Dear Mudcatters,

A few days ago, during a longish thread on Politics and Folk Music, I submitted a rather angry post to GeorgeH accusing him of all sorts of vile behavior.

Having had a while to cool off, I just wanted to take a moment to apologize, both to George personally and to anyone else who may have found my remarks vengeful or mean-spirited.

I will add only that I still think one needs to be very careful about categorizing anyone – regardless of their political stripe – as racist or homophobic or mysogynistic or anti-semitic simply because they belong to some specific party or group. There are, after all, many American Republicans who respect Bill Bradley but revile Jerry Falwell, just as there are a lot of liberal-leaning Democrats who oppose abortion and school busing.

That said, I want to repeat that my earlier remarks were indeed "over the top," and I am sincerely sorry for any hard feelings they may have caused.

This is a great site, and I look forward to participating in many more spirited Mudcat conversations to come!

Sincerely, Anthony Brown