If This Post Offends … I Don’t Care

******WRITTEN BY JEFF PRINCE*******

Former presidential candidate John McCain’s mother – 97-year-old Roberta McCain – dissed conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh on last night’s Letterman Show.

“I don’t know what the man means, I don’t know what he’s talking about,” she said. “He does not represent the Republican Party that I belong to.”

Then she cracked down on RNC Chairman Michael Steele for backpedaling after he described Limbaugh’s style as “incendiary” and “ugly” in March. Steele buckled and cowered after Limbaugh and his followers hit back.

Way to go Roberta! It’s wimpy as hell when people say what’s on their minds and then start quivering like cold, wet kitties at the first sign of backlash. Why apologize for how you feel? Besides, most apologies in these situations are so insincere they aren’t worth the wasted air to say them.

The Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines told a London crowd back in 2003 that “we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

I’m not ashamed Bush is from Texas, but I thought it was fine for Maines to tell Brits or anyone else that she was ashamed. I lost respect for her when she backpedaled after fans called her unpatriotic, burned her records, and snubbed her concerts.

Bush got it right, saying, “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind…. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that’s fine. That’s the great thing about America.”

Closer to home, CBS Sports golf analyst and Dallas resident David Feherty was apologizing recently for an article he wrote in the April issue of D magazine. A paragraph contained this joke: “If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.”

As soon as Feherty took a little heat, he issued a statement that included this: “In retrospect, it was inappropriate and unacceptable, and has clearly insulted Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, and for that, I apologize.”

Feherty thy name is Wimpy. I demand that you apologize to Osama bin Laden for forgetting to apologize to him in your unnecessary apology to Pelosi and Reid.

Luckily, America hasn’t become a complete bunch of wimps. Best recent example: acerbic African-American lesbian comedian Wanda Sykes.

Sykes tore Limbaugh a new one during her recent comments at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and then came under attack herself.

“Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you’re saying, ‘I hope America fails.’ You’re like, ‘I don’t care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.’ He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.”

Then she looked toward President Obama and said, “You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight.”

Then she delivered the lethal punch that created so much backlash: “Rush Limbaugh, ‘I hope the country fails’ — I hope his kidneys fail, how about that?”

So far she hasn’t apologized despite cries for her head from many quarters. And she shouldn’t.