L.A. Times Mystified as to Why GOP Won’t Accept Dick Durbin’s Ever-So-Sincere Apology
Dick Durbin apologized for comparing Gitmo to the horrors of concentration camps run by Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. But that crazy GOP just won’t accept it.
That is the theme of today’s L.A. Times article on Dick Durbin’s so-called apology. The article is titled Sen. Durbin’s Regret for Remarks Not Enough for GOP.
“Sen. Durbin’s Regret.” That’s a hell of an interesting headline for a guy who had this to say in a radio interview conducted on Friday morning:
Q: No regrets on the statements you made?
Durbin: No, I don’t, and I’ll tell you why. I went to the floor and read a memo from the FBI. This isn’t something I made up.
Durbin was offered many chances in the interview to retract his ridiculous comparison. He declined. He was asked if he was surprised at the backlash, and guess who he blamed it on? You got it — that vast right-wing conspiracy:
Q: Are you surprised at all this backlash?
Durbin: Yes, I am. Well, I shouldn’t be. I have seen it happen before. What happens is this, for your listeners, so they understand now. The people on the other side, the president’s supporters, have a pretty substantial network behind them. The first thing they do when they get angry and decide to focus on something, my statement obviously was their focus, they start their blogs, which I don’t pay a lot of attention to but some people do. The next thing you know is it moves into this talk radio. I became a poster child for Rush Limbaugh. He put my number on his radio show. People called from all around the country. The Washington Times, a very conservative, Republican newspaper, puts a front page story about me on there. The White House lashes out at me, and pretty soon the mainstream media, it just follows. It has happened time and time again.
That was Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, Durbin’s only regret appeared to be that others had misunderstood him: “I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support.”
Do you think that it would have helped L.A. Times readers to understand GOP outrage if they had been told that, earlier that same morning, Durbin had maintained that he had no regrets for the statements? I do. But that is nowhere mentioned in the article. Instead, we hear that the guy has apologized, but that the rotten stinkin’ GOP won’t accept the heartfelt apology:
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant minority leader, subsequently said he regretted that his comments were misunderstood as criticism of U.S. troops. But Republicans have continued to call for a more forthright apology.
. . . .
“I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood,” he said in a written statement. “I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support.”
But that language, Republicans said, was not enough. On Saturday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin because his statement of regret did not retract the comparison.
The closest the article comes to alerting readers to Durbin’s hypocrisy is to say that he “initially seemed unrepentant.” Initially? What about on Friday morning, when he said he had no regrets? The paper skips over that and says: “By Friday, however, he relented.”
No. On Friday morning, he seemed unrepentant. On Friday afternoon, he “relented” to the extent of being sorry that others were too thick to understand what he was really saying.
If Durbin were a Republican making a ridiculous statement about policies of a Democratic administration, his Friday morning remarks would have been the focus of the story.
Instead we get a headline talking about “Sen. Durbin’s Regret.” Nice.
Let’s remember that Trent Lott had to resign as a result of his Strom Thurmond remarks.
James Pappas (d5d25d) — 6/20/2005 @ 8:30 am>>
It’s not much of an apology if his spokesperson on Sunday is saying that he still stands by the statement.
As for the LA Times, let’s note that in today’s California section they turn a story on a nursing home neglect investigation into another anti-Arnold straffing by giving it the misleading headline “Gov’s Donor Under Fire.” Huh, what does that have to do with the story? NOTHING.
The article acknowledges that the governor has never interceded on the nursing home’s behalf nor could they cite any bill that he acted on that affected their business.
And don’t let me get going on Steve Lopez…
Insider (595cf3) — 6/20/2005 @ 8:58 amDurbin is out claiming to be a victim – claiming his reputation is damaged because there are people too dumb to understand what he has said. He regrets there are people who misunderstand him. The LA Times recently had their own Nazi moment – its easy to see how they have sympathy for the Durbin tactic:
As someone born and raised in the shadow of the Third Reich, [Schwarzenegger] should also know better than to be fanning this anti-foreigner frenzy.
This insane spin is sort of funny, though: “We don’t mean to say these people have any of the evil qualities of Hitler, but Schwarzenegger, Bush, Soldiers and Hitler all like candy! We don’t mean to say they have killed 20 Million people in Gitmo, nor do we want you to think about whether that is true, but Gitmo and Gulags both detained enemies of the state. And they both start with G.”
clp (91b3b2) — 6/20/2005 @ 9:49 amIt’s not much of an apology if his spokesperson on Sunday is saying that he still stands by the statement.
I read the spokescreature’s statement as saying he stands by his Friday afternoon statement — you know, the non-apology apology.
Patterico (34b5c8) — 6/20/2005 @ 9:56 amWhy is the Amnesty International comment not getting this level of attention, for this long? That one seems to be fading into memory. But in my opinion that one was much, much worse. Because unlike this one, which is arguably open to some interpretation, the “gulag” statement was a direct accusation that leaves no wiggle room. They said our system of terrorist detention IS the gulag of our times. The sheer scope of that statement is mind-boggling to anyone who has read the works of Solzhenitsyn. To be equally noxious, Durbin would have to say, “Our soldiers are Nazis.” Which is not what he said, and not what he meant to say. The whole “compared our troops to Nazis” thing is a paraphrase. But Amnesty International said exactly what it meant, and their insult was far more serious. The Nazis were amateurs compared to the Soviets.
steve M. (107ded) — 6/20/2005 @ 10:50 amAmnesty International is Amnesty International. This guy is a U.S. Senator. Big difference. I think that explains it.
Patterico (f2ecaa) — 6/20/2005 @ 10:54 amI take your point, but Amnesty International has a much bigger audience worldwide than Sen. Durbin, and there are one or two people out there, for example Europe, for whom what they say carries a lot of weight.
steve M. (107ded) — 6/20/2005 @ 12:41 pmTo that I say, Steve M., so what. Durbin is not only a US Senator, he’s the left wingnut whip of the Senate Democrat caucus. Yes, he’s second to Sen. Harry Reid in the Democrat Senate leadership.
Elite Europeans are so left wingnut that we should pat them on the head and ignore their rants.
Charles D. Quarles (593219) — 6/20/2005 @ 2:45 pmDurbin might have embellished the FBI memo.
Fox News article on June 17th (towards the bottom) “One knowledgeable official familiar with the memo cited by Durbin as well as other memos said the FBI agent made no such allegation and that the memo described only someone chained to the floor. Anything beyond that is simply an interpretation, the
official said.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159844,00.html
Via Froggy Rumminations.
If this is correct the Durbin needs to be fired and censured
Davod (51e146) — 6/20/2005 @ 2:58 pmSupper: 6/20/2005
Try one of these specials with your supper: Patterico looks at the L.A. Times and
basil's blog (af7df9) — 6/20/2005 @ 3:00 pm“One knowledgeable official familiar with the memo cited by Durbin as well as other memos said the FBI agent made no such allegation and that the memo described only someone chained to the floor. Anything beyond that is simply an interpretation, the
official said.”
The memos have been released. They were part of an ACLU FOIA. There’s really no need to look at knowledgeable officials familiar with the memo. Anonymous or not.
actus (3be069) — 6/20/2005 @ 3:36 pmGreat. Do you have a link to the memos?
Patterico (58c92d) — 6/20/2005 @ 3:48 pmLink to the memo is below (From Hugh Hewitt)
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI_5053_5054.pdf
Davod (51e146) — 6/20/2005 @ 4:39 pmNot Letting Up
However, since I’m in the middle of writing my second 1000-word paper in as many days, go watch Patterico smack down his usual target: the Los Angeles Times. This time it’s about—who else—Senator Dick Durbin and why few are willing
baldilocks (af7df9) — 6/20/2005 @ 4:50 pm“Link to the memo is below (From Hugh Hewitt)”
The power of the self correcting blogosphere.
actus (3be069) — 6/20/2005 @ 6:00 pmLooks like it’s time for the “knowledgable official” to be outed. He is as full of crap as the knowledgeable official who confirmed the Koran-flushing story.
Patterico (756436) — 6/20/2005 @ 6:14 pmYou gotta wonder who the idiot was that went to a “knowledgeable official” on something public.
actus (3be069) — 6/20/2005 @ 7:03 pmAren’t you glad that the truth came out about the accuracy of the DSM and quickly nipped vicious rumor in the bud, actus? Much better, I’d say, than repeating a falsehood over and over again until everyone *thinks* the falsehood is true.
Juliette (833bfb) — 6/20/2005 @ 7:14 pmWhen was it made public? I have been studying for several weeks and haven’t kept up on current events as well as I’d like. Actus, do you know when this document came out?
Patterico (756436) — 6/20/2005 @ 8:02 pmSince when has the Senate minority dumbass apologized to the American people, much less the victims of Stalin’s gulag, among them my maternal grandmother’s people? It is clear that the Dhimmocratic Party has descended into a mentality that can only be called puppetry! Durbin has clearly brought the Dhimmocrats down on the side of the bin Ladin’s mass murders! Hey Dhimmis, how do you feel? The people who have been waiting for your support can only look forward to the continuing Janjaweed murdering flocks celebrated by your cocktail party politics!
The next time you go outside, take a good long look in your rear view mirrors. We patriots like to party also. You may want to reconsider your previous cowardly actions in support of Stalino-Fascist organisations that call themselves liberal. How strange that the supposed illiterates can sort the wheat from the shit a whole lot faster than you!
Mescalero (a5e9bc) — 6/20/2005 @ 8:34 pm“When was it made public? I have been studying for several weeks and haven’t kept up on current events as well as I’d like. Actus, do you know when this document came out?”
Going back a couple of directories on that link gets me to:
http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/
However, I did not find it there, so I looked around and found it on this page:
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/010505.html
Which has it being released by the government on 12/15/04, and by the ACLU on 1/5/05.
actus (3be069) — 6/20/2005 @ 9:23 pmQ: A very important question is this – “Where in the world is Carmen Diego…errr…John McCain?
A: John McCain Brokers Another Deal Between Sen. Durbin and Sen. Frist. Oh really?
See yourself at –
http://satire.myblogsite.com/blog
David (03f14c) — 6/21/2005 @ 5:38 am