Ted Nugent issued a non-apology today:
Conservative activist and rocker Ted Nugent apologized Friday for using the term "subhuman mongrel" to describe President Barack Obama.An actual kinda-sorta apology to the president was eventually dragged out of him:
"I do apologize -- not necessarily to the President -- but on behalf of much better men than myself," he said in an interview with conservative radio host Ben Ferguson....
Later on in the interview -- after some people on Twitter argued Nugent's comments weren't a real apology -- Ferguson asked Nugent if he was directly apologizing to the President for the comments.That's insincere, obviously -- though it's amazing he's had to go this far. In the past he's apologized for aggressively offering to have sex with a male CBS reporter and a female producer after the reporter asked him a question he didn't like, and he once apologized for violating federal hunting laws, but this is the first time, as far as I know, that he's ever apologized for one of his drive-by political comments. Something has changed if the press finally decided to call him on one of these bits of invective.
"Yes," Nugent replied.
So maybe -- maybe -- he won't be endorsing candidates anymore. But I doubt we'll be rid of him. He may be shunned by the political press for a few weeks or months, but he'll be back before we know it, probably yammering about guns. And eventually the memory of this moment is going to fade.
Remember two years ago, when Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke harangues seemed to backfire on him? He lost sponsors. He even issued an apology (though it was for using two words to describe Fluke, and not for the 53 attacks on her over a period of days). Notice he's still around? Notice he's still a leading conservative voice, and still a wingnut media star?
Nugent will retain a significant portion of his previous influence, too. You just can't get rid of the SOBs.
