Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Americans Are Too Nice

The trouble with Americans is that they take the necessary edge off their rhetoric. You should say what you mean, and mean what you say, and almost never apologize. Like the Brits do! Do you think any self-respecting British politician would grovel like this after saying the necessary thing? It's like Dick Cheney's friend, the lawyer who apologized after Cheney shot him in the face. What was that all about? If you don't apologize it doesn't mean anyone will like you less:
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Sen. Charles Grassley wants AIG executives to apologize for the collapse of the insurance giant—but said Tuesday that "obviously" he didn't really mean that they should kill themselves.

The Iowa Republican raised eyebrows with his comments Monday that the executives—under fire for passing out big bonuses even as they were taking a taxpayer bailout—perhaps should "resign or go commit suicide."

But he backtracked Tuesday morning in a conference call with reporters. He said he would like executives of failed businesses to make a more formal public apology, as business leaders have done in Japan.

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