Senator Durbin's "Apology"

So Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has finally gotten around to "apologizing" for his comparison of Gitmo interrogators as worthy of Stalin, Hitler, or Pol Pot (murderers of somewhere in the range of 10 million, 11 million, and 3 million, respectively). Durbin said

Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line...to them I extend my heartfelt apologies.

Furthermore, a spokesman noted that the apology was in response to "this loud, continuous drumbeat of misinformation that was being broadcast and printed."

Pardon me, but is this actually an apology? To me, it very much sounds like someone who's sorry you took offense.

INSULTER: Your mother's a whore

INSULTEE: What!? Take that back!

INSULTER: I'm sorry you took offense.

This way, you can sound like you're sorry without repudiating your original, insulting statement. This is very much in line with Durbin's Friday statement in which he revealed that he'd "learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood." Duh. But still, neither here nor in yesterday's statement, does he actually take back what he said.

Perhaps I'm asking too much of a politician, or perhaps I should simply be more forgiving. But I can't shake the sense that, were this sort of thing to happen to a Republican, there'd be a lot more fur flying.