We all wondered how Frank Rich would try and dance away from his enabling history regarding Don Imus. And predictably, he calls everyone a hypocrite, pulling out the Al Sharpton card. But Rich gets one thing right, he is a hypocrite:

Among the hypocrites surrounding Imus, I’ll include myself. I’ve been a guest on his show many times since he first invited me in the early 1990s, when I was a theater critic. I’ve almost always considered him among the smarter and more authentic conversationalists I’ve encountered as an interviewee. As a book author, I could always use the publicity. Of course I was aware of many of his obnoxious comments about minority groups, including my own, Jews. Sometimes he aimed invective at me personally. I wasn’t seriously bothered by much of it, even when it was unfunny or made me wince, because I saw him as equally offensive to everyone. The show’s crudest interludes struck me as burlesque.

We never heard that from Frank Rich before. NOW he is brave with his opinions about Imus. Shame on you Frank Rich. Take your lumps and stop trying to drag everyone else down with you. And to call this a free speech issue is a joke. We're supposed to worry about the freedom to tell racist and sexist jokes? What a crap column from Frank Rich.