Jim Vicevich shows his real I.Q. (again)

Colin McEnroe saves me the time.

Who could fail to enjoy Gwen Ifill's performance on Sunday, getting up in Tim Russert's face about his years as a slavering, fawning Imus toady? Ifill didn't even listen to Imus, so she has no way of knowing the degree to which Russert capered and begged for Imus's attention like a coach dog week after week. Whatever she was imagining, the reality was worse. (Only the aptly named Mike Barnicle, I think, worked harder to bend himself into a pretzel that Imus would behold and enjoy. This feat is so much easier for a moral and intellectual invertebrate.)

This morning, on WTIC-AM, the fun continued when my conservative colleague Buddy Vicevich tried to use Ifill's rant as an indicment of liberal culture. Before he played the clip, he scratched around for a way to identify Ifill. He finally decided she was a columnist and somebody who has some kind of relationship with NBC. She is neither.

She has been part of the PBS news operation for about ten years. Since 1999, she has been moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for the NewsHour. Prior to that she was with NBC and before that several newspapers, including the New York Times.

The point is worth making because Buddy couldn't even been bothered to figure out who she was or to come within a hand grenade's distance of identifying her correctly. (Later, he called her a "liberal columnist." She is neither a columnist nor a person who is really allowed to identify herself politically. That is why she was chosen, in 2004, to moderate the vice-presidential debate.)

Too funny. I'm just happy that he's off television.