in the new defeat-generated spirit of bipartisan conciliation, da prez visited the dem caucus and responded to criticism of his use of "democrat majority" in the state of the union speech.

the apology was lighthearted but—one assumes—sincere.

it ended with the lame duck semicontritely calling his own party the "republic party."

it got a polite laugh, but it didn't do the job. that's no surprise, i suppose, considering the source.

"democrat party" sounds crass. "republic party" doesn't. maybe if he'd said "publican party" it would've come closer, and he could've remained comfortable with the knowledge that he's a tax-cuttin' teetot'ler, but it still would've fallen short.

we've heard gops say "democrat party" for decades. i think joe mccarthy started it. gingrich and luntz followed up more recently. it's not clear why bush used it in the speech. could he really be unaware it's disparaging? is he truly so thoughtless?

sometimes it's too late to say you're sorry.