Bob's a conservative, Molly's a liberal...and Michelle plays favorites

Michelle Malkin, bless her biased little heart, has just noticed that conservative Bob Novak has shown us "the right way to apologize." As it happens, so did Molly Ivins not so long ago; in fact, Molly's apology (scroll halfway down) was considerably superior to Bob's as far as I can tell. But Bob is a conservative, and Molly is a liberal. So here is Michelle's reaction to Bob's quality apology:

Every political figure in Washington should commit the Novak apology to memory for future use--no ifs, ands, or buts. Contrast Novak's unequivocal words of contrition with the sorry weasel non-apology apologies of...[etc., etc.]. Whee, a good apology from a conservative -- what a golden opportunity to take a shot at some liberals!

But here, just in part, is Michelle's reaction to Molly's truly first-rate apology:

Well, good for Molly. This is quite remarkable and welcome. Now, if she had only been as humble to conservative essayist/author Florence King for her serial plagiarism of King's work... Whee, a good apology from a liberal -- what a golden opportunity to take a shot at...well, at the liberal herself.

My own reaction to Molly's apology is pretty much the same as Michelle's reaction to Novak's, even though, as I've said before, it's hard to imagine any subject in the whole wide world on which Molly and I agree. (You can read my reaction, along with a complete fisking of Michelle's gracelessly bitchy response to Molly, here.) It seems that Michelle and I were raised with very similar standards for what constitutes a good apology and what doesn't. But apparently we were raised with very different expectations on whether we were expected to offer as much respect, and as much due praise when merited, to those with whom we might disagree as we offer to those who take our side.

My respect for Michelle continues, alas, to wane. I think she needs to hang out a lot more with the Anchoress. Or else, if Michelle's going to insist on a bitch persona rather than on a reasonable-and-generously-likable persona, she should go whole hog and gleefully relish it with the flair of a (not kid-friendly) SondraK. She could, of course, go for the hilariously-funny-far-right-wing-über-bitch persona -- but in that game, who has a hope of competing with Ann Coulter? Michelle, you can be so very likeable when you try -- how about trying more often?