Well, I suppose it's an apology

July 18, 2007

Well, I suppose it's an apology

... or at least, what passes for one these days.

What burns my gut is that we have so many of our elected officials and public figures making immoderate and ill-considered remarks like Congressman Ellison's of the other day. Whatever happened to sober, thoughtful and LOGICAL expressions of opinion?

It seems that in this day of the All Powerful Soundbite™, the more outrageous you are, the more likely you are to be quoted. The more you're quoted, the more publicity you get. *sigh*

God forbid we should have people in the public service who are humble and self-effacing - people who go into government at great personal cost to be a servant to the public, rather than puffing themselves up.

clipped from news.yahoo.com

"In hindsight, I wouldn't have used that reference point," Ellison told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday. "It was probably inappropriate to use that example, because it's a unique historical event, without really any clear parallels."

Ellison said he remains harshly critical of the Bush administration.

"I believe that they have exploited the fears that grew from 9/11, in order to pass legislation and even start wars they could have never gotten away with but for that tragedy," he said.