What were the suits at CNN thinking when they cast their golden boy Anderson Cooper with brassy-haired vulgarian Kathy Griffin?

In case you missed it, comedienne Kathy Griffin lashed out at hecklers with lewd and vulgar remarks Wednesday night while hosting a live New Year’s Eve show with the mild-mannered reporter Anderson Cooper.

"Screw you," she told the New Orleans revelers. "Why don’t you get a job, buddy? You know what? I don’t go to your job and knock the d- - - out of your mouth."

Cooper’s head nearly spun 360° as he called for commercial break. Right before the audio cuts out, Griffin says, "That’s not …" Do you think the rest said, "referring to you, Cooper"?

Griffin, who stars in the Bravo reality TV series "My Life on the D-List," is known for her firecracker ways. No one can ever predict the outlandish remarks that’ll come from the petite redhead’s mouth — and no one is too sacred to be poked fun at. Accepting an award for her Bravo show at the 2007 Emmy Awards, Griffin told Jesus to "suck it." While Christian groups largely denounced that speech, the New Year’s clip hasn’t sparked much controversy. If you look at Griffin’s official MySpace profile, most — if not all — of the comments praised her shtick. We found her to be pretty funny New Year’s Eve … if incredibly offensive, rude and tasteless, such as when she asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent, for a pap smear. And we’re still wondering what in the world she was thinking with her word choice, or, dare we say, dick-tion?