Howard Kurtz’s WaPo column today concerns the kerfuffle over Tim Page’s angry email to Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry’s office that we told you about yesterday. As you’ll recall, Page, who writes about classical music for the Post, received an unsolicited press release from Barry’s office about the city’s deal with Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. Page then fired off an angry email in which he called the former mayor “worthless,” a “crack addict,” and that Barry wouldn’t interest him even if he suffered an “overdose.” The Post then placed Page on leave, though he had already been planning to take a sabbatical beginning Jan. 1.

“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve done in 30 years in journalism,” music critic Tim Page said yesterday. “I hope people won’t judge me on this one explosion.” …

Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. called Page’s e-mail “a terrible mistake” and said he has taken “appropriate internal action,” but neither he nor Page would disclose it.

We also learn from Kurtz that Page’s anger may have been fueled by having been cursed by a Barry staffer during an earlier phone request to be taken off the e-mail list — though Barry’s aide, Andre Johnson, said he had no record or memory of such a conversation.

Page has written a letter of apology to Johnson, in which he said that he was “deeply ashamed for what I did and I know how hurtful my words could be.” Barry had called for Page’s dismissal from the paper yesterday, but Kurtz says that the council member had a conversation with Downie in which Barry accepted an apology.