It's time for some people to pay the price.

I'm not talking about Don Imus, whom I disliked until the last few days, when he showed a great deal of class when compared to those who gleefully ran him out of his job.

I'm talking about the high-and-mighty moralists, the professional "victims" and agenda-driven jerks who piled on after Imus made a stupid remark, one of many he has made in his career.

Start with Les Moonves, the headman at CBS, who was perfectly happy to pay Imus millions of dollars each year to be offensive until he heard from a legion of black "victims" and suddenly got religion, so to speak.

Then consider Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two race-baiting extortionists who have, over the years, caused more damage with their mouths and actions than Imus could in three lifetimes. Remember the Tawana Brawley case? Remember "Hymietown?" Where are their apologies for reprehensible behavior? Simple answer: because they are in the forefront of selling guilt to whites and casting the black population as perennial "victims" -- and making a damn fine living from doing so, mind you -- they are immune from the consequences of their words and actions.

Add in all those who have gone on Imus's show to further their careers, knowing full well what his act consists of, but now turn their back on him.

And, finally, add the Rutgers women's basketball team, who, in order to "stand strong" (as one of them put it) whimpered that Imus had "taken all the joy from their victory" and "scarred them for life." That, friends, is moral cowardice. Three words from Imus and they wanted, needed to have him fired? If any of them listen to and enjoy sexist, vicious, demeaning-to-women rap "music," as I suspect at least some do, their moral cowardice is deeper still.

The initial push to destroy Imus came from a left-wing group called "Media Matters," which has people watching TV and listening to the radio full-time in order to catch any slip of the tongue that can help further their agenda. One of their paid snitches picked up on Imus's comment and made sure every loudmouth liberal and professional victim in the country knew about it within minutes.

Free speech -- ain't it wonderful?

And while we're on the subject of apologies: Messrs Jackson and Sharpton would be on the hook for another big one -- along with a whole bunch of others -- if there was real justice in this country.

Sharpton and Jackson, along with the president and 80-plus professors at Duke University, a district attorney seeking re-election by showing the black population of Durham, NC that he was "on their side," Newsweek magazine, the New York Times and many more, decided the three Duke lacrosse players who were accused of rape by an apparently intoxicated stripper were guilty long before they faced a jury. Never mind the fact that the accuser, one Crystal Mangum, couldn't keep her story straight, never mind that the D.A. falsified evidence and suppressed DNA tests results that proved she was lying, never mind that at least two of the three players had solid proof they weren't even there when the so-called "rape" took place; all these "solid citizens" rushed to judgment because the men were white and the "victim" was black.

Who will make amends to these three?

They can legitimately claim to be "scarred for life."

Oddly enough, none of the three have yet called for Sharpton and Jackson to lose their "jobs." Nor have they insisted that the president of Duke, the professors, the staffs at Newsweek or the New York Times should be fired. Heck, they haven't even insisted that Mangum be arrested for filing a false police report.

I'm not as classy as they are, so I'll do it for them. Each one of them should pay, and pay big for the damage they caused.

It won't happen, of course.

It has taken far too long for race relations in this country to settle down as much as they have. The next great upheaval may well come when white people realize they have been played for fools by so-called "black leaders" and their cadres of professional victims. No scam, even when fronted by hard-core scammers like Sharpton and Jackson, lasts forever.

Oh yes, there's racism in this country. But all races engage in it and, these days, only one pays the big price.

Either we all will grow up and accept each others' failings without the kind of rancor that washed over Imus and the three Duke lacrosse players, or we will sink back into the swamp of racial divide and acrimony as Jackson, Sharpton, their followers and white liberals carrying the burden of phony "guilt" want us to.

Let he -- or she -- who can honestly say they have never spoken an insult cast the first stone.

That way, no stones will be cast, and we will live in a happier, more tolerant nation where the word "equality" really means something.