Imus Tries Make Chris Wallace Uncomfortable

There was really only one topic Imus wanted to cover with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace today, but he feigned interest in a few other issues first, hoping to mislead his intuitive guest.

Wallace supposed that Senator Chris Dodd's decision to retire from the Senate had more to do with lagging poll numbers than with Dodd not wanting to spend another six years serving the country. Part of his constituents' unhappiness can likely be traced to Dodd moving to Iowa in 2008 when he ran for President.

"That did not sit well with the people of Connecticut," said Wallace.

"Or with the people of Iowa," Imus noted.

President Obama, who was somewhat more successful in Iowa, has been pointing fingers lately at people he feels "failed to connect the dots" on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who tried to blow up a plane headed for Detroit on Christmas Day.

Wallace blamed Obama's mishandling of the attempted attack, and the way he has dealt with other controversial events like the Tehran riots last June, on inexperience.

Obama and his team, Walalce said, "don't seem to have good instincts about how something is going to play, and how he needs to respond to it. They get it right eventually, but they don't get it right at first."

Having stalled enough, Imus got down to business. While watching Wallace's very fine show last Sunday, Imus listened to Brit Hume make his pitch for Tiger Woods to convert from Buddhism to Christianity as a quicker path to redemption. Which made Imus wonder why Wallace didn't stick up for his own peeps, the Jews.

"Is Brit more committed to his faith than you are to yours?" Imus asked Wallace, who stammered for a few seconds, and said he was trying to think of something clever to say.

"No," said Imus. "You're thinking of how you can kill me the next time you see me." He wouldn't be alone.

Protesting that he's the moderator and needed to move the show along and not engage in religious debates, Wallace said that Hume's words undoubtedly came from his heart.

"He lives that, he really is committed," Wallace said of Hume's Christianity. "When he semi-retired last year he said, 'I want to get into grandchildren, golf, and God.' And he's done all three."

As for who will proselytize on his show this week, Wallace said only, "We'll find out together on Sunday morning."

Translation: He has no friggin' clue.

-Julie Kanfer