Imus goes nuts

This morning's "Imus in the Morning" show included an interview with Rep. JD Hayworth from Arizona. Imus asked him about the Foley case, Hayworth gave an idiotic answer, and Imus unloaded on him.

I only wish I would have heard it. Reading it is fun but hearing it would have been better. The transcript, from MSNBC, is below.

Imus and Rep. J.D. Hayworth, (R) Arizona, discuss the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal:

Rep. J. D. Hayworth, (R) Arizona: "You know what's interesting? Pre 9-11 there was a member of Congress from California, there was concerne about a relationship with a page, pardon me, with an intern who went missing and with tragic results. Very interesting. I don't recall anybody demanding that Dick Gephardt, or Pelosi or anybody else in the Democrat leadership resign..."

Imus: "Well, no..."

Hayworth: "Well no because that's different..."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Well what does that got to do with this guy being loose there in the House of Representatives, hitting on these pages and who knows what else, abusing them and terrifying these kids. They're there, they're sixteen years old and they're away from home, their parents are not there. All of this other stuff is answered, and doesn't have anything to do with anything."

Hayworth: "It has everything...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "...Other than---other than both sides do it."

Hayworth: "Here's the point...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "You and your--well not you, but the leadership there in the house has to own up that they knew what this guy was doing. They covered it up because they don't want to loose control of the House of Representatives, and they wanted to protect their seat in Florida."

Hayworth: "Here's the problem...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Nancy Pelosi's a dirt-bag and Dick Gephardt, and I know a lot of people like him, he's a creep. So you--all of you are. You all are creeps, every single one of you. I like you better than most of them, but you all do the same thing and then you want to and then when, the you know what, hits the fan you want to--you like little children. Well yeah, but he did it too. Well look what they did. Well what the hell does that got to do with anything? The guy was trying to molest children. Own up to it and demand that these people GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!"

Hayworth: "He's gone. He's gone. And we took action, that's the..."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "Good. Get him out."

Hayworth: "We didn't defend him...."

(Imus interrupting)

Imus: "I want you to fly back there this morning and get him out of there."

Hayworth: "...He's gone, he's gone."

Also on the show this morning was Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. For the first time ever, Rick Santorum opened his mouth and said something I absolutely agree with. Santorum said we need to have an investigation and anyone who had knowledge of Foley's preying on pages needs to go. Remarkably, he also correctly told Imus that Foley's being gay had absolutely nothing to do with his going after kids. It was nice to see a "Christian Conservative" make that stand.