Count Me Blue: "Racust" in the Morning blabbers on

I have no idea what kind of a person Don Imus is. But maybe his idiotic statements from last week about the Rutgers University Women's Basketball Team is knowing enough. If I owned the radio station that Imus works for, I'd fire him. Without equivocation.

The only good thing about this is watching this old lizard squirm and try to come up with some reason, any reason, that he should be kept on the job.

I laughed in this video when I heard him say that "these young women don't know me." They don't need to, moron. A racist is still a racist, so Imus' attempt to put his comments into context adds nothing. Zero.

"I'm a good person who said a bad thing"? I dunno - it sounds like a PR job to me.

His lame explanation that "we make fun of everyone on this show, including me" is no defense, either. So, he's been making fun of everyone for the past 30-odd years on his show, Imus in the Morning. So what?

Hey, I'm a Howard Stern fan, and had he said the same thing, I'd think he should be fired, too. Stern has toned down his act quite a bit since moving over to Sirius Satellite Radio, though. I wonder if money has anything to do with it? He only got a $500 million, five-year deal. It's a whole new ballgame when you cross over to the largely uncensored medium of satellite, but I digress.

When Howard was on terrestrial radio, he should have been fired on a number of occasions, and on a few, he was. Since I've been a fan, the one big thing that I remember he got into hot water about was making fun of Selena's death, but in that instance, he wasn't making fun of her race, if I'm remembering it right. Still, one could have made the case that he should have been fired, and he nearly was.

Anyway, back to Imus - yes, he does do a great deal of charitable work, without question, but it's obvious why he's bringing it up now - to try and save his job. His charitable work does not excuse what he said.

It's interesting to see him go on the Mel Gibson/Michael Richards apology tour. It's fun watching him squirm and agreeing to talk to Al Sharpton and to meeting with the basketball team. He wouldn't be doing any of this if his job wasn't in jeopardy.

Here's footage of Newsweek's Howard Fineman giving it to Imus this morning on his radio show, but in a respectful way. Nice job, Howard. And Fineman's right - this is a teaching moment. Maybe he'll survive this and continue his show. He does have the support of a great many politicians who come on his show, but I don't know if they support him in this case.