In the "better late than never" category, it looks like the axe has fallen on the Tucker Carlson show on MSNBC. It wasn't his hysterical overreaction to the idea of being transgendered, or even his glee at recounting the story of his assault of a gay man who "bothered" him in a restroom. Those things were perfectly acceptable to MSNBC, but what they could not abide were low ratings.

He joins a list of loudmouth MSNBC "personalities" given the boot, including Don Imus, and Michael Savage, who was canned back in 2003 for telling a gay call-in viewer to "get AIDS and die". Unfortunately, even though his show is gone, Tucker will be sticking around. He's going to become a "political contributor" to the network at least through the 2008 election, popping up occasionally to give his two cents, ala Pat Buchanan.

The thought of the two of them prowling the halls of MSNBC like a lunatic Batman & Robin must be giving Keith Olbermann fits. There's no word yet on who Tucker's replacement will be, but hopefully the network will finally realize that trying to imitate Fox News is a lost cause.

You can watch the clip of Tucker's potty problem after the jump, but I still can't decide if he's exaggerating about the whole thing. What do you think?

• The LA Times' Tom O'Neil says Sweeney Todd is the movie to beat for 2007. Johnny Depp strikes again!

• SNL's Fred Armisen has had a long-running penpal relationship with John Waters that started when he was a kid. I thought he couldn't get any cooler than that brilliant Sam Waterson impression, but I was wrong.

• Someone's started a campaign to save Tucker Carlson's right-wing smugfest of a show? (Pause.) WAHAHAHAHAHA!

• I refuse to link directly to this hate group's website, but here's Towleroad's appropriately agog and thorough coverage of a new anti-gay marriage radio ad running in New Jersey. Lke the Garden State's reputation needs another hit?

• Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr was asked by CNN to explain his affiliations with Clinton's campaign and did so to a rather haughty John Roberts this morning. I like how Kerr thanks Roberts for "being so transparent" right at the end.

• Wayne Newton threatened to kick Johnny Carson's ass over gay jokes. You'd think the guy who sang "I'll be With You in Apple Blossom Time" would be more confident in his masculinity. Says Wayne:

Mr. Carson,' I said, 'I don't know what friend of yours I've killed, I don't know what child of yours I've hurt, I don't know what food I've taken out of your mouth... but these jokes about me will stop, and they'll stop now. Or I will kick your ass.'... Johnny Carson was a mean-spirited human being. There are people he has hurt that people will never know about. And, for some reason, at some point, he decided to turn that kind of negative attention toward me, and I refused to have it.

Just a quick update, in three easy bullet points:

• Tucker Carlson issued a press release which said that characterizing his raucous water-cooler tale of bathroom head-thumping as gay-bashing is "absurd and an insult";
• GLAAD called for an apology for the whole thing, noting that the press release not only does not serve as an appropriate apology, but also changes key details of the original story (now Carlson is saying that he was "assaulted" -- not just propositioned -- and that he did not react violently);
• MSNBC reran the piece including the mention that he had been propositioned as a teenager and stressing that he isn't gay, but without the back-slapping assault story that followed. Media Matters has a transcript of the follow-up broadcast.

Related: Tucker Carlson still worst contestant in the history of Dancing With the Stars.

After the jump, you'll find contact info for MSNBC and Tucker Carlson.

Nothing makes me laugh quite like a little gay-bashing humor. How about you?

Last night Tucker Carlson, Dan Abrams, and Joe Scarborough had a falling-down-laughing good time with the Larry Craig story on MSNBC. When Abrams seemed curious as to why Tucker had once indicated a person's sexual orientation wasn't actually anyone else's business, Carlson hastened to reassure him of the most important thing:

“Let me be clear, Dan. I’m not gay. I’ve never been gay. Over-reacted and made a poor decision…” (laughter)

To which Abrams, who isn’t just a big name at MSNBC but an attorney, responded, also laughing:

“And let me just say for the record, I’m not gay either.”

I mean, come on. This is funny stuff. But not anywhere near as funny as Abram's reaction when he found out Carlson has been approached by men for sex in public places; such things have apparently never happened to Abrams. What exactly did Carlson do, he asked, when he was approached?

In the manliest tone possible to use when one is giggling, Tucker replied:

“I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy.. and grabbed him… and hit him against the stall, actually.”

Then they all basically wet their pants laughing.