With me and Don Imus it is personal, and it has been since he trashed my friend Jacqueline Lennon live on MSNBC early one morning in February 2000.

Jacq is an exceptionally fine R&B singer who also manages events for Radio & Records, the radio industry trade paper. That year, for reasons that must have seemed like a good idea at the time, R&R had decided to honor Imus with its Talk Radio Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Washington that month.

I only watch Imus when nothing else is on, so there I was at 5:30 in the morning, listening to him railing about R&R, which he called “cheesy,” and the award, which he seemed to think branded him a has-been prematurely. He was also upset that R&R had had the temerity to send him a form letter asking for information about credentials for his guests, I think, which was an affront to his enormous ego. He was particularly pissed off at the person who signed the letter — Jacqueline Lennon, whom he called a “moron” more than once.

I knew he was just using her as a foil for his tantrum — a convenient target for his monkeypoo. But what kind of jerk goes on national television and trashes a well-meaning staff member on an event in his honor over something so trivial?

What’s interesting here is the status of Imus’ coziness within the Gang of 500, many of whom were frequent call-in guests on his show. Today he made things worse by criticizing Brian Williams’ coverage of the story on the NBC Nightly News last night. Sponsors, including Proctor & Gambel, have already pulled ads from his shows.