[nopardons]

Yes, is IS a horrible column and the author did NOT apologize for what he said about President Bush; he only made excuses.

I read it, when it was first posted and was disgusted by it. I am even MORE disgusted by the sort of, kind of, I'm sorry so many people were angry enough to yell at me about that column , nonapology. I am also angry at those who are treating this so lightly and ignoring the facts that the apology is NO apology and that the column was so putrid in the first place. THis man is a " professional ". If he is so overwhelmed by memories of a personal tragedy , he should have written about that. If he REALLY wanted to apologize, he should have written something better.

This is a damned cop-out and the gullible naifs are buying it.

[Doug Thompson]

I'm sorry some of you have found my apology unacceptable. It was heartfelt. Yes, I do apologize for what I said in the article and have said so on the public discussion board of Capitol Hill Blue. The column was not a true expression of my feelings. While I have concerns about some of the conduct of the administration, especially in the areas of rights to privacy and the USA Patriot Act, those feelings were not the gist of the article. As for writing about the family tragedy that affected me on that day, I have written about it in past columns and for other publications.

And a letter of apology was delivered by courier to The White House on Friday, February 21, 2003, four hours after the column was pulled off our web site. I chose not to publish that letter because it was a private communication. I also apologized publicly on my web site.

There's nothing more that I can say. I was wrong and have said so. It was out of character for me and was wrong. To those who accepted my apology, my thanks. To those who cannot, I understand.

Doug Thompson
Publisher
Capitol Hill Blue

[MEG33]

Doug has my heartfelt sympathy for his horrendous loss. I await a heartfelt disavowal of the last line of his column.