An apology should not be mud-groveling

I thought Shuster’s comment re Chelsea was tasteless and classless and said so.

But I also think MSNBC’s groveling response to it is way overboard. An apology. A few days in the penalty box and a memo saying “grow up and class up, people” would have more than met the case.

Since the “pimp” remark, MSNBC, the most penitent sinner I’ve ever heard of, has already cancelled programming to promote Mrs. Clinton.

Now this apology – this “without limit” apology by Keith Olbermann is so over the top and emphatic as to be one step behind putting his own face in the mud. It rather reminds me of a king’s servant bowing down until his forehead is on the floor and his rear is in the air for kicking.

Thankfully, someone has interspersed his seriously grave and obsequious apology with other tape highlighting some rank hypocrisy most of us were probably not aware of – it’s brilliant. H/T Sister Toldjah.

Our discourse is too course, and I still say it. But I if it is going to be coarse, at least let the outrage be consistent. Did no one in the press apologize for Bush being accused of “pimping” Petraeus? No, Petraeus is not Bush’s daughter. But he is the honorable general who has served the nation and turned Iraq around, even as Mrs. Clinton declared, before hearing his testimony, that it would require a “willing suspension of disbelief.”

Petreaus deserves at least as much respect as Chelsea Clinton, of whom Shuster said – in his apology – “all Americans should be proud.”

No. We should be proud of our nation, our military and our ideals, and our own families…but of the first daughters? It’s a bridge too far.

I respect Chelsea Clinton. She is the daughter of a president and she seems to be a lovely young woman. But, like Ann Althouse, I do not think “all Americans should be proud” of her.

This thing has been apologized-for all out of proportion. As Mortman says: It’s hard to read about MSNBC’s relationship to the mothership Clinton campaign these days without being reminded of Vichy France.

It is starting to feel that way. Surber wonders why no one will tell Hillary to buzz off. Seems to me the only one who dares to do that is Obama, and he deserves some props for seeming to be utterly indifferent to her power or her reach. Good for him.