Imus Invokes New Motto When Chat with Carl Jeffers Turns Contentious

Carl Jeffers, the political commentator who is, as he put it, “a big fan of Santa Claus,” told Imus today that his concern with future House Speaker John Boehner’s constant blubbering is that it will affect his ability to govern. Imus, however, took a different view.
 
“Here’s why he’s crying,” Imus instructed his guest. “He realizes he’s a hypocrite and a phony.”
 
In an interview that aired on 60 Minutes last night, Boehner got all choked up when talking about children in this country, and how they should all be afforded the opportunity to live the American dream, as he was. But Imus wasn’t buying it.
 
“If he’s so worried about the kids in this country, one of the primary things he should do is stop smoking,” he said, referring to Boehner’s reported two-pack-a-day habit. Imus also suggested Boehner stop taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tobacco lobby and the tobacco industry.
 
Congress will take a “test vote” today on the deal President Obama struck last week to extend the so-called Bush tax cuts, and Jeffers expressed concern that Obama never took ownership of the situation.
 
“Every time you mention the ‘Bush tax cuts,’ the only thing that does is get somebody else to contribute money to the Bush library,” Jeffers said. “Obama needs to have his name out in front of something as important to people as tax cuts, and had he done that, it could have helped him in the midterms as well because it would have eliminated some of the uncertainty and the anger that was out there.”
 
Jeffers tried to keep going, but was interrupted by Imus, who had just received an e-mail from Neil Cavuto asking if it was okay that Obama still smokes. When Jeffers observed that Cavuto could wait for his own show to make such comments, Imus wondered if Jeffers likes being a guest on this program. “Because you could be off quickly,” he noted.
 
President Biden?Hoping to avoid that fate, Jeffers meekly observed, in response to Imus’s assertion that Vice President Joe Biden should switch jobs with Obama, that the Republicans’ best chance for taking the White House in 2012 is to elect Mitt Romney as their candidate, which is an unlikely possibility.
 
“No matter how bad the economy is, no matter how bad the war is, in their primaries Republican voters want three things: they want prayer in the schools, they want abortion stopped, and they want to declare that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Jeffers said. “And based on that, Romney, the only guy that could win, can’t get the nomination.” For that, he concluded, the Obama team is “very thankful.”
 
Regardless of who he faces in the general election, Jeffers predicted Obama will be “very strong” in 2012, because the economy will be in great shape. “People will be walking around buying homes again with no money down, no income verification, and damn near no income,” Jeffers said. “That’s how good it will be.”
 
The two wished each other a happy whatever, and Imus informed Jeffers of this show’s (not very surprising) new motto, per Neil Cavuto: “Not fair, not balanced, not nice.”
 
-Julie Kanfer