WorldNetDaily: Air America radio host: Punish me if I broke law

That's from Randi Rhodes, who opened her show yesterday with a tasteless skit containing a threat to shoot the President. Yesterday I finally found an MP3 of the whole show. The "announcer" in the skit was actually an actor pretending to be a Depression-generation retiree and saying, "We're the American Association of Armed Retired Persons!" Even Randi had a problem with that one: she said, "At least don't arm all the old folks until I get out of Florida!"

And today she apologized for the whole thing--sort of:

If the bit was understood to be a threat against the president, I need to apologize to the president of the United States, and I do. I also need to apologize to the Secret Service [which] has a very, very serious job. If they had to take two seconds out of their day to look into me, I apologize for that. ... But where is the apology when they threaten judges from the Senate floor or from the House floor? Or where's the investigation into [WND columnist] Ann Coulter's mouth? ...

[My apology] is sincere. I feel bad that anybody would feel threatened by comedy. That's one thing, but I also feel bad that it wasn't funny. And I also feel bad that there could be a perception that I would be advocating violence against anybody, let alone the president of the United States of America. It's no secret that I think he's a terrible president, but I don't think that anybody should have violence advocated against them in any way, shape or form ever! ... That [skit] will never see the light of day again. It was bad.

Well, apart from my having a copy--along with countless other political junkies like myself--I have a few observations:

1. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If you have to say that you're sincere, chances are you're not.
2. Neither Ann Coulter nor any US Senator or Representative has ever threatened anyone with death. (Well, Robert C. Byrd's history is in some question, but at least he no longer stands by any of his Klan activities--at least I don't think he does. But I digress.) Rhetoric still has some standards of decency--besides which, a direct threat against the life of a public official is as illegal as it is impolite.

That said, at least we got an apology from the source. Twenty-five years ago, we wouldn't have gotten even that much--nor did we when some said that their biggest beef with John W. Hinckley the Third was that he couldn't shoot straight. (Then again, forty-five years ago, no one would have dared say such a thing.)