I began listening to Imus when he first came to New York (I believe it was ’71 or ’72). I listened every day, and I patiently awaited his return to New York from his banishment to Cleveland for having shown up on the air shitfaced and drugged out. I listened for damned near three decades.

However, a few years ago, I began to tire of what I perceived to be an increasingly long line of liberal weenies guests, each seemingly suffering from terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome. I tolerated Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, David Gregory, Maureen Dowd and even John Kerry. However, once Imus began to regularly refer to Vice President Cheney as a “war criminal” he lost me to a rival station.

Having said that, I have followed his most recent gaffe with some interest. Sure, what he said was absolutely uncalled for, cruel and insensitive, but in all my past years of listening to Imus I never thought him to be a racist. I still don’t.

As Erica notes, in our lives each of us has said something profoundly stupid and hurtful, which we immediately or ultimately regretted. Imus has made several on-air apologies, which was the right thing to do.

In my view, where he screwed up was taking the bait tossed out there by “Reverend” Al Sharpton and “Reverend” Jesse Jackson, two race hustlers whose economic well-being is based upon making sure that racism remains alive and well in America.

So, in the end, Imus made two mistakes. His first mistake was having made a particularly cruel remark about young women athletes. His second mistake was going on Al Sharpton’s radio show, kissing Al’s ass and getting burned for his trouble.

I hope he has learned something from both mistakes.

Now, if he ever gets around to apologizing for repeatedly calling a sitting Vice President a “war criminal,” I may just tune in again.