I don't know whether the Clintons had anything to do with the decision to give Imus the axe, but if what Glenn Reynolds linked earlier is any indication, taking him down might have been might have been more than a little shortsighted:

...today, with Imus' career in tatters, the fate of the controversial shock jock is stirring quiet but heartfelt concern in an unlikely quarter: among Democratic politicians.

That's because, over the years, Democrats such as Ford came to count on Imus for the kind of sympathetic treatment that Republicans got from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.

Equally important, Imus gave Democrats a pipeline to a crucial voting bloc that was perennially hard for them to reach: politically independent white men.

With Imus' show canceled indefinitely because of his remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, some Democratic strategists are worried about how to fill the void. For a national radio audience of white men, Democrats see few if any alternatives.

"This is a real bind for Democrats," said Dan Gerstein, an advisor to one of Imus' favorite regulars, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). "Talk radio has become primarily the province of the right, and the blogosphere is largely the province of the left. If Imus loses his microphone, there aren't many other venues like it around."

And now there's a vacuum:

Jim Farrell, a former aide to 2000 presidential candidate and Imus regular Bill Bradley, said the firing "creates a vacuum."

This week, when Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) was asked by CNN why he picked Imus' show to announce his presidential candidacy, Dodd explained: "He's got a huge audience; he gives you enough time to talk, not a 30-second sound bite, a chance to explain your views; ... and a chance to reach the audience who doesn't always watch the Sunday morning talk shows."

Though Imus was a regular destination for the likes of Dodd, Ford, Lieberman, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kerry and others -- as well as such GOP figures as Sen. John McCain of Arizona -- his influence has long been debated.

Talkers Magazine ranks him far below Limbaugh and liberal Ed Schultz in terms of power. His audience is dwarfed by many others, and he is not heard in some major markets [though his show was simulcast on cable TV]. One senior Democratic strategist, requesting anonymity to avoid insulting some of his party's power players, said the show was no more than a "locker room for middle-age politicians."

Not all high-level Democrats were drawn to the self-styled "I-Man." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a party presidential front-runner and a frequent target of Imus' jokes, said she never had the desire to appear.

While I wish Hillary's desire not to appear wasn't limited to the Don Imus Show, next week she's appearing at Rutgers to beat on the corpse of Imus.

I doubt she'll use the phony black accent, though. Not after this campaign ploy:

I mean, it's not as if Hillary is in the entertainment business.

Handy as it might be right now to have Imus as a punching bag (and regardless of whether his removal was a coincidence), I don't think the Hillary campaign will ultimately benefit from the loss of Imus as much as they might think. The emotion this might generate is temporary; it's not as if they're really in the heat of battle.

If Hillary's campaign had been thinking longterm, and really knew how to intelligently pull strings, they'd have made Imus grovel, beg, and crawl, with an ultimate goal of forcing him into being one of Hillary's sincerest (and most grateful) campaign supporters.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I want it noted that I resisted the temptation to be mean-spirited and nasty, and I deliberately did not link Hillary's campaign image to her husband's postcard (which I think should be forgiven).

But will the campaign thank me? I think not.

UPDATE: My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post, and welcome all!

UPDATE: Fred Lundgren (who has been in the radio business for decades) owns KCAA, 1050 AM, Loma Linda, California. While he doesn't sympathize with Imus's remarks, Lundgren says this is an overreaction, and refuses to do as the big networks tell him, so he's planning to run Imus reruns next week:

"I hate to say it, but without Imus, we're pretty much toast," said Lundgren, adding: "What Imus did was deplorable, inexcusable, but it shouldn't end the career of a man who has done so much good. This is an overreaction beyond anything I've ever seen in radio."

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer links an excellent column by black columnist Jason Whitlock:

I don't listen or watch Imus' show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it's cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they're suckers for pursuing education and that they're selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I'll get upset. Until then, he is what he is -- a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you're not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There's no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.