Undead columnist: Imus is a good man

Mike Barnicle, the man 10,000 silver bullets can't kill, sounds almost remorseful that he has to fill in for Don Imus for at least the next two weeks (transcript via Vegacura):

... I've known Don a long time. I can tell you, as he has indicated several times today and last week, he is a good man, he is not a racist. I mean, it sounds pitiful to have to say something like that, but he's a good man. ...

Oh, David, he absolutely gets it. He, more than any of us, more than you, more than Gene, more than myself, more than a lot of people realizes that word are weapons, that the hurt that these words inflicted are deep, lasting, historical in some sense. The historical pain is resurrected here. He certainly understands that. ...