Al Sharpton may get another chance to distract everyone from the massive IRS investigation into his personal and professional finances by seizing on another Don Imus eruption.  This morning, Imus discussed the case of Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, the NFL player that sat out 2007 with disciplinary suspensions and has been arrested a half-dozen times since being drafted the previous year.  While Imus’ news announcer talks about Jones’ desire to drop his nickname — it’s too “negative” now — Imus startled him with a question:

Imus: “What color is he?”

A: “He’s African American.”

Imus: “Well there you go… now we know.”

This may not be quite as overt as “nappy-headed ho’s”, but in listening to the clip, you can almost hear the smirk on Imus’ face as he replied to the answer. Put that together with the preceding “What do you expect at a nightclub?” sequence, and it looks like WABC may find out how it felt to be CBS Radio and MS-NBC in the prior controversy. Imus has not learned much since, it appears.

What difference would Jones’ color make in this case? Why would Imus even think to ask? I’m among those who think he got treated far too harshly the last time, but quite obviously Imus has …. issues.

Update: Michael Calderone picks up on this story at Politico as well.  If the RedLasso clip isn’t working for you, Politico has the audio.