Brownback throws his staff under the bus

Great news this Monday morning--Shawnee Mission East High School has announced it will not require Emma Sullivan to apologize to Kansas Governor Brownback for her Twitter tweet last week in which she said he "sucks." Good call, East. Hopefully this directive was from the Topeka Capitol itself. This should now just go away. It was unfortunate and silly to the point of nearly stupid. Governor Brownback to a huge, negative public opinion beating for it, too, for good or ill, depending on your stance and/or political party. The great thing is that the Governor apologized. The bad news is that he made his staff the scapegoats on the matter. From The Star: "In a statement issued by his office, Brownback offered his own apology, saying his staff had 'over-reacted' to the tweet. 'Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,' the statement says. “I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum. Again, I apologize for our over-reaction.'” That rather stunk. He should have just said "I apologize," period, and left it at that but whatever. The Guv should now "lay low" for a few weeks--until Christmas, I'd say--and then come out with some magnanimous declaration or something about that holiday. Between being the only governor in the nation to kill his state's arts commission and now this--seemingly against First Amendment Rights of Free Speech--he needs a "win." Good luck on that one. Link: http://pvpost.com/2011/11/28/shawnee-mission-district-issues-response-to-sullivan-tweet-situation-says-it-wont-take-action-on-matter-7800; http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/28/3290553/kansas-teen-not-required-to-issue.html