Howie Carr kicks the I-Man when he’s down, noting how quickly Don Imus’ latter-day liberal friends deserted him in his hour of need.

Poor I-man, kicked down the stairs like a Bob Gamere, abandoned by the Beautiful People he served so faithfully these past few decades. We won’t be MSNBC’ing the senile old crackhead anymore. No more summer party invitations from his media enablers in the Hamptons. Henceforth, he is a nobody on Nantucket.

Wherever will we get our fix of Doris Kearns Goodwin now?

And what’s the over-under on how many days until trophy-wife Deirdre walks out forever?

Don Imus – $10-million dollar salary, 10-cent brain. From the penthouse to the outhouse. …

But the most interesting thing about Imus’ sudden demise is how few of the assorted coatholders, front-runners, bumkissers and drive-by pundits who called in every morning could be bothered to stand up for the I-man in his moment of need.

These liberals may be good company at a cocktail party in Vail, but you wouldn’t want to share a foxhole with them. When the I-man’s phone didn’t ring, he knew it was Joe Lieberman. Or maybe Frank Rich.

Until his idiotic flameout, Don Imus was the nearest thing the liberals ever had to a success story in talk radio. He worshipped John Kerry. He fawned over Maureen Dowd. He cursed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. After Saddam was executed, Imus joked with a local plagiarist about how Dick Cheney would handle himself on the gallows.

Who knew Imus would walk the Green Mile before Karl Rove?

The I-man thought he was one of the Beautiful People, but in the end it turned out like one of those Bob Dylan songs he used to play going into the breaks. …

All his new so-called friends ran away and hid on him. Think about that unctuous NBC rumpswab David Gregory. Wednesday night, he went on MSNBC looking like his dog just got run over. But by yesterday morning, Gregory was back on top of his game. He apologized to Jesse Jackson for ever having gone on the Imus show.

But Gregory just did what was expected of him. When the going gets tough, the tough – hey, come back here!

The Beautiful People spent all week stampeding to the microphone to announce, as one female from Time magazine said yesterday, that they won’t be appearing on the Imus Show anymore.

No kidding, honey. Nobody will ever be appearing on the Imus show again, not even Imus.

How many regular-people talk-show listeners did Imus have at the end? Not many, would be my guess. Didn’t notice any truck-drivers blowing their horns in support, did you?

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. …

Too bad Imus “outgrew” all the people who used to listen to him on WNBC. Basically, he forgot who brung him to the dance.

Barney Frank – another target of Bernie McGuirk’s barbs – used to say that, as a politician, your base isn’t the people who will stand behind you when you’re right, but the people who will stand behind you when you’re wrong.

In the end, Imus had no one who would stand behind him, period. That’s why he won’t be down for breakfast.

And what can you say except, There’s no fool like an old fool.