Helen Thomas Joins the Apology Chorus

(June 7) -- Hardly a day has gone by lately without some public figure apologizing for something. From politicians to BP's boss, the mea culpas are piling up. Now starring on The Daily Apology: White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Make that EX-correspondent.

Thomas, the outspoken 89-year-old journalist known as the "dean of the White House press corps" has quit, Hearst Corp. announced this afternoon. This follows her apology for a remark she made at the White House's Jewish Heritage Celebration on May 27.

Rabbi David Nesenoff asked Thomas for a comment about Israel and posted her response on his website, Rabbilive.com. Anger grew as the video bounced around the Internet this weekend.

Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. (Laughter.) ... Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German and it's not Poland's.
Nesenoff: So where should they go?
Thomas: They go home. Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.

The apology Thomas posted on her own website did nothing to quiet the uproar.

"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

Not enough, said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

"Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history. We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused," Foxman declared in a statement Sunday.

If Thomas has any hopes of gaining forgiveness eventually, she should avoid apology advice from state Sen. Jake Knotts.

The South Carolina Republican used a crude ethnic slur to describe state Rep. Nikki Haley, a GOP candidate for governor.

"We already got one raghead in the White House. We don't need another in the governor's mansion," Knotts said Thursday on "Pub Politics," an Internet radio show.

Haley's parents came from India and raised her as a Sikh but she converted to Christianity. In a statement, Knotts claimed he was just trying to be funny.

"Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It's like local political version of 'Saturday Night Live.' Since my intended humorous context was lost in translation, I apologize. I still believe Ms. Haley is pretending to be someone she is not, much as Obama did, but I apologize to both for an unintended slur."

If anything, the ugly incident has helped distract from the controversy over allegations of two affairs -- which Haley denies. A new poll shows her far ahead of her rivals going into Tuesday's South Carolina primary.

Two U.S. Senate candidates -- Republican Mark Kirk in Illinois and Democrat Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut -- have apologized recently for making misleading statements about their military service.

"If it gave the impression that my military record was larger than it was, I apologize," Kirk said Friday. "I simply misremembered it wrong."

Kirk's carefully chosen words echoed the statement Blumenthal made last month about saying he served in Vietnam when, in fact, he hadn't.

"On a few occasions I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that and I take full responsibility," he told a news conference. Critics complained that he never really said he was sorry. So a week later, Blumenthal sent this statement to the Hartford Courant: "I have made mistakes and I am sorry. I truly regret offending anyone.''

Connecticut's Republican chairman, Chris Healy, dismissed Blumenthal's late-night e-mail to the newspaper as an "electronic mumble."

Indeed, as the old Elton John song says, sorry seems to be the hardest word for a lot of people. (One blogger is even demanding an apology from the pop star for performing at Rush Limbaugh's wedding reception over the weekend.)

And no apology roundup would be complete without a mention of Tony "I'd Like My Life Back" Hayward, the BP CEO who's made a string of regrettable remarks about the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hayward's latest "sorry" attempt is a commercial that started airing last week. In it, he says, "I am deeply sorry," and promises BP will "do everything we can so this never happens again." (Click here to watch video.)

Not only do people not believe him, the ad appears to have backfired, NPR reported. Even kids aren't buying Hayward's apology.

"It's a lame attempt a month and half after the disaster. It's too late," 13-year-old Annie Landrum of Birmingham, Ala., told The Associated Press while cleaning up tar on Florida's Pensacola Beach on Saturday.

The only apology that's worked lately came from Major League Baseball umpire Jim Joyce -- who readily admitted he blew a call and cost Detroit's Armando Galarraga a perfect game. With tears in his eyes, the veteran ump sought out the Tigers' pitcher in the locker room and apologized sincerely. Galarraga graciously accepted, simply saying "nobody's perfect."

Even people who aren't baseball fans cheered. To Ruth Ann Dailey, who's been "hungry for simple accountability," it was a refreshing change.

"We've watched disgraced celebrities, athletes, pastors and politicians publicly handle all kinds of mistakes and misdeeds, and we've careened from the phony blubbering of 'I have sinned' to the coy assertion that 'It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is," Dailey wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette op-ed today.

"It is rare to find a person with the strength to admit they were wrong," agreed blogger Donald Miller in a post titled "The Absolute Power of an Apology."

"Because Joyce was not defensive, and because he did not make excuses but took responsibility for his actions, players, fans and even the harshest people in the world, sports radio personalities, sang his praises on the radio for the rest of the week," Miller said. "Joyce had made a mistake, for sure, but asking forgiveness, showing remorse, not making excuses, that's the stuff of the supernatural, and when we see it, there is something in us that recognizes the exceptional."