Quit Calling It An Apology

I am completely fricking serious.  Quit calling what Conrad Burns released "an apology".  It was nothing of the kind.  New West calls it an apology (sorry Courtney, but it wasn't).  The Tribune calls it an apology.  The Gazette calls it an apology.

That was no apology.  Let's go to the tape.

This is what Conrad said:

"See that guy over there? He hasn't done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It's wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It's gotta change."

This is what Conrad spun:

"In retrospect, I wish I had chosen my words more carefully," Burns said in a prepared statement. "My criticism of the way in which the fire was handled should not have been directed at those who were working hard to put it out. Without a doubt firefighters do the hard, tough job of battling one of Mother Nature's toughest beasts. I have nothing but admiration for them and the work they do.

"My frustration came from meeting with landowners who were critical of the way the fire was handled. Whatever the reason, I should have simply thanked those who worked hard to put out the fire.

"I have since addressed my concerns to the proper officials about the way in which fires are handled. Please accept my apology for any hard feelings that my comments may have caused. I have the utmost respect for the job firefighters have done in Montana."

So, according to Conrad Burns, wild-land firefighters are lazy and overpaid, but yet the apology addresses only Conrad's concern that he didn't address the right people in the right venue with the right words.  I'm not terribly fricking sorry in pointing out that apologizing to the milkman for kicking a puppy isn't an apology at all.

Conrad Burns needs to apologize to the Augusta Hotshot crew that he called "lazy".  He needs to say "I'm sorry" to the very people he called a waste of resource.  He didn't do that.  And to claim that what he wrote in his politically motivated memo is an apology is just silly.  That isn't what he did.  He weeped  crocodile tears that he may have offended, without ever addressing the people that he directly attacked.

Shane Mason points to the reaction from wild-land firefighters to Conrad's improperly chosen words.  They're pissed off, and they should be.  Burns just insulted a group of people who lay their lives on the line that Montana can have a better future, and Burns doesn't even see that.

"OOOhhhh, please forgive me for being an asshole.  I have so much respect for your service that I couldn't control being an asshole ..."

You f*cked up here, Connie.  Just like you f*cked up when you said that dealing with niggers in DC was a really hard, that unwed mothers should stay at home and raise their babies and that Arabs were Ragheads.  Only this time, you pissed on the people that we rely on to keep our homes and ranches and range beyond the reach of wild destruction.

I really want Conrad Burns to write a hand written apology to the Augusta Hotshot crew that he so insulted.  I'll be amazed if he ever does it.  And if he does, he needs to sign it from all of Montana.  We all appreciate what they do for us in dire need ... well all except Conrad Burns.  He did say they were lazy after all.  This state took a horrible black-eye because of our junior-high Senator.  I am disgusted by his elitist crap.  Do right for this state, for once in your goddamned life, Conrad.  Apologize and say you're sorry for being a dickhead.

Only slightly less vomitous is the fact that Paula Rosenthal didn't accurately report the depth of Conrad's bile spewed at the these working stiffs.

"I wanted to present accurate information, including his concerns and examples so they could respond," she said. "I thought it was going to be a productive working document for the management."

Uhhh, Duhh.  Conrad pukes up bitterness towards towards people doing a job they were given, and you don't think that was accurate information?  Rosenthal, I don't know you; but that was a poor decision on your part.  We're talking about a Senator who just displayed our state as intolerant and nasty ... and you don't think that's significant?  The press does.  I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the people do as well.

The Billings Gazette seems to finely find it significant that the people of Montana don't approve of Conrad's behavior.  In the future, Paula, you might do so as well.

UPDATE:  This is the level of respect that firefighters can expect from Montana Republicans:

A comment at Freeper Montana,

I told you the Tester teenyboppers would have to go find something else to chant. Now it’s Burns was mean to some lowly out-of-state government workers (“firefighters”), who often fly business class between fires, get fresh strawberries and cream on the morning flight while the taxpayers in back get nothing, and who board aircraft with knives, hammers, and axes and are never checked by TSA.

Get ‘em Conrad.  Make the lazy bastards take a Greyhound Bus.

UPDATE 2:  My apologies to Shane Mason.  I meant to link to his post concerning the reaction of firefighters to Conrad's disrespect, and I never made the link.  AAAAGGGGHHH.  Seriously, my bad.  Fixed now.

Comments

[Shane Mason]

Wulfgar,

I will poke 'em with a stick every time they say something stupid, which means I have plotted a life of infinite poking...

In all seriousness, I will take this up here rather than there. I listened to your advise yesterday, and I read what you had to say today. I think that you are right in a way and wrong to some extent. The people who POST there are indeed dino's and not apt to change. There are people who view that site that are not the same and are on the cusp. If I can convince just one of them to not go to the dark side, then my job is done and done well.

Additionally, it ruins their blog for them. All the creeps don't want to hear the truth. Even if it does degenerate into a pissing match between mellon and myself, it ruins it for them. It's not a lot of 'how smart we are and how dumb lieberals are' butt slapping.

[Erox]

apologizing to the milkman for kicking a puppy isn't an apology at all.

Dude... you kicked a puppy?

[Mark]

Shane - dollars to donuts that not one person has ever followed any of the links you provide over there. Come down to earth, son. WRIM is a place to go for paintball fights. Nothing more.

[Eric Coobs]

Heck Mark, I thought I was just on the point of signing you up to join the PACHYDERMS! I won't give up on you though, even Ronald Reagan was a Democrat once!

[Mandy]

So someone who witnessed the exchange between the firefighters and Burns has finally come forward...

From the Independent Record (Billings Gazette is carrying the story too):

Ann Etheridge is a retired 35-year Forest Service veteran from Florida who was the freelance finance chief on the fire. She watched Burns confront the Hot Shots at the airport and couldn't believe it.

"These are guys who've been on the job for two weeks," she said. "They average 14-16 hours a day."

She recalled when crews from around the country came to Florida in 1998 to help put out fires.

"Our senators would have got on their knees and thanked them for helping them out," Etheridge said. "We had to have outside resources. All you saw was, 'Thank you, firefighters.' That's the way it should have been here. He should have gone over and thanked them. Regular citizens do."