"Whenever a public apology starts with a phrase such as "If my remarks offended anyone," the person speaking probably failed to grasp the problem.

Clearly that's true for state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, whose apology for making insensitive comments about Indian tribes was only slightly less offensive than the comments themselves.

It all started when Bruno discussed his reasons for resisting a land claim settlement with the Cayuga Nation in part because of the tribe's internal leadership dispute: 'The chief and some of the others who sit around the campfire, or whatever they do, split. OK? So they are not unified. If they're not unified, we're not going to move for them. And I don't say that disparagingly. That's what we do in government now. We don't sit around the campfire, we sit around a table with the lights and the daylight doing on-time budgets.'"

Get the Story:
Bruno's offensive remarks show he is out of touch (The Auburn Citizen 7/7)

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Republican apologizes for 'campfire' remark (7/5)
New York GOP says tribes 'sit around the campfire' (7/1)