Kerry apologizes...sort of...

Upon seeing his party's chances for winning a congressional majority going down in flames (not to mention being relegated to persona non grata status by some of his own party brethren), a heretofore defiant Jean Francois Kerry today experienced a "come-to-Jesus" moment, and finally saw it fit to issue an apology for the disparaging remarks made two days ago:

After two days of pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Wednesday issued an apology for comments he made Monday that appeared to insult American soldiers.

"I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop," Kerry said in a statement posted on his website.

"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended," he said.

This is quite the turnaround, given that just earlier today on Imus, the famously defiant and elitist Kerry refused to take responsibility, and instead engaged in a series of verbal pirouettes and disjointed phrases the likes of which would make even a seasoned ballerina nauseous :

Sen. John Kerry: "(Laughter) I'm not going to let these guys distort something completely out of its context solely for the purpose of avoiding responsibility which is what they're doing. Look, everybody knows I botched a joke, it's not the first time anybody's done that Don."

Imus: "Certainly not the first time you've done it."

Sen. John Kerry: "Not the first time I’ve done it but on the other hand, it's just a disgraceful thing when people try to assert that somebody like me who has spent thirty-five years of my life fighting for veterans, standing up for veterans, fighting for their combat pay, fighting for Agent Orange recognition, fighting for their armor, fighting for their up-armored humvees, fighting for them to have a strategy that wins, fighting to honor them, that the notion that this comment was directed at them is an insult by these guys. And they know it; I mean that's really the bottom line here. See, look, this is a great volunteer Army, and the word volunteer Army means you have to be smart to get in it. They know that, everybody knows. You can't get in the military today if you're not capable and not smart. This comment couldn't have been directed at them because you can't get into the military by doing badly at school. This was directed at the people who didn't do their homework, didn't listen to history, didn't listen to their own advice, and they owe the American people an apology, now you know I’m coming back to Washington today so that I’m not a distraction because I don't want to be a distraction to these campaigns, and the point is simply they owe America an apology for this disaster in Iraq. And I hope they're going to provide it."

You're probably wondering why I'm giving Jean Francois such a hard time over this. After all, he did apologize.

Well, when one extends a sincere apology, one usually doesn't attach a "but" to that apology, and allows the apology stand on its own. But not Jean Francios:

In his statement Wednesday, Kerry continued his criticism of the Bush administration, saying that Republicans "would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don't want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues."

Some "apology."