I DON'T want an apology from Bush & Co.

[eileen from OH]

I thought about this alot after the Bush (insert laughter here) press conference and after watching the 911 commission.

Apologies are cheap and easy. I don't want an "I'm sorry" - mebbe because I worked with a guy who would PLAN on screwing me over (figuratively) and then apologize. He got his own way, and then could come off looking all noble and regretful and shit. And it was totally insincere.

I want Bush to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. That's harder and a lot more honest. The biggest sign of a being a grown up is owning up that you did something and if it messed up, it was yours.

That's what I think Clarke did - he couched it as an apology, but it was really a statement that he did all he could, but it wasn't enough, and he bore some responsibility for what happened. For that he will always be my hero.

We, of course, will get neither from Bush. The apology I can live without - there WERE oversights leading up to 911, by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. What is unforgivable is that Bush will not take responsibility for his own actions and decisions. It's dishonest, deluded, and dangerously, dangerously, childish.

eileen from OH

[Old and In the Way]

1. It's a character thing, eileen.

Something he does not possess. A quick scan of his biography confirms this. When has he ever taken personal responsibility for anything? Why would we expect him to change now?

[Eric J in MN]

2. Unless Bush actually resigned, I wouldn't feel he was

Unless Bush actually resigned, I wouldn't feel he was taking responsibility, no matter what he said.

[physioex]

3. No Waayyy!!

No apology wanted or required....Did you expect an apology from Limbaugh when he made comments about a black quarter black?? No Shrub has to go it's that simple.

[tkmorris]

4. Well put

You just defined part of a concept that in my mind is called "honor". Others may call it something different but whatever you call it it is the most important measure of a human being that they posess that quality.

Bush doesn't. Very few in politics do actually but he is a particularly heinous example of someone who has no honor at all. He IS just the patsy in this administation, there are others far more dangerous than he. I grant him no pass for that however, he has the responsibility to be his own man, if he fails to be such it's his failure.

I agree with you. No apology from him will do anything but stink up the place with it's oozing insincerity. So, like you, I'll take a pass.

[Nobody]

5. If he does apologize, I won't accept it

First, he's so lacking in character that he won't even make a non-apology of the "I'm sorry you were offended" type. Those piss me off.

Second, Even if he was able to sound sincere and say all the right things, there are no right things to say.

Third, you're right. Actions and taking responsibility is what is important. He is capable of neither.

Fourth, how do you apologize and mean it for disregarding the previous administration's warnings about Al Qaeda, going on a month-long vacation 6 months after you've started a new job, and when an emergency comes up in the form of the Aug 6th memo STAYING ON FREAKING VACATION.

Imagine that you are the IT person and you're on call. You're at a movie. Your pager goes off and when you call in you discover that all of the servers are down. What do you do? If you're George Bush, you ignore the emergency and stay at the movie theater and stick around for the next showing to see what you've missed. If you're anyone else, you grumble and go in to deal with the servers.

[susu369]

6. Actually, genuine apolgies are NOT cheap and easy

but I certainly agree with you Eileen that Bu$h must take responsibility.

Mark Morford has an excellent column:

Why Won't Dubya Apologize?
Botched 9/11 info, two botched wars, a gutted economy, global scorn. Why can't W be a man?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2004/04/21/notes042104.DTL

"There comes a time. There comes a time in every raw dumb imperfect beleaguered human's life when s/he has to face the music and pay the piper and fess up to his or her crimes and misdemeanors and blatant careening flubs and heartless gaffes and whoa where the hell was my brain that time sorry sorry sorry."

[kcwayne]

7. I don't want an apology, I want an impeachment

followed by a Guyana picnic with free Kool-Aid for PNAC.