As a Christian, I’m tired of seeing people break laws, both moral and legal, and apologizing with lame statements like:
- “I made a mistake.”
- “I showed poor judgment.
>Last night, on Jay Leno’s premiere (good start, BTW), I watched Kanye West apologize for his outrageous behavior toward Taylor Swift at that awards show. Perspective alert: this was an AWARDS show. But it was rude, and I wish there could be some penalty beyond gaining more bad-boy cred.
I watched Serena Williams’s terrible behavior toward that line judge in the US Open. It cost her the match, plus $10,000 in pocket change. She ALSO gave a sincere public apology. But hurray that there were actual penalties for her behavior.
Today, Congress votes on a public reprimand for Joe Wilson, the lowest form of censure. I’m sure the right-wing pundit opinion-leaders will decry this, calling it purely partisan. That he said, “I’m sorry,” and that should be enough. I’m sure they would agree that an apology from Serena Williams should have sufficed, too. No additional penalty needed. In fact, let’s play the point over.
Wilson demonstrated outrageous before millions of people. He broke House rules which he had agreed to follow, and dishonored Congress and the President. Yet plenty of Republicans will say “I’m sorry,” is enough, that there should be no additional penalty. If it was a Democrat dissing a Republican president, they would be in favor of censure. But not in this case.
Because their views are not based on principle, but on partisanship.
Perhaps you can guess how I feel about it.
