of leadership within the Republican Party, is that I haven't heard a sensible Republican idea on this economic crisis, apart from reducing taxes, over the last four months.

MR. FRUM: The payroll tax holiday is a great idea.

MS. KAY: You--they have to come up with...

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MS. KAY: They have to start coming up with ideas that the American public is interested in. You've got some younger Republicans saying, "We need to get back to talking about health care, we need to get back to talking about education, the kinds of things that the American public are talking about, and not just talking about cutting taxes."

MR. LIESMAN: That's the parody of the Republican Party that goes around in economic circles. "Well, you have cancer, cut taxes." You know, that's the, the, the solution of the Republican Party to everything.

MR. GREGORY: But the payroll tax idea, Republican idea was also shared by some Democrats, as well.

MS. KAY: Right.

MR. LIESMAN: It's a big danger, though, David, which is that if you watch the savings rate go up, the fear is that people will get this money from the government and they will save it instead of spend it, which is the argument for government spending at this moment.

MR. GREGORY: All right, lot, lots more to talk about. Unfortunately, we're out of time.