Does Imus Want to Hang Out With Jake Tapper?

Looking over his guest Jake Tapper’s five favorite songs, one of which is Johnny Cash’s "Folsom Prison Blues," Imus wondered if Tapper, the White House Correspondent for ABC News, ever comes to New York.

Excited, Tapper replied, “Why, do you want to meet up? Have a drink? Have a cup of coffee? You want to play Frisbee?”

Preferring instead to do none of the above, Imus merely wanted to suggest that Tapper, a big fan of Cash, go see Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway. Sorely disappointed, Tapper, who also hosts This Week on Sundays, moved on to talk about last week’s horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“There is some criticism that the response was not as quick as it should have been, that immediately after the blast there should have been more focus on containing the damage,” Tapper said, referring to the Obama administration’s reaction to the spill.

The administration is concerned about their image on this, and is implementing a “full court press,” as Tapper put it, to show they’re on the job. In recent days they released a photograph of Obama being briefed on the spill, and dislodged “special guests,” like Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and the Commander of the Coast Guard, to White House press briefings.

“The people in the region know they’ve been there, and there have been daily briefings down there,” Tapper said. “But they want to make sure the entire country sees them as on top of this.”

The Deputy Secretary of the Interior told reporters yesterday it could take up to three months to get the spill, which is hemorrhaging 5,000 barrels a day, under control, and White House Senior Aide David Axelrod said today on Good Morning America that there would be no new offshore drilling activities until this problem is resolved.

“I’m sorry, we weren’t watching Good Morning America,’” Imus said, and accused Tapper of being distracted by his e-mail while chatting on the phone.

He could not have been more wrong. “It is as if I’m performing brain surgery on you right now,” he told Imus. “It’s that kind of focus.”

On This Week on Sunday, Tapper will welcome Napolitano, who could be the next Supreme Court nominee, as well as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The glorious reporter roundtable will include the likes of George Will, Bill Maher, and Reverend Al Sharpton, with whom Tapper will discuss Charlie Crist running for Senate in Florida as an Independent, as well as the oil slick, immigration, and Wall Street reform.

“Okay, find, good,” Imus said, because his focus and patience were obviously lost.

-Julie Kanfer