I note that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid broke with the customary Beltway style a week or two ago to apologize for a report released by his office that was critical of the GOP.
"I am writing to apologize for the tone of this document and the decision to single out individual senators for criticism in it," Reid said. The document, he wrote, "went too far, and I want to convey to you my personal regrets. . . . No one cares more about the Senate and its tradition of collegiality than I do."
It's refreshing to see a politician taking responsibility for crossing a line, and (even more shocking) apologizing. The reaction from the other side of the aisle is probably predictable in a situation like this. But how do you think Reid's fellow Democrats reacted to his action?
"News Flash: Democrats Are Idiots"
Paul Waldman posted:
"I'll try to contain my fury over this.
Today brings us yet another iteration in the old story: Democrats get tough with Republicans. Republicans whine. At this point, no one is paying attention. Democrats say, oh no, someone is saying we're being mean! Democrats apologize. Media trumpets apology. Democrats look like wimps, yet again.
This time, it's Harry Reid, who under ordinary circumstances we would expect to know better. Long story short, his staff put out a press release touting Republican involvement in myriad scandals. Republicans thought it was too tough and bitched about it. So Reid wrote a letter of apology, which is now the subject of a page 1 story in the New York Times, in addition to stories in the Washington Post and who knows how many other places.
How many god damn times do we have to go over this? I have no illusions that the Senate leadership is reading the Gadflyer, but maybe someone out there could give them a clue. This is not rocket science: DON'T APOLOGIZE. Don't, don't, don't, for pete's sake don't apologize. How many different ways can I say it? DON'T APOLOGIZE.
Because when you apologize, the story becomes that you've gone too far and wound up on your knees begging for forgiveness. And all of a sudden we're not talking about Republican corruption anymore, we're talking about how Democrats are both mean and wimpy. This is why Republicans NEVER apologize for anything. Because they understand how this game is played.
Every day the prospect of the Democrats taking back the Congress and the White House seems more likely, and every day they seem more and more determined to reduce that prospect with their own stupidity."
And even one step further than that:
D103486posted:
"When do you ever hear the GOP apologizing to Democrats for anything? Never. Reid either has to have the guts to call a spade a 'spade' and stand behind his and other Dems statements or step aside and let someone with cajones fill the position."
So what's the message here? Engage in the same kind of bare-knuckles, civility-be-damned, never apologize behavior that we abhor or we'll get rid of you and choose someone who will.
The harpies rage, and the cycle of revenge rolls on. "When will it end? When will it be calm? / When will it sleep, this fury, this Ruin?" (lines 1074-76, Aeschylus. Oresteia. Trans. Peter Meineck. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.)