Chris Matthews' Limbaugh Apology?

On MSNBC's Hardball Wednesday night, Chris Matthews addressed the reprehensible comments he made yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Meeting.

Apparently, Matthews was forced to respond to what was probably a flood of complaints. He did it with a smile on his face, but it must have been very painful for him to give a little bit of an apology.

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Transcript

CHRIS MATTHEWS: And speaking of the right, got some concerned e-mail today – I never know what I'm gonna get – about my comparison yesterday of Rush Limbaugh to Mr. Big. Remember him? Played by Yaphet Kotto in the great James Bond movie. Anyway I said I was thinking of Mr. Big, or actually Rush Limbaugh got me thinking of him, whom James Bond said – you'll know the quote here and why I thought of it – 'He always did have an inflated opinion of himself.' Well it was a movie reference with which I am very proud to relentlessly give you. But in this political atmosphere I shouldn't have gone into such detail about Mr. Big's demise at the end of that movie, about that CO2 capsule, especially in reference to Rush. And certainly I shouldn't have speculated, even metaphorically or cinematically, about that happening to Rushbo in the real world.

By the way we got word from ESPN late last night that Rush Limbaugh will be dropped from that group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams.

Including that slam at Limbaugh at the end of what was supposed to be at least somewhat of an apology was another cheap shot.

Matthews is classless.

Yes, he acknowledged that he shouldn't have "speculated, even metaphorically or cinematically," about Limbaugh BEING SHOT IN THE HEAD AND EXPLODING.

He did that grudgingly. He really made light of the entire episode, focusing on his pride over his little movie reference, with a grin on his face and chirping out his words.

If that was an apology it was terribly insincere.

Actually, Matthews never said he was sorry. He attempted to justify his statement and than ran through what he shouldn't have done, like going into such detail about Mr. Big's demise and relating it to Limbaugh.

In other words, if he had it to do all over again, he would make some changes in his delivery. That's it.

Did Matthews get advice from David Letterman on how to apologize without apologizing?