This is a mountain out of a molehill, all right. It’s not as if Imus threatened Cheney. He just made a recommendation for a type of justice that’s perfectly legal in the United States. Had Imus said, “I’m going to shoot Cheney” or “We need to get a mob together to lynch Cheney,” he would have been threatening the vice president in the former and inciting violence toward the vice president in the latter—neither of which I or the Secret Service consider to be acceptable.
For the record: class me with the opponents of the death penalty. As much as I loathe Cheney, I don’t believe in killing people. Death penalty advocates have to respect Don Imus for spreading their gospel, though (and no doubt they do—although most death penalty advocates are probably Republicans, I’d wager.)