Imus chastised his guest/sparring partner Chris Wallace right off the bat today for the tough time he gave Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday last week.  “You don’t do these guys a favor by going on easy on them,” Wallace said of politicians.

Maybe not. But beating Romney up for the health care reform he passed as Governor of Massachusetts in 2006, and for that health care plan’s similarities to Obama-care, and for flip-flopping on his abortion position when it was politically expedient to be pro-life in 2008, wasn’t helpful to Imus, who decided just two days ago that he wants Romney to be President in 2012.

Responding to Imus’s claim that this brand of journalism is “not helpful,” Wallace said, “I didn’t realize that I was working for the committee to elect Mitt Romney.” Well, now you do.

As part of the so-called “media elite,” Wallace responded to accusations made yesterday by Rep. Patrick Kennedy that he and his colleagues are not adequately covering the war in Afghanistan, choosing instead to focus stories like the mental breakdown of former Congressman Eric Massa.

“Yes, he got more coverage than he deserved,” Wallace said about Massa, who resigned last week and has since alleged a naked Rahm Emanuel threatened him about his health care vote in the House gym. “”But it’s not like we haven’t covered the war in Afghanistan. “

Asked if he knew John LeBoutillier, the Conservative former Congressman who now writes for Newsmax and appeared one hour ago on this show, Wallace shrugged and said, “I know the name,” which was not the right answer. He should, Imus insisted, have LeBoutillier on Fox News Sunday instead of “the same stiffs” he has every week.

“We have news makers,” said Wallace. “Not news-maxers.”

Wallace believes that the “original sin” of the Democrats’ health care bill is that they couldn’t pass it in the first year. But, he added, “I’m not going to count out Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and the White House on their ability to get this bill through.”

Vice President Joe Biden was shipped off to Israel a few days ago, and managed to set negotiations there back in a way only he can, announcing that the Israelis and Palestinians would begin having indirect talks, after decades of communicating directly.

“It’s a mess, it’s always been a mess,” said Wallace. “But it seems to be taking one step forward and two steps backwards.”

Wallace will have his pal Karl Rove on Fox News Sunday this week, and went on and on about his admiration for the man. At Imus’s he suggestion that Wallace and Rove engage in an Eric Massa-style tickly party, Wallace said only, “You really are an idiot.”

-Julie Kanfer