Chris Wallace Captivated by Imus's Newt Gingrich Story

Our old buddy Chris Wallace returned this morning, and shared Imus’s dismay at Warner Wolf inserting himself into every George Steinbrenner story he told yesterday morning. “When someone dies and people are doing their reflections, they are generally about themselves,” said Wallace. “And parenthetically, the deceased appears in the story.”

It was unclear why Wallace would trash one of the greatest sportscasters in the history of broadcasting, Warner Wolf. Wallace had no excuse for his behavior, nor did he have any clue who the guests would be on Fox News Sunday in just three days. (Never mind that promoting said Sunday morning program is the basis for Wallace coming on this show.)

“I understand the concept of my appearing on your program,” Wallace told Imus. “But the practice does not always match that concept.”

Imus supposed Wallace would probably stock his guest roster with right-wing nuts, like usual. Or, as Wallace calls them, “people who love America.”

Plenty of Democrats love America, Imus protested, along with plenty of people like him, who…

“Go both ways?” Wallace jumped in.

The two stopped bickering long enough to discuss bickering elsewhere, like in the Democratic Party, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is miffed at White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for saying the Democrats could lose a lot of seats in the House come November.

“I think they’re running scared, and nothing concentrates the mind for a politician like the possibility of losing their job,” said Wallace. “Or, in the case of Nancy Pelosi, losing her position as Speaker of the House.”

John LeBoutillier, whom Wallace patently refuses to have on Fox News Sunday for some reason, made the point earlier that the Republicans could actually gain control of the House, and Wallace agreed. He was mum, however, on why LeBoutillier has yet to be invited on, but Imus had his own theory.

“We don’t want to cut into Brit’s time when he’s proselytizing for Jesus,” said Imus, who then shared with Wallace the tale of running into Newt Gingrich at the private jet airport in Washington, DC.

Imus has killed Gingrich on the air for years, but the former Speaker of the House ran over to say hello anyway, and, merely trying to be polite, asked Imus, “How are you?”

To which Imus had replied, “You don’t care how I’m doing, who are you kidding?”

Imus told Wallace, “He looked at me, and you could see washing over his face was the realization: this guy really is an A-hole. Then he waddled out to his plane and I never saw him again.”

Unmoved and obviously bored, Wallace remarked, “That was the climax I was waiting for.”

-Julie Kanfer