Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The moonbat apologizes

The moonbat Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania is trying to extricate her feet (all the way up to the top of the thigh) from her mouth after last week's sordid incident in western Pa.
We've discussed that in the post Beyond Ignorant. Now, perhaps being just a touch aware that her actions were totally inappropriate, she's apologizing.
From the Associated Press comes this dispatch:
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll apologized to the family of a Marine killed in Iraq for showing up uninvited for his funeral last week and giving out a business card.
Knoll went to the July 19 funeral of Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32, of Westwood, who died July 10 in Hit, Iraq. Family members said she left a business card and made a remark about "our government" being against the war.
In a letter dated Monday to Goodrich's widow, Amy, Knoll said she left a card in case the family wanted to contact her "and as a sign of my willingness to help the family through this difficult time in any way I can. To do anything that was deemed insensitive was completely counter to my intent."
That didn't really pacify the family of the late soldier.
"We asked for an apology and that's what we got," said Rhonda Goodrich, Joseph Goodrich's sister-in-law, who has been speaking on behalf of the family. She said the apology was accepted, although the family had also wanted Knoll to apologize to the Marine Corps.
"Probably, in all honesty, she didn't even know she was acting inappropriately, she's so out there," said Goodrich, of Indiana, Pa.. "The business card, I will always believe, was handed out as campaign fodder."
Knoll said in her letter that she arrived too late to offer her personal condolences. That rankled Rhonda Goodrich, who said she believed Knoll came to get publicity.
"She didn't have time to be with Amy or Joe's parents, but she made time for the TV cameras," she said. "That's where I'm still a little bitter."
Goodrich said Knoll remarked to Joseph Goodrich's aunt that "our government" was opposed to the war.
Now, the attempted extrication:
"Sergeant Goodrich's service was beyond the call of duty," Knoll's letter continued. "If my regard for his family's grief was seen another way, it is thoroughly regrettable. The fact that you have been offended deserves and receives my most profound apology.
"I will continue to support our troops in my role as Lt. Governor and support our President as an American. That I somehow conveyed an impression that was interpreted as other than that will forever be saddening and upsetting to me," the letter said.
Knoll said she has attended "dozens of funerals to offer my sympathy and condolences to the families of soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice."

Even our governor, the illustrious cheesesteak-chomping TV football analyst, pulled himself away from his "cheese wid" to have his spokesflack deliver a statement.
Kate Philips, spokeswoman for Gov. Ed Rendell, said Pennsylvania "supports men and women serving in Iraq," and the governor hopes that Knoll's letter will put the matter to rest. The governor also planned to send a letter to Goodrich's family, Philips said.
Deniece Williams and Johnny Mathis did a song about this years ago... "Too much too little, too late."
If Catherine Baker Knoll is somehow on the Dumbocrats' ticket in 2006, Fast Eddie will be the first Pa. governor to fail to win a second term since 1970.