November 13, 2002
MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY:
Apologies Are in Order (Mary McGrory, November 10, 2002, washingtonpost.com)We do not have the excellent Japanese custom of having public figures apologize for blunders committed on their watches. We should.
Don't you kind of think that, at least subconsciously, she's harkening back to an older Japanese tradition and wishing Gephardt and Daschle would fall on their swords? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 13, 2002 4:07 PM
I smell a revision. I bet the word "suppuku" was in an earlier draft...
Posted by: David Ross at November 14, 2002 12:22 AMI wouldn't pay much attention to her righteous indignation. In one of her columns, she described the Paul Wellstone memorial fiasco as a most moving and beautiful ceremony; and Tim Blair has referred to her as a "dumbinatrix," which rather succinctly captures the spirit. I suppose that makes M. Dowd the acolyte.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 14, 2002 12:29 AMI dunno. Given McGrory's view of the world, perhaps she's hearkening back to an era when the people did not deserve their leaders, and were prepared to immolate themselves at the command of their betters?
After all, how could the American people have preferred the GOP, when there was a perfectly good Democratic Party to be voted into office?
Mary doesn't understand we have a new American tradition of political confession begun by Bill Clinton. Apologize to everyone for everything
as long as it did not occur on your watch !
Perhaps she's wishing the U.S. still had one-party dominance the way Japan does . . . and that all the dominant party had to do was apologize for blunder after blunder and it could maintain power forever . . .
Posted by: pj at November 14, 2002 10:14 AM