Hatch began to talk about Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, and said he thinks that a lot of these leaks are coming from the witnesses themselves – then attacks Anne Lewis and James Carville: "They blame everybody but themselves."

IMUS [on Paul Begala]: "I told him he's the guy I want to talk to when my payola scandal hits. They take him seriously."

HATCH: "They do?"

IMUS: "He [Starr] probably isn't [conducting a partisan investigation], but they [The White House staff] have done a good job."

HATCH: "Yes, but in this case, this is an issue of public behavior,"

IMUS [adding as an aside]: "If these allegations are true."

HATCH: "If these allegations are true, we have the spectacle of a President picking on the female staff."

IMUS: "But don't we need some evidence?"

HATCH: "I think we are going to see some startling stuff out of Starr's office soon... [I haven't talked to him] but I expect it."

This is a Hatch leak! Of course he's talked to Starr or someone real close to him, and probably every day since the Lewinsky allegations broke.

Hatch continued: "Starr is a very practical, very honest, down to earth guy... considered by everyone as a great guy..."

This was the single most outrageous statement by Hatch, and Imus just let it go – something that bothers us. Starr has conducted more than 50 public interviews during his $60 million "investigation" of Clinton, and is not clawing at a sex scandal as proof of his genius. C'mon. "A very honest guy?" True to himself, perhaps. A man who takes millions from Big Tobacco, the President's biggest corporate enemy, and also accepts a chair at Pepperdine funded by billionaire Clinton Hater Richard Mellon Scaife, who backs maniacs like Chris Ruddy and Dan Burton, who believe Hillary and Bill Clinton had their best friend, Vince Foster, murdered. How someone as savvy as Imus lets Hatch get away with this caca de toro is unexplainable, except to come to the conclusion that Imus has jointed the Clinton-bashing team. Subtle, but effective.

HATCH: "There's nothing that stops the president from speaking out now. He ought to say he's been advised by counsel not to talk... I think he will have to tell what happened eventually."

IMUS: "If I were gonna play something from this album what would that be?"

HATCH: "I'd like you to play what I wrote for Mohammed Ali, ha, haha, haha. Madeleine Snowe, she's Jewish, but won a Christian Music Award, heh heh heh. I don't sleep well at night. And that's why I write this stuff at night, I still work 18 hours a day..."

Oh, brother.

"We'll play one of these things," says Imus – then he goes to an Alan Freed clip and doesn't.