"What Sen. Kerry said was inappropriate," said Clinton (D-N.Y.), campaigning in upstate Kingston yesterday.
"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended," he said.
Though I can do without the offensive editorial campaign portraying Kerry doing stand-up among coffins, my local paper had a pretty good account of this story today, including putting Kerry's remarks side by side with his scripted ones (a stiff sort, especially with humor, him flubbing his lines is not surprising ... Al Franken/Tom Oliphant also suggested there is some video evidence of the fact). This was more than some reports supplied, even though it was clear to everyone (even Bill O'Reilly) that he didn't intend to offend.
So, the feigned horror was all an overblown put-on act, a diversion from repeated actual insults and harm to the troops. You know (see Talking Points Memo) like the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives blaming the troops for the fubar situation in Iraq. But, like the loser he can't help being, Kerry decided to get some defeat out of a clear victory. Flubbing the line was not enough for him, nooooo, he had to "apologize" for people misunderstanding him, when any reasonable moron knows he did not mean anything bad concerning the troops.
Hey, not that I blame him alone. A nod of scorn to those who "suggested" he do something like this. Talking about Al Franken, he opened his show noting the "apology" (but, he only ... he APOLOGIZED ... clearly he did something wrong ... Tony Snow got to go on O'Reilly and say that all is well now ... this is all we wanted him to do, you see ...) and said Kerry was right to do so. Tom Oliphant, the libbie commentator, even criticized Kerry's first instinct ("sigh, fighting the Swift Boaters again ...") to actually stick to his guns. To focus on the true wrongdoers.
This is sad. I'm not going to defend or deny [we need to understand and fight it, sure enough] the dirt of the Republicans and their enablers, but let's be adults here, okay? Politics is a dirty business, and we have to deal with dirty people. More so now than ever in some respects. It is not very well just to whine about how the other side twisted your words, etc. Democrats in the 1860s used the "they want to marry your daughters off to niggers" [I use the word advisedly] strategy a lot. Republicans didn't just cry about it. First, since they knew many irrationally did fear that. Two, since it would only further the claim.
A way to go would have been to "explain" (given his nature ... some would just change the subject, focusing on what actually is important) what you meant (even if you do something wrong, it is not best to "apologize" is possible), while framing the discussion your way ... note your service of the troops, how you actually were among them, and how ridiculous it is that your words were twisted. If you want to say you are sorry, do so in a sarcastic way (maybe, he can't handle that ... he would flub his lines), "so sorry, they thought a veteran who helped Sen. McCain find MIAs would insult troops given their all for their country."
But, hey, I'm not a politician. What do I know?
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* The title of the piece is a reference to the Dixie Chicks song, which will be the recurring metaphor for the time being until it is totally played. Perhaps, I am overusing it, but remember we have to make up for the fact they aren't being "played" in many major markets.