Craig Crawford Is A-OK; Still Doing Pirate Voices

Knowing Imus as he does, Craig Crawford presumed he'd be banned for life following last week's missed appearance. Impossible, Imus said, because everyone on the show loves Crawford.

"You're as easy on me as Pelosi on Joe Wilson," said Crawford, who blogs for Congressional Quarterly's website.

Crawford's parents are huge I-Fans, and were concerned when their son over-slept last week's interview and was unreachable for hours. "My parents thought I'd been chopped up!" he said.

Despite his tendency to fall down and break all of his bones, Crawford has been incident-free for a few years now, though he had a close call this past weekend while pruning a 30-foot tall Elephant Tree in his backyard.

"I thought, 'man, I ought to be doing this after Imus,'" he said. "Not before."

Crawford, also a political analyst for MSNBC, pointed out the role Dick Cheney has played in ramping up attacks from the Right on President Obama.

"In the early part of the year, Obama was considered untouchable, and that was sort of race-based because he was the first black president and Republicans didn't know what to say," Crawford said. "Cheney was the first to come out and say, 'He's going to get us all killed.' That's what started it."

He called Cheney's tactic "very effective" for his side, because they've been successful in undermining Obama — particularly on his health care plan — ever since. Imus hopes Maureen Dowd's observation, that much of this resistance is racial, is wrong.

Crawford pointed out that there was a similar level of opposition to George W. Bush, particularly from the anti-war crowd, who called him a war criminal and a Nazi. But, he said, the anti-Obama sentiment seems stronger and sooner in his presidency.

However, some of the protests Crawford saw against the stimulus bill, for instance, were troubling on more than one level. "If these people could at least spell 'socialism,' I could take them seriously," he said.

Mom and Pop Crawford are geared up for Imus's move to the FOX Business Network, and Crawford himself was stoked to learn that Tom "Bigfoot" Bowman would yet again be the executive producer of the television broadcast.

"I love that man!" said Crawford, adding in his pirate voice, "He's been with you since the dog days in Secarrrrrcus!"

-Julie Kanfer