Reader K.N. e-mails to inform us that Hillary Rodham Clinton didn’t exactly “apologize,” as we reported, for joking to her fellow Democrats that Mahatma Ghandi once ran “a gas station in St. Louis, as we reported (see “Hill-arious Hillary,” Jan. 9 below). Here’s K.N.’s message:
“Her words were something like: It was a lame attempt at humor. I’m sorry that anyone interpreted my comment as insensitive. Something like that. The point is: It was not an apology, but weasel words.”
Sounds as though Hillary issued what you might call a “liberal apology.” That’s where you apologize, not for what you said, but for how your listeners reacted to what you said. And I thought liberals didn’t believe in blaming the victim.
Reader S.B.H. says it was unfair of me to single out Howard Dean as a butt of mockery for suddenly getting religion as the primaries draw near (see “Got That New-Time Religion,” Jan. 9 below). According to S.B.H., Dubya was just as bad in 2000:
“While zealously campaigning for the presidency, George Bush deceivingly proclaimed himself to be a ‘born-again Christian Republican.’ As a result of this ostensibly miraculous primetime revelation, he was granted the Divine Crown by his apostles, assuring blind obedience from the enraptured disciples within their neoconservative flock. For the unquestioning devotees of this Oval Office prophet (messiah?), his campaign-trail testimony is indisputable evidence of veracity, loyalty, and wisdom. For the veteran defenders of liberty and self-governance, it is not.”
Hmm, S.B.H., I dunno about the “ostensibly.”