On the January 27 edition of Hardball, former DNC chairman Howard Dean issued a tepid half-apology regarding his ill-advised statement on Real Time with Bill Maher where he blasted as "angry" the moviehouse audiences that have made American Sniper a runaway hit.
While the MSNBC political analyst confessed that he hasn't seen the film in question, he allowed that it was "much more nuanced" than he'd thought and as such he was going to do something "which I've almost never done in politics, I'll apologize to the veterans." Even so, Dean steadfastly refused to apologize to "all those thousands of right-wing nutjobs who have been Twittering me with nasty language" taking him to task for his offending comment regarding American Sniper audiences.
"But you'll not take the word 'nutbags' back?" Matthews asked before wheezingly laughing at his own question:
DEAN: No! I don't have any use for them. For the people who tweeted me all weekend and used a lot of bad language, they're chickenhawks and I have no respect for them.
MATTHEWS: Oh, we don't like chickenhawks.
DEAN: I do have respect--
MATTHEWS: Like Dick Cheney.
DEAN: I have a lot of respect for the people who served this country, and I apologize.
I'm not much of a gambler, but I think it's a safe wager a substantial plurality of those who angrily tweeted Dean have in fact served this country and/or are the spouses, dependents, or close family members of those who have.
