Inside the Beltway

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Egg conundrum

Number of real eggs the American Egg Board says it provided for yesterday's annual White House Easter Egg Roll: 7,200. Now, if only somebody at the AEB could tell us, what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Spreading sickness

Until radio host Don Imus opened his big mouth, the biggest news on the Rutgers University campus last week was when Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of PBS' "Washington Week," postponed her visiting lecture because of laryngitis.

Now, Mr. Imus is wishing he'd had laryngitis, too.

He spoke all too loud and clear, and as a result he now stands to lose his popular radio and TV show after uttering a racially derogatory remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

NCAA President Myles Brand and Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick issued a joint statement saying it "is unconscionable that anyone would use the airways to utter such disregard for the dignity of human beings who have accomplished much and deserve great credit."

Meanwhile, in a telephone interview yesterday, former CBS newsman and author Bernard Goldberg told Inside the Beltway he writes about Mr. Imus' racial ignorance and pandering in his forthcoming book, due out next week, "Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right."

Besides calling the radio host a "weenie," Mr. Goldberg says, like many other white men Mr. Imus thinks that by saying "absurd" things about race he's showing racial sensitivity and manners.