Neil Cavuto Cites "Likeability" As Key Factor For Scott Brown; Reasons for Imus's Lifelong Success Remain Unclear

It doesn’t get much uglier on national television and radio than this morning’s exchange between Imus and Neil Cavuto, who is technically, kinda-sorta Imus’s boss at the Fox Business Network.

Responding to the common courtesy question, “How are you?” Imus retorted, “I told you I was sick. You know how I am.”  So when Imus asked Cavuto if he’d watch Tiger Woods’s press conference at 11 o’clock this morning, Cavuto curtly replied, “I don’t care. I will not watch it.”

Since Imus had been too ill to watch last night, he wondered what happened during Cavuto’s interview with Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown that warranted the promo, “As you’ve never heard him before!”

“For one thing, it was his first interview since officially becoming Senator, so he had a chance to comment on air about the President’s debt commission, about the President’s bi-partisan health care meeting next week,” said Cavuto. “It was the first time you’d ever heard his take on that, which was critical.”

Disappointed, Imus accused his guest of National Enquirer-style hype. “[Brown] broke a great deal of news,” Cavuto insisted. Sure, if you consider critique of Obama’s debt commission and of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s jobs bill “earth-shattering.”

Cavuto chalked the Republican Brown’s surprising ascendancy in Massachusetts up to one often overlooked factor. “Likeability counts,” Cavuto said, while simultaneously patting himself on the back.

If so, Imus’s success over nearly four decades is certainly an anomaly, because not only can he be off-putting, he’s also a hypocrite, blasting the hosts of Fox’s “Happy Hour” show for mispronouncing the name of guest John Heilemann just hours after Imus had done the same.

Though he denied these charges, an audio playback toward the end of Cavuto’s spot proved otherwise, as Imus could be clearly heard saying, “Heidelmann.” Good job!

Imus congratulated Cavuto on hiring his fellow countryman Charles Gasparino away from CNBC to become a correspondent for the Fox Business Network. He was curious, however, whether Gasparino might encounter any roadblocks with human resources, given his close ties to organized crime.

“Most of his contacts are tied to the same families as mine, so it was not a conflict,” said Cavuto, who refused to disclose the guest roster for his two shows later today, telling Imus, “You’re dismissive and demeaning.”

And we’ve definitely heard him that way before.

-Julie Kanfer