Where’s the outrage? Where’s Barack Obama’s condemnation of Alec Baldwin’s “verbal violence” – if not legal assault – on his 11 year-old daughter Ireland? Where is the rising tide of moral indignation and the clarion call for the ousting of the portly star of NBC’s 30 Rock? The one-day story has vanished. Why?

Just to re-cap: Last week, a boiling Baldwin unleashed a volcanic explosion of threats and insults on his daughter’s voice-mail after the young girl apparently missed his weekly telephone call. Screaming that she was a “thoughtless little pig,” and menacing her with threats to fly out to California and “straighten your ass out,” the ambassador of the liberal left continued to bash ex-wife Kim Bassinger among the litany of high-decibel trash talk. Before he hung up, Baldwin admonished the child, “You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me.”

A family court judge listened to the revealing tape and had the good sense to prevent Baldwin from meeting with his young daughter – about whose age, by the way, Sir Alec was unsure. A hearing is set for May 4, at which Baldwin could lose all visitation rights.

But back to the central question: Why is there no national movement to dump Baldwin from the airwaves as unceremoniously as Don Imus was shown to the parking lot?

The answer has twin prongs. First, Alec Baldwin is one of the iconic mouths of the liberal left. He is useful. He is one of the liberals’ ridiculous darlings – at least when the cameras are off, or when he knows they’re on. Imagine if it were Mel Gibson who left such abuse on one of his children’s voice mails. The crucifixation of Gibson would already be done.

Secondly, and more importantly, Don Imus was the victim of an electronic lynching. We can stipulate that what he said about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was foolish and insulting – and for which he should have some appropriate sanction.

But the public outrage and subsequent pullout of advertisers was not a natural groundswell of protest, but rather a carefully choreographed raid by a group called Media Watch, one of George Soros’ pets.

Here’s how it works: Liberal groups like Media Watch carefully monitor and record radio talk shows looking for meat. Before the sun came up on Don Imus’ fateful day when he mumbled what would become his death knell, Media Watch knew it had something. A quick listen to the tape confirmed the mother lode. Within minutes the email and fax chain began. You know how those things work if you ever were in a parent-teacher group – you contact five people, and they contact five people.

So Media Watch got to work, and by morning drive-time, not only were assignment editors, producers, and friendly reporters emailed and faxed, but tapes and transcripts were flying all over the country. Template letters to Imus’ advertisers were not far behind, and the digital lynching of Don Imus was underway, carefully ginned up by a small, smart mob. The rest is history.

By the way, wasn’t Alec Baldwin supposed to spend the Bush years in Paris? Maybe that’s why his daughter didn’t answer the phone.

Another week and Don Imus is still in the news. Even the senseless killings in Virginia can’t push Imus-talk off the airwaves. The sad shame of the affair is focusing the matter on Imus. We should more correctly rivet our attention on Al “Charlatan” Sharpton. Imagine, one of the most divisive race-baiters in modern history is now elevated as the arbiter of what is accepted speech. Could the country and culture ever descend into a darker Orwellian Animal Farm? I am afraid it can and will when Al Sharpton decides what gets the national imprimatur for decency.

A quick glance into Al Sharpton’s past puts perspective on Don Imus as but a foolish and aging radio has-been when compared to the horrific aftermath of Sharpton’s words during the so-called reverend’s career. Don Imus’ words were offensive to all people of common civility. Al Sharpton’s words of hatred have literally destroyed lives.

Last week, during Sharpton’s media orgy, I was puzzled why no reporter asked him about his role in the Tawana Brawley hoax of 1987, which ruined the reputations and lives of several innocent men. Or the Crown Heights deadly riots? Or the Freddy’s Fashion Mart slaughter?

Just to refresh our tired memory: Twana Brawley, a 15 year-old black girl from Wappingers Falls, New York, claimed she was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by a group of white men during the course of several days, one of whom she said had a badge. Even as her claim was falling apart (a grand jury later determined that the charges were completely fabricated) Sharpton continued to single out Steven Pagones, a young prosecutor, implicating him as one of the abductors. Sharpton went on the national TV and radio circuit, taunting Pagones. “If we’re lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it.” Pagones did just that, and won a $345,000 judgment against Sharpton for slander and defamation. Sharpton has yet to pay a dollar or offer an apology to Pagones or his family.

Moving right along to 1991, we have Sharpton’s hand helping to incite the deadly Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn. During a funeral motorcade, a Hasidic Jewish driver accidentally hit and killed Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black boy. Anti-Semitic riots quickly followed. At the boy’s funeral, Sharpton assailed the “diamond merchants” – barely disguised codespeak for Jews – who are responsible for “the blood of innocent babies.”

He helped organize hundreds of raging followers to storm through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, “No justice, no peace.” During the march, Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian rabbinical student, was surrounded by a mob shouting, “Kill the Jews!” and was then stabbed to death by one of Sharpton’s marchers.

And then there’s Sharpton’s role in the 1995 Freddy’s Fashion Mart fire and shooting, which left seven dead. After the United House of Prayer – a black-controlled landlord with considerable real estate in Harlen – raised the rent on Freddy’s Fashion Mart, Freddy’s Jewish proprietor subsequently hiked the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store, to help defray the higher costs.

When friction broke out between Freddy’s owner and the music store, Sharpton entered the fray with taunts of racial hatred. “We will not stand by,” he threatened, “and allow them to move this brother, so that some white interloper can expand his business.” Picket lines by Sharpton’s National Action Network taunted Freddy’s customers and became increasingly hostile. Those entering the store were cursed at, spat upon and called “Uncle Toms.” Some shouted, “Burn down the Jew store!” Sharpton’s colleague Morris Powell is quoted in several accounts saying, “We’re going to see that this cracker suffers.” Later, one of the protesters burst into the store, shot four employees, and set the building on fire. Seven perished in the blaze.

This is the Al Sharpton who sat before CBS network president Leslie Moonves last week and castigated Don Imus for 1.5 seconds of stupidity. This is the Al Sharpton who built a career on hate mongering and who now sits at the head table with the Democratic Party. The media court him. Politicians pander to him. And the bill collectors unsuccessfully chase him.

Al Sharpton is the Svengali of the new millennium in a $2000 suit.

As nice as it is to see Tony Soprano back on Sunday nights both Tony and the series are looking a little tired. Let’s hope for a satisfying end to the TV classic…Speaking of Sunday nights on HBO, I have known few agents like Ari Gold on Entourage, however Rex Linn’s portrayal of Ari’s put-upon-assistant Lloyd is spot on…Andy Hill reports that although Coach Wooden is feeling great, his doctors have decided to keep him in the hospital until Saturday citing an elevated heart rate. According to Andy, it’s Coach Wooden’s opinion that the reason he has an elevated heart rate is because he is in the hospital…I was glad to see justice done in the Duke lacrosse case. Still, with a little more adult supervision by the coaches, the unfortunate situation might not have occurred in the first place. Hopefully it was a wake up call for coaches everywhere. Your obligation doesn’t end when you put down your whistle….Hey, Don Imus, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

So, that un-funny fossil Don Imus finally got taken to task for trying to outdo Howard Stern. Imus was supposed to be a smart man’s Howard Stern or Jay Thomas, whose acts he has copied for years. He was never popular with the masses, only those Beltway elite would admit to listening to the original “shock jocks” Thomas and Stern.

But then again those Beltway elite are the same people who think Garrison Keillor and Mark Russell that piano player are funny – speaking of Imus, Jim Huber reports that today’s front page Atlanta Journal Constitution story on the Imus “nappy hair ho” incident is written by someone named Kenneth Ho. You can’t make that up…speaking of Huber, how great was his blog from the Augusta Tuna-Ment last week?…Expect former Michigan basketball coach Tommy Amaker to take the Harvard job this week. I wonder what Cole Wiley thinks about that…

Gas in California is up to $3.25 per gallon for regular this week. Highest average price in the country. Then again, it’s 75 degrees in Southern California as I write this…How big a weekend is this for the Minnesota Twins. On Friday Justin Morneau received his MVP award, on Saturday Johan Santana collects his Cy Young award, and on Sunday Joe Mauer picks up his Batting Title hardware. The classy Twins will bring in Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew for the festivities…Hall of Famers George Gervin and Artis Gilmore were in LA this past weekend to shoot a cameo in the new Will Farrell movie. Remember the ABA. Farrell plays the owner of the fictional Flint (Michigan) Tropics.