Tonight’s edition of your tax dollars at work features a screaming, victorious headline from the fair and balanced folks at Fox News, proclaiming in virtual ink writ large, Napolitano Apologizes for Offending Veterans. You know, I watched the video of that apology, and somehow it seemed like a bit less of a “walkback” than one might think from a highly placed official who had allegedly tarred and besmirched the honor and reputation of not only me, but every veteran from Paul Revere to the latest arrival back from Kabul.

“To the extent veterans read it as an accusation … an apology is owed,” she said during an on-air interview on FOX News Thursday

“This was an assessment, not an accusation,” Napolitano continued. “It was limited to extremists those who seek to commit violence within the United States. And all this was meant to do was to give law enforcement what we call ‘situational awareness.'”

While it is doubtless for entirely different reasons, I must say that I agree with Pete Hegseth.

“It wasn’t an apology in my view. It was one of those non-apology apologies.”

Pete’s a veteran, so we have that in common also. But he’s also a spokesman for Vets for Freedom. In case you’re not familiar with them, I’ve been able to listen and speak to a few of their representatives in the past. Regardless what else you may have heard, this is an organization which was formed to get Republicans elected. But be that as it may, let me clear that up for you, Pete. Of course it wasn’t an apology. Why? Because she had nothing to apologize for.

She was “sorry” if any veterans were offended because they were either not willing to read the Obama ordered – Bush ordered -report (more on that below) themselves and get all their news from Fox or Right wing blogs, or they were already looking for any excuse to be mad at Obama. She also went on after the “apology” to explain, yet again, exactly what the report was and what it was talking about. The only sad part of this is that she wasted her time in a vain effort to smooth over a “misunderstanding” with people and talking heads who had no intention of understanding it in the first place if it provided a few more spitballs to toss at the administration.

Some of the Fox talking heads even expressed wonder at how the president could have moved so quickly to launch his attacks on the free speech of conservatives and virtuous Right wing Americans. Unfortunately, one of their reporters reads too much and committed a moment of accidental journalism before the cameras cut away.

This is an element of the story which went largely unreported. There were two assessments, one focusing on left wing groups and one which focuses on right wing groups. Both were requested by the Bush administration, but not finished until President Bush left office.

I’d write more, but my doctor has advised me that if I laugh that hard again for too long I may crack one of my ribs. I wonder if we’ll hear about this from any of the sites we previously noted reporting on this “story.”