"You're going straight to hell, Senator"

Semi-related follow-up to last entry...

Unlike the brainless Katie Couric, Don Imus knows how to respond when someone spews talking points at him.

Imus had Sen. Lieberman (R D- Connecticut) on his program this morning. Lieberman went on and on about the progress in Iraq and rejustifying the war, adding nothing new or concrete to back this up, but basically just repeating all the main talking points from the White House. It basically sounded like he just reading the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq document, only less enthusiastic. Imus was dumbfounded that Sen. Lieberman could be so... dumb. He went off on him, at one point saying "Somebody's got something on you, this is crazy."

The highlight was Imus hitting the nail on the head when explaining what he thinks the war was about:
"See I keep thinking, though, Senator Lieberman, after we drove him out of Kuwait, for the next 10 years he didn't do anything. And then all of the sudden, after we couldn't find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and the wheels came off of that operation, and then after September 11th when this country wanted to demonstrate that we would respond to this vicious attack, from essentially the Muslim world, that we looked around for someone to smack and they, the Iraqis, looked like the easiest target. And we were told by Vice President Cheney, and the rest of these people, that we'd be greeted as liberators when we rolled into Baghdad. And so we went there... and they drummed up all this jive, and we now know none of it was true. So we rolled in there and we got this mess on our hands."

Lieberman's simple response: "Uhh, well a lot of it was true. And some of it was fake."

Thanks for coming, Joe. You've been fantastic.

Later exchange:
Imus: "No wonder Gore won't talk to you."
Lieberman: [*laughs*] "I think it's a profile in courage for me to come on this program today."
Imus: "Yea, with this nonsense, of course it is."

And at the end, discussing the holidays and different faiths:
Lieberman: "On good behavior, we're all gonna end up in Heaven together. And I hope to find you there and I hope your mood is better."
Imus: "Well if you keep this up, you won't be there. You're going straight to hell, Senator."

Crooks and Liars has video: Imus Smacks down Joe Lieberman