Demagogue

There was a time when people in the public eye would apologize for some trangression they'd committed. Then came what I began calling the non-apology apology -- someone essentially says, "I'm sorry that you were offended."

Now, it seems that people don't even bother going through the motions. From today's Washington Post column by Howard Kurtz:

It was hard not to notice the question at last month's presidential news conference.

Invoking Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harry Reid, reporter Jeff Gannon said: "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy .... How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Gannon writes for Talon News, a Web site whose reports also appear on another site, GOPUSA, whose self-declared mission is "Bringing the Conservative Message to America".

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan says President Bush didn't know who Gannon was and that it's "nonsense" to suggest the president was trying to get a sympathetic question. Gannon got a day pass to the White House, available to any journalist, commentator or blogger who writes for an audience.

... There was a whopping inaccuracy in Gannon's question when he told Bush that "Harry Reid was talking about soup lines." Jim Manley, a spokesman for the Senate minority leader, calls that "outrageous" and a "lie." Gannon concedes he picked up the characterization of Reid's views from a Rush Limbaugh monologue and that Reid never referred to soup lines, but he is unapologetic about using the phrase.

Gannon made a false statement about an elected official, and he seems to have admitted that his statement was false. But apologize? No way.

Gannon's a pig, but at least he didn't insult our intelligence by pretending to be sorry.