Imus Peels Back the Many Layers of Sean Hannity

Getting right down to business, Imus asked Sean Hannity why his bio brags about some Newsday reporter calling him more influential than Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. Sighing, Hannity said, “I think you get up in the morning and say, ‘Okay, whose cage can I rattle?’"

The host of Fox News’s Hannity then poked fun at Imus’s age, saying that he grew up listening to Imus on the radio. But Imus is proud to be 70 years old, noting, “Kids at the Imus Ranch would give the world to be as old as I am.”

Having visited the Imus Ranch, Hannity witnessed firsthand the profound influence it has on the lives of the children there. Imus, however, seized the opportunity to make fun of Hannity’s weight. “All the cowboys were concerned trying to find a horse they could put you on,” he told his guest, who endured a tongue-lashing by Deirdre Imus about his eating habits just last week.

Looking ahead, Imus wondered if Hannity, a die-hard Conservative, was “up in a lather” about the likelihood that the Republicans would take over the House in November, and maybe the Senate, too.

“I think it’s going to be a blow out election,” he said, and predicted the Republicans would take 60 House seats away from the Democrats.

As for whether there is a difference between an average Republican and a “Tea Party whack job,” as Imus put it, Hannity wondered why the Tea Party people had to be whack jobs. Imus insisted both sides are insane, leading Hannity to conclude, “The only person that’s normal, I assume then, in your world is Imus?”

After finally catching on, Hannity likened the two pieces of the Republican Party to “an intramural squabble,” but clarified that the Tea Party’s message to politicians is, “Get your act together; stop robbing from our kids and grandkids; balance the budget.”

He marveled at how, according to a recent USA Today story, Americans are changing their lifestyles by not getting married or having kids because it’s too expensive, and yet the U.S. government continues to spend more than it ever has before. “None of that makes sense to me,” Hannity said.

Proud to be a Tea Party guy, Hannity said he would “absolutely” vote for Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell for Senate. “Even though you masturbate and she’s against it?” Imus wondered.

Requesting that Imus keep his personal issues to himself, Hannity asserted that he’s also a big fan of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, though Imus doubts Hannity asked Christie 20 times, as he stated, if he’d run for President in 2012.

“That would be like a Tourette’s deal, or an Alzheimer’s patient,” Imus observed.

He concluded today’s interview with his buddy Hannity by expounding on a point Carl Jeffers made yesterday, that the American people voted for “hope and change” in 2008, and “we’re still hoping because there hasn’t been any change.” He insisted nothing would be different in this election cycle, except this time around the Republicans and the Tea Party people are the ones making empty promises.

“There won’t be any change with them,” Imus said. “It’ll just be different.”

Hannity argued that Americans were not, as Imus put it, “changing one set of crooks for another,” but it didn’t matter. “You’re young and naïve, and I like you and you’re my friend, and you’re charming and all that,” Imus told him. “You’re just wrong.”

Glad we settled that like adults.

-Julie Kanfer