Roger Ailes thinks President Obama is “lazy.”

And that Vice President Biden is “dumb as an ashtray.”

Though let’s be fair and balanced: Ailes says he has “a soft spot for Joe Biden. I like him. But he’s dumb as an ashtray.”

Call it Raw Roger. These are among the choice tidbits that emerge from a forthcoming book, Roger Ailes Off Camera, by Zev Chafets. Vanity Fair posted an excerpt this morning.

The Chafets book is being published ahead of another biography, by New York magazine’s Gabe Sherman, that is expected to be more critical. Ailes and Fox cooperated with Chafets, who wrote a book about Rush Limbaugh, but have given Sherman no access.

In the book, Ailes slams Newt Gingrich, who had been a Fox contributor before running for president. Gingrich had complained that Fox was favoring Mitt Romney.

Ailes told his communications chief: “Brush him back. He’s a sore loser, and if he had won he would have been a sore winner.” After pausing for a moment, he added: “Newt’s a prick.”

As for the president, Ailes says he was riffing off a comment that Obama made to Barbara Walters about feeling a laziness in himself that he attributes to his Hawaii upbringing.

"Obama’s the one who never worked a day in his life," Ailes is quoted as saying. "He never earned a penny that wasn’t public money. How many fundraisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time. He’s lazy, but the media won’t report that.”