how to give an apology

msnbc's david shuster (who also voices the muppet bert from sesame street) is using his time on air this afternoon to lecture hillary clinton on how to give an apology. (perhaps clinton should look to shuster's own example from earlier this year, when -- after he suggested that clinton's campaign was pimping out daughter chelsea -- he needed 192 other words before he got to "i'm sorry.")

while most of the country (including the obama campaign) has moved past this unfortunate clinton remark from last friday (where she inadvisedly used the assination of rfk as an example of campaigns that have run well into june) shuster and msnbc are still embroiled in an effort to twist clinton's words to mean something much more ominous than she intended.

yes, clinton misspoke. terribly. i don't disagree with that. neither did she. she came out almost immediately and admitted as much. she expressed regret, especially to the kennedy family.

even randell beck, the executive editor of the argus leader -- the person in the room, the person conducting the interview with clinton -- did not read any ulterior motive into clinton's comments. still, the media (mainly msnbc's keith olbermann and others, like shuster) turned her comment into something completely ridiculous and frightening.

the problem now becomes not that clinton made an egregious error, but that people like shuster continue to not only remind us of it, but remind us of their own sickening interpretation of it.