Republican Excuses

Is it just me, or are the excuses Republicans are making getting stupider? Let’s look at what’s happened just this week.

Monday WMAL radio talk show host Michael Graham was fired after refusing to apologize for saying “Islam is a terrorist organization” twenty-three times and making various other statements condemning the Muslim religion as a whole on his July 25 program. He couldn’t apologize, you see, because his motive in spouting the slurs was to help moderate Muslims and open a dialogue (see Obsidian Wings for more):

That’s the real tragedy here. The people who most need free speech and open dialogue on the issues facing Islam today are America’s moderate Muslims. These are people of good will who have the difficult job ahead of reforming and rescuing their religion. They need all the help they can get.

Also on Monday, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez:

You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.

Robertson decided to take the tack of simply lying. His excuse was that he never used the word “assassination”. Shortly after that he issued something that’s been described as an apology but doesn’t bear examination.

Finally, Wednesday President Bush, under criticism for taking yet another of his French-style month-long August vacations, announced that he’s not actually on vacation this time. He’s just had to evacuate the White House because it’s being renovated. Not sure how that explains the previous years, or why he never mentioned that during the first few weeks of biking and brush clearing.

Maybe the American people will finally start to see through the Republicans’ increasingly threadbare excuses on more important matters as well.